ZARDOZ IS NOT SET IN 2023 AND OTHER FACTS ABOUT SCIENCE FICTION MOVIES
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- čas přidán 2. 01. 2023
- Zardoz is not set in 2023.
The Day of the Triffids has a bad ending.
The Tunnel is a 1935 science fiction movie that really delivers.
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Side note: ever notice how Burt Reynolds and Sean Connery are damn near identical when they were young actors?
Bald hunks? 😀😉
On my Zardoz disc is a commentary. You saw that the family scene at the end of the movie shows everyone not looking happy. This is the second filming of this scene. The first was lost somehow and had to be reshot. Everyone was called back to shoot just this scene. As you could tell by their faces , they were not happy at all about having to do this. I love this movie. It took me four times watching this before I fully understood it's meaning.
Nonetheless, actors should act. The sober looks at the ending leave a weird feeling to the tail end of the movie.
@@terrytalksmovies True, but the world depicted is a fundamentally dystopian one. No one's going to end up all sunshine and daffodils. It's a brutal, fatalistic world and that ending still felt like it fit to me, as cheezy as the timelapse was.
@@emdotambient It was dystopia with utopian possibilities.
I have a lot of fondness for _The [Transatlantic] Tunnel._ It was one of several expressions of a between-the-wars dream that maybe, just maybe, something could be invented or constructed or willed into existence that would make another world war impossible. A noble and sad dream. I didn't know the movie had a German precursor.
As for _The Day of the Triffids,_ hurray for salt. Not only could it kill the triffids, it was also the Achilles' heel of _The Monolith Monsters_ (1957) and _The Slime People_ (1963). I think whenever the world is threatened with catastrophe (in movies or IRL), there should be someone chiming in from the back rows with "Have you tried salt?"
The hopefulness of between war science fiction is a good thing. It didn't pan out that way but it shows a resilience and an optimism I admire.
And "Horror At Party Beach.". MST3K even did a song for it.
"Have you tried salt" lol! gonna try and remember that! great retort. I really like "The Monolith Monsters", and ays give a bit more attention to fantasy films where there's no real enemy (be it monster or men), but a bunch of barely qualified sorts have to come together to solve a problem thats more like a natural phenomena rather than something with malicious intent. With today's SPFX it would make for a great re-make (if they could only not ruin it with lame characters spouting redundant dialogue), but the majestic, and ultimately crushing damage of massive fast-growing crystals would be something to see.
Zardoz is one I quite admire for its ambition. I don't know if Boorman couldn't figure out how to make much of it really land, or if he maybe lost his nerve, either way the result makes it disappointing in so many ways. I'll give him credit for creating a world, a conflict, and solution that are deeply unsatisfying, which I think give the story a lot of authenticity, but also make for a not terribly pleasing watch overall.
The Day of the Triffids was also on TV a who lot growing up in the 70s here in Los Angeles. I was never quite sure if the meteor storm brought the triffids, or if it just allowed them to really take advantage of the chaos. Either way, it's always been a bit of a nostalgic favorite. The lighthouse sub plot I'll buy, but what made me uncomfortable about it was how utterly unpleasant the man was, and how much his wife must have been at the end of her rope being stranded there with him. At least the triffid infestation gave them something other than each other to attack. The deus ex machina solution is made whole by revelation that at the end of the worldwide triffid crisis, we can all go to church, which is a trope I make fun of whenever it turns up in sci fi movies of a certain age. Sadly, I have yet to come across a decent copy of the movie anywhere. I've never heard of any restoration being done.
Thanks for the heads up on The Tunnel. I'd read about it years ago, but had completely forgotten it existed.
Definitely check out The Tunnel. There's a lot of good value there.
The basic story of Zardoz is very important. As humanity stands now, immortality would be NO panacea. People would long for death if our current existence was drawn out ad-infinitum. Man would "rebel" against their very existence, or stop trying to live And they would lose all sense of morality as they enslave any lower form of humanity ("the brutals").
ZARDOZ is probably the only Sci-Fi movie I just can't understand, and the ending with Beethoven's Symphony number 8 playing as they go through life, a kid and death just gives me a headache.
It feels like a lazy way of ending the film.
I often think that many movies end this way. It all seams rushed in the last 20 minutes, as 90 minutes or 120 minutes isn’t enough time to flesh out a story, especially when derived for a novel.
Exception being Avatar, The Way of Water (also known as Titanic 2) where the conclusion was half of the movie and the penultimate scene went for 40 minutes!
The 1981 UK adaptation of DOTT was far superior to the 60's movie imo.
It also had more time to tell the story and probably a better budget.
I think the message that *ZardOz* was trying to get across was "Sure the grass is greener, but those who live on the other side of the fence may soon get fed up with it".
