From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue May 19 12:46:37 1998
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From: James Kendrick <kendrick@eramp.net>
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Subject: Retrospective: Zardoz (1974)
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"ZARDOZ" (UK, 1974)
A Film Review by James Kendrick
* (out of ****)

Director: John Boorman || Screenplay: John Boorman || Stars: Sean Connery (Zed),
Charlotte Rampling (Consuella), Sara Kestelman (May), Sally Anne Newton
(Avalow), John Alderton (Friend), Niall Buggy (Zardoz/Arthur Frayn), Bosco Hogan
(George Saden), Jessica Swift (Apathetic) || MPAA Rating: R

John Boorman's "Zardoz" is a goofy cinematic debacle so fundamentally
misconceived and laughably executed that it takes on a bizarre enjoyment quality
all its own. Not since the rampant bumblings of one Edward D. Wood Jr. has a
movie been so silly and so serious at the same time.

Of course, Wood's career can be explained by two things: he had no money and he
had no talent. Boorman, on the other hand, cannot court such excuses to explain
"Zardoz" (or his follow-up film, the equally awful "Exorcist II: The Heretic").
Boorman obviously had a sizable budget, a matinee idol movie star (Sean Connery)
in the lead role, and although you wouldn't know it from this film, Boorman does
indeed have talent.

This is the man who made the slick modern masterpiece "Deliverance" (1972), as
well as the autobiographical World War II drama "Hope and Glory" (1987), the
slightly over-conceived Arthurian epic "Excalibur" (1981) and the father-son
jungle adventure "The Emerald Forest" (1985). His films all show that Boorman is
never lacking in imagination, but sometimes that comes at the cost of coherence
and taste. If Boorman is anything, he's ambitious, and when he succeeds, it's in
grand fashion. Unfortunately, the bigger they are, the harder they fall, and
when Boorman falls, the resounding impact can be heard for miles around.

"Zardoz" is meant to takes its place among the grandest of mystical movies, an
obsession of Boorman's. His screenplay tries to elicit the same mythological
connotations of the Arthurian legends or even "The Wizard of Oz," a book which
figures into the movie's plot. But, despite all this reaching, the resulting
movie is more unintentionally funny than intentionally enigmatical or
compelling.

The events take place in the distant year 2293, but there is little of the
typical futuristic movie-ness to be found. In fact, things seems to have moved
backwards, with people riding horses, shooting old-style guns, and living in
large Victorian mansions. It's more Middle Ages than Space Age.

The world of "Zardoz" is divided into two distinct hemispheres: the Outlands,
where all the poor, pathetic people live, and the Vortex, where a select group
of wealthy intellectuals live in comfort and everlasting life. These Immortals
never grow old, they never engage in sexual activity, they possess psychological
powers, and they live in a sort of quasi-utopian Marxist society where everyone
is equal, and everyone contributes equally to the society. However, if one
breaks the rules, that person is punished by being aged so many years. If
someone breaks the rules enough, he or she is aged to the point of senility, and
imprisoned to an eternal existence in a geriatric home with others aged
criminals.

One of the Immortals, Arthur Frayn (Niall Buggy ), a squirmy man with a mustache
and goatee tattooed on his face, is charged with keeping order in the Outlands
and forcing the residents to farm so the Immortals can be fed. Like "The Wizard
of Oz," he adopts a god-like status among the people by flying in to their part
of the world in a giant stone carved like a menacing head. (This flying head is
one of the movie's opening images, and it's a dead giveaway of the lunacy to
come.)

Calling himself Zardoz, Frayn gathers a bunch of Outlanders and makes them into
a group called the Exterminators, whose purpose is to kill most of the other
Outlanders so they can't procreate and take up more resources. From inside his
giant, stone head, Zardoz bellows seriously laugh-inducting statements like,
"The gun is good. The penis is evil." That line alone is worth the movie's cult
following.

One day, an Exterminator named Zed (Sean Connery), sneaks into Zardoz's flying
stone, pushes Frayn out, and goes back to the Vortex. Once there, the Immortals
label him a "Brutal" and study him like a lab rat, taking great, perverse care
in exploring his sexuality, which is a mystery to them. They seem especially
interested in his ability to gain an erection, and there is one downright
hilarious sequence where a bunch of scantily-clad female scientists show Zed
erotic footage on a video screen in an attempt to determine what gets him worked
up.

I say "hilarious" because that is exactly what "Zardoz" is. It is obvious that
Boorman did not intend it to be so; he made this film with the straightest of
faces, although I have a hard time believing that as production moved forward,
he didn't get even the slightest inkling of how patently ridiculous it was
becoming. Just looking at Connery is enough to give one the giggles — he spends
most of the film running around in a red loin cloth that resembles a diaper, a
mane of hair braided halfway down his back, a Wyatt Earp-style handlebar
mustache, and a pair of thigh-high patent leather boots that would look more
appropriate on a cheap Hollywood hooker.

Boorman made the film right after the critical and financial success of
"Deliverance," which is the only reason I can imagine a studio would green-light
this effort. He attracted some rich talent on both sides of the camera,
including cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth ("2001"), whose striking visuals are
about the only good thing in "Zardoz" besides the inadvertent humor. Sean
Connery had made his last James Bond film in 1971, and perhaps he was looking
for a change in pace. He got exactly that in "Zardoz," and it's a wonder it
didn't end his career.

I'm sure Boorman intended for this movie to make some grand statements. Is it a
treatise about the infallibility of eternal life? Is it a condemnation of those
who consider growing old to be a bad thing? Or is it a social statement,
something about the inherent negativity of class distinctions and the violence
it creates? Karl Marx might like it if he were more like Timothy Leary. Come to
think of it, maybe Boorman made it as an extended LSD trip. People high on
illicit substances are the only ones I can imagine enjoying this asinine
silliness as anything more than a completely unintentional comedy.

©1998 James Kendrick

____________________________________________
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an eclectic collection of film reviews by James Kendrick
http://www.bigfoot.com/~jimkendrick || E-mail: jimkendrick@bigfoot.com