Zardoz (1974) (Limited Edition)

[UniSol GR77]

Originally Posted by ChromeJob

I was a sci-fi nut adolescent when this came out, and can remember the TV and movie ads. That old-fashioned woo-woo "see! the amazing naked bodies in the watchamcallit! see! the brutal exterminators! see! Sean 007 Connery in a diaper!" and almost every sentence punctuated with a deeper intonation, "Zar-DOZ!!" If one of the original trailers is on the disc, that almost justifies getting it!

But you have to remember this was post-2001, sci-fi had to be Deep(TM), and Thought-Provoking(TM), and stuff, or it was b-movie, drive-in crap. Add to that expectation, John Boorman and his Arthurian legend fetish, and you've got one complicated cocktail of dystopian bummer sci-fi with some deep new age crap (I think people in theaters tittered at the whole "stare into the crystal" riff even then).

[Show spoiler]OH, and jeez, I just remember the tasting Zed's sweat, passing from one person to the next by the ... tips of their tongues? Do I remember that correctly? Oh, that's a whole 'nother hoot.

And yes, you need some espresso to get through the third act, as it loses inertia, lots of it, and gets pretty darn talky. I remember dozing off during multiple viewings. Doesn't Excalibur, too? But like Excalibur, it was GLORIOUS on the big screen. Particularly that model Zardoz head floating through the clouds (I think I have an old Cinefantastique with pics of the model).

It has its charms. Ms. Rampling, surely. The mystery and reveal. The production design. And the score by David Munrow (who usually was doing early music recordings on original instruments; an interesting choice by Boorman), resetting Beethoven's 7th Second Movement as a serious funereal adagio. Of all the recordings I've heard of if, only the Bruno Walter recording with the CBS Symphony Orchestra that my brother bought me after we'd seen the film played it at the slow pace that Munrow orchestrated it.

I was going to pass on this, but if there's an isolated score track,.... Don't know if anyone ever released the soundtrack, but this would be neat to put on with just the score as background. That boy soprano singing the theme while the stone head floats through the clouds is just plain creepy. Like it or not, Zardoz is as important an early 70s sci-fi flick as Silent Running, Logan's Run, Sleeper, Clockwork Orange, Rollerball, Soylent Green, Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster, THX 1138, Last Days of Man On Earth, Solaris,....

I never understood why Connery did it unless it was one of those "I'll do this if you let me do that" deals. I think he REALLY want to show the public "I am NOT James Bond anymore." Between this and The Wind And The Lion, I think he succeeded. Got to admit, the man had (has) cojones.


BTW, if any of you have wives/gfs who cry, "What the heck did you buy this time," you can answer, "Sean Connery in his prime, in a ponytail, a diaper, and little else," and might get out of the doghouse.

LOL for many reasons, this is my favourite blu-ray.com forum review, despite I don't agree about the third act.