The message is, never trust pretty privileged people. They'll screw you over ever time.
The message I got was “cocaine is a helluva drug”. 😂
Or, "Be careful of what you wish, for it may come true." Immortality, in this case, ends up being a trap of eternal boredom and stagnation. And basically, that ultimately means insanity (whether personal or societal).
I mean, sure, you get to live forever, but only inside a bubble where you participate in the most boring party that never stops until some overgrown sweaty, hairy ape in an overgrown jockstrap crashes your party and starts shooting up the place and screwing all the hot chicks.
Cheers Terry, the 1980 BBC mini series of Triffids is so much better and loyal to the book, this sixties film is ok, forget the Dougray Scott/Eddie Izzard one from 2015ish though.
Zardoz is great fun, it was Connery’s seventies opportunity to wear a questionable towelling onesie number after Goldfinger ten years before!😂
Zardoz looks great but the moment you analyse it, it falls apart.
I saw Zardoz on its opening day at a local theater, but not until the second show
As I waited in the lobby, the audience for the first show were coming out
A young man and his girlfriend, with their arms around each other's waists, came walking out, along with their third wheel buddy. Young man says something along the lines of , "That was the worst movie I've ever seen!"
Girlfriend pipes up, "Yeah, that was awful"
They both turn to third wheel in unison..."Right?"
Third wheel says "I dunno, I kind of liked it"
I remember thinking in that moment that I was going to love this picture
Wildly imperfect, at times silly to the point of embarrassment, I still got swept along by the imaginative visuals and sheer oddness of the thing
I wound up seeing it multiple times in the theater
I found that Exorcist II had the same effect on me - visually inspired, philosophically brave, daffy as a cartoon duck
Exorcist II is wildly entertaining in its badness.
Next year everyone will be talking about A Boy And His Dog. "The year is 2024, a future you'll probably live to see."
Yep. I hope to live that long myself. 😀
I was born in 1958 and have been ravenously swilling from a cinematic trough right next to yours for as long as I remember. I love listening to and learning from you as I know had we been born any closer the word "conjoined" would have been coined to describe the bond we'd have forged.
I know that you love a stimulating and subversive point of discussion and your observation centering around the disappointment apparent in the expressions of the characters at the end got me to thinking. I too rewatched Zardoz about 2 weeks ago to reevaluate my reaction from having seen it at the drive-in when it first came out against the experience of a man who had so many decades of life experience behind me (and if course there was an effort to reconnect with that Famous Monsters nostalgic sheen.)
While you were invoking a different theme you were right on the nose when you likened it to "A Boy and his Dog" if I were to throw in "Slaughterhouse Five" you'd see another reason the movie escaped the audiences of its day...
This was an era when Sci Fi was drifting from space aliens to more pensive plains and a goodly group was not prepared for the changing gears as this type of movie had previously been the safe harbor from the topics of the day. For all of its wackiness I'd place "Deathrace 2000" in the same changing of the guard. But back to Zardoz...
I have my own interpretation on that ending and with a little imagination I think you'll find this isn't as daft as it may sound on the surface so stick with me here...
You've seen this ending before. As a matter of fact it had even earned the Oscar for best picture several years before.
That final montage was a thinly veiled reskin for the final scene (and theme) of
"The Graduate!" It was a feeling of disappointment felt by two disparate rebels who have just realized the hollow victory of trying so hard to stray from the pack only to realize they have ultimately painted themselves into the shallow corner of Conformity as societal progenitors with the bringer of death becoming the God he ends up replacing.
You see, I think you and I would have taxed the after hour coffee shops to their limit had we joined forces. Like to hear your thoughts.
Oh, and lest I be accused of missing the bus, one other connection between "Zardoz" and "A Boy and His Dog", both movies are about asexual societies in search of a sperm bank ("The Beguiled", anyone?)
I much prefer Slaughterhouse Five to Zardoz even though I think the lead actor (Michael Sacks) is weak.
Deathrace 2000 has the edge of being unashamedly countercultural and leaning in to the silliness. A Boy And His Dog has that harsh, misogynistic ending from the original novella which hasn't let it age well.
An interesting selection. I agree about Zardoz - it is all over the place. I've seen it described as the product of a director who took the acclaim from his previous work too much to heart and thought he could do no wrong. Perhaps, or Maybe it just needed a really good script team.
Day of the Triffids is a decent enough bit of Quatermassy business but nothing spectacular. I don't recall whether I've seen The Tunnel but if not, I want to. A bit of 1920s/30s "airships and jodhpurs" SF always sits well with me.
There are too few jodhpurs and airships in modern science fiction.
Zardoz is insanely ahead of it's time.
The way data storage is suggested (in crystals) is very similar to the way we use discs and hard drives today.
I'm always wary of a storage medium that shatters if you drop it. 😀
@@terrytalksmovies
Remember Star Trek... Scotty's "Transparent Aluminum....?"
Well, how about "Crystal Gel." I thinks that would be fairly shatterproof.... Just a thought.
AND 😊 HAPPY NEW YEAR TOU TOO TERRY 😊!!
You too. Have a great 2023.
A standard trope in old school sci-fi is having a protagonist who gets involved with a dysfunctional society and fixes or changes it somehow.I bought a public domain video of THE TUNNEL years ago.I remember liking it and being impressed with the production design.It's difficult to find a acceptable copy of THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS.
There is a US blu-ray release of The Day Of The Triffids. Not sure about the quality, though.
There was also a British TV SF series from the very early 70s called The Adventures of Don Quick, starring Ian Hendry and Ronald Lacey, that subverted the trope by having the titular character show up on alien worlds and make a pig's ear of trying to "fix" the natives' societies.
A big enough trope that Star Trek included a lot of episodes doing just that: fixing the natives' society. The non-interference treaty idea at least kept those to a minimum.
Thanks for this, and by all means, yes, feel free to do more SF retrospectives. I need to see The Tunnel, somehow sometime, if only because I always loved the "Sub-Shuttle" featured in the failed Gene Roddenberry pilot Genesis II as well as its attempted revival Planet Earth. A swift sleek subway spanning thousands of miles somehow appealed to me. As for Triffids, I wonder if people simply figured "Well, bacteria worked in The War of the Worlds ... so ... ." As groanworthy as that deus ex machina is, I still think it comes out ahead of Shyamalan's Signs. As for Zardoz, I'm not even a fan of it, but I've been seeing that damned meme, so I actually bothered to do some Googling and I've corrected two old friends about this already. The friends are women and I suspect that they simply dig seeing Sean Connery in a red diaper. A movielover can have a decent time setting aside a Walter Huston film festival. Thanks, Ter.
My pleasure, William. We might not have subshuttles but if you get to Japan, the Shinkansens do the same job on the surface. They're a marvellous way to travel and really fast.
The more scifi the better.
BTW: I saw and loved Genesis II when it first aired. Sub Shuttles rock!
Oh yes, Nozomi makes a lot of my trains look horse-drawn. That its name is an anagram of "zoom in" is very apt.
While women were checking out Connery, I was drooling over Charlotte Rampling, especially during the stop-motion scenes where she nurses her son (was anyone else thinking of the Moody Blues' "Knights in White Satins" during that scene or was it just me?). Zardoz definitely remains a guilty pleasure on my part and I'd love to see a triple feature version of "Logan's Run," "A Boy and his Dog" and "Zardoz" or a John Boorman double feature with "Excalibur." Not great but fun nonetheless...
Happy 2023 Terry Talks Movies! CZcams hasn't been doing a very good job of recommending your videos to me lately. I have a little catching up to do... But that's kind of cool in its own way.
Enjoy @Dupre and thanks for supporting the channel.
Thank you so much for reviewing 'The Tunnel '.i waited years to see it got a DVD copy, it is an amazing film, then lent it out and never got it back!!! Apart from being a great sci-fi film it includes shots of Hans Lefwinka designed Tatra cars. The tear drop design of them would have been quite futuristic when the film was made.
The teardrop cars still look really groovy.
@@terrytalksmovies I was lucky enough to visit Kopřivnice and see the Tatra museum, even my better half was impressed!! Your right they are amazing cars.
Great choices - especially The Tunnel. Very few Science Fiction movies have been as prescient as it when it came to predicting future (now current) technology. Also, 100% related: Happy New Year.
Thanks Lee. I enjoyed The Tunnel the most out of the three.
The Day of the Triffids is one of my favorite films. I remember seeing it in the theatre back in the day and how much fun it was. Zardoz is Zardoz, what can one say about it - but it is fun. Thanks for The Tunnel, I'll have to look that one up! Happy New Year to you and yours!!
Happy new year, Jeff. Hope it's a groovy one.
I enjoyed your commentary. I first saw Zardoz when I was 15 in Toronto (many decades ago) on a local station (City-TV) which used to play blue movies late at night on Fridays and Saturdays. While I agree with you that the movie doesn't quite succeed, I appreciated the ambition. And in watching the end where Connery & Rampling go to bones, I got to hear, for the first time Beethoven's 7th Symphony and I fell in love with the music and I've been a fan of classical music ever since. For me, Zardoz gave me Beethoven and that's why I love it.
There's always an upside to even dubious movies.
Zardoz, was that a pun on The Wizard of Oz? I read that John Boorman wrote a novel of Zardoz that was released to coincide with the film. Sean Connery's onesy or mankini looks very similar to the outfit that Marvel Comics character, Killraven wears.
Happy New Year Terry!
Happy New Year Matthew. The answer to your question is in the movie.
Funny you bring up Zardoz, I just rewatched it a couple of days ago. The movie has a lot of very interesting ideas but is very incohesive, the ending anticlimactic. The special effects were decent for their time. The movie had a lot of potential, unfortunately unrealized in Boorman's hands. Can't really picture Burt Reynolds as Zed, I actually have a hard time picturing him without a Trans Am.
Reynolds would've been a joke as Zed.
@18:10 - I fully agree with this statement - "The movie is weird."
I'd always heard about 'acid flashbacks' and didn't know if I was experiencing one or not while viewing this movie. I found it long and at times, losing my undivided attention. ....like 'Excalibur' ...ope! same director, no wonder. I've not been a connoisseur of fine movie knowledge and actually enjoyed cinema with an innocence. Lately I've been noticing the director styles of Kubrick, Eastwood, Burton, Tarantino, R. Scott, but among the "top 25 directors of all time" there are no places for John Hughs or Robert Zemeckis, probably because there is no ranking for the quality film those two directed. Paul Flaherty another great director. Yahoo Serious and my personal favorite, Mal Brooks are not found on the lists....snobs. Most of the stuff I didn't know about movies...I'm better having not learned and for what I still don't know, I'm glad for it.
Sorry for my rambling...maybe ZARDOZ is making me have acid flashbacks. I first watched it and I was tired and fell asleep somewhere after the giant head spitting out guns and ammo. Then, a part startled me out of my sleep...a hippie chick showering Sean Connery with a blanket and I had to turn it off and go to bed. So, after the night, I gave it another shot - ZARDOZ - what's it about? Let's see.... what the heck?! I missed the part about the giant floating head giving orders to kill and the declaration the "Penis is bad". Was it worth watching to the end? Maybe it's a cult movie...keep watching. It's a psychodelic trip and needs a disclaimer at the opening, not a floating head doing a cartoonish introduction. This made as much sense as the portion Sean Connery plays in Time Bandits. We open up to Sean battling a man/beast. T. Gilliam directed some werid movies. This one took me a while to get - 'Wizards' is one I had to watch a couple times. 'Gandahar' is another I've had to re-watch. Maybe Zardoz deserves a couple more viewings??? All the screaming and the Hippie-vibe makes me think of a 'Children of the Corn' mixed with 'Charlie Manson' show - 'the Waltons', remade and directed by Rob Zombie.
Oh I want to add, it was like the psychotic episode Cheech was having the movie, 'Nice Dreams'. Tommy Chong, another great director.
John Hughes and Zemeckis were competent but they were never risk-takers. They were resolutely mainstream. Middle of the Road and MOR directors and creators never move an art-form forward the way Tarantino and Kubrick did.
I always felt that Day of the Triffids is the template for the modern zombie apocalypse film. The triffids are the stand-in for the zombie, but the rest of the hallmarks are there with humans attempting to rebuild civilization under the new world conditions.
Zombies are more about contagion and a fear of illness and dementia. Triffids is a twist on alien invasion movies.
Terry: Wow, I just commented on your prior posting and asked about "Day of the Triffids" and lo and behold, you do a review.
Thank you.
The 1962 version I have fond memories of.
I thought that the sea water wasn't a cop-out ending (at the time) and tidy-up the movie quite neatly.
But after your commentary, I can view it (and especially the 2009 BBC version) in an adult light, and not thru the prism of a young kid from way back when.
As to Zardoz. I remember seeing it the theaters as a teenager (not sober) and didn't understand it and thought it was just plain weird. I've seen a few years ago (sober) and I still think it's quite weird. I don't think even the director John Borman knew what he was doing. Kinda surprised that 20th Century Fox(?) greenlit this project.
BTW: Happy New Year.
Happy New Year, Dean. The Day of the Triffids was already in the pipeline when you commented. 😀 Zardoz was greenlit because of Deliverance's success.
Found The Tunnel a few years ago. I'm a big fan of pre WWII movies especially Scifi and Horror films. Triffids was always a fun move. Zardoz is an example of why people shouldn't do heroin 😂🤣😅😁. The writing has great concepts but the production of the film just proves my point about skipping the heroin. Cheers
Not sure it was H but the self-medication may have influenced the film.
I'm very curious about "The Tunnel".
Zardoz..... well, as fascinating as awkward, but interesting to watch ! 😆
I agree with you. Zardoz is imaginative but messy AF.
Of the 3, Zardoz is the only one I didn't see. Might see it one day when I have lots of time free and bored. Thanