I've seen ZARDOZ about a billion times. I'm not kidding. Every time it's on TV, I watch it. I'm endlessly fascinated by it because it's a type of film that was made in the 1970s which isn't being made anymore today: so-called bold far-out ideas told in a very atmospheric manner with lots of flash and pretension, with almost complete disregard of the audience. I really miss those kinds of films. Films like SOYLENT GREEN, DEMON SEED, PHASE IV, etc.
With that being said I have to admit that ZARDOZ is basically an unfiltered end result of John Boorman's massive ego than about actual bold ideas. It's one thing to have what seem to be far-out ideas and work with them in a bold way but it's another thing altogether to basically turn everything into a masturbatory celebration of one's ego. There's no point in giving examples, everything IS on screen. But the most telling part is the last shot with Connery and Rampling, wearing what looks like Irish green costumes and both looking like Robin and Marian, aging rapidly while their natural offspring grows up between them. After going through the entire film only to end up with a trite ending that basically promotes an Adam & Eve ideal, well that last scene basically kills the entire movie and one suddenly realizes that Boorman is not interested in far-out mind-bending ideas but in the same old, same old.
Basically, the entire film is just Boorman taking everything to task, smashing all of it against his own trite personal philosophy in a tired effort to dismiss everything that's not in concordance with his views. Pseudo-Hippies, women, non-violent men, technology, etc, all end up being obliterated so that Adam & Eve can reign supreme again. There's nothing forward thinking about Adam & Eve.
I love mind-bending sci-fi or fantasy films filled with ideas that make you think. ZARDOZ is not one of them. It's a blunt egotistical attack (spiced with humor) on anything that's not the status quo masquerading as fantasy/science-fiction.
If it's on TV, I'll still watch it. Like Boorman's EXORCIST II: THE HERETIC, ZARDOZ is a kind of big pretentious over-the-top messy film that's not being made anymore.
With that being said I have to admit that ZARDOZ is basically an unfiltered end result of John Boorman's massive ego than about actual bold ideas. It's one thing to have what seem to be far-out ideas and work with them in a bold way but it's another thing altogether to basically turn everything into a masturbatory celebration of one's ego. There's no point in giving examples, everything IS on screen. But the most telling part is the last shot with Connery and Rampling, wearing what looks like Irish green costumes and both looking like Robin and Marian, aging rapidly while their natural offspring grows up between them. After going through the entire film only to end up with a trite ending that basically promotes an Adam & Eve ideal, well that last scene basically kills the entire movie and one suddenly realizes that Boorman is not interested in far-out mind-bending ideas but in the same old, same old.
Basically, the entire film is just Boorman taking everything to task, smashing all of it against his own trite personal philosophy in a tired effort to dismiss everything that's not in concordance with his views. Pseudo-Hippies, women, non-violent men, technology, etc, all end up being obliterated so that Adam & Eve can reign supreme again. There's nothing forward thinking about Adam & Eve.
I love mind-bending sci-fi or fantasy films filled with ideas that make you think. ZARDOZ is not one of them. It's a blunt egotistical attack (spiced with humor) on anything that's not the status quo masquerading as fantasy/science-fiction.
If it's on TV, I'll still watch it. Like Boorman's EXORCIST II: THE HERETIC, ZARDOZ is a kind of big pretentious over-the-top messy film that's not being made anymore.