Movie Natters: July 3, 2008 Archive

A smattering of 'Zardoz'

Posted at 12:17 PM on July 3, 2008 by Euan Kerr (1 Comments)

I recently revisited one of my favorite films of my teen years. John Boorman's "Zardoz" (1974) explores a dystopian world of the future where brutal gangs of armed thugs terrorize the population. They worship a giant flying head called Zardoz who supplies them with weapons and ammunition. It is Zardoz who commands the gangs to kill.

The elite live in vortexes, safe behind a forcefield, but plagued by their inability to die. Things change when one of the 'brutals' as they are known, a man called Zed (Sean Connery)manages to find a way into a vortex.

Through his story Boorman explores the human experience. There are moments when the exploration does go a little awry, and it goes from whacky to wacked out, yet he always wrestles it back onto course again.

I have to admit that the opening sequence (below) remains one of my favorite prologues of all time.

Comment on this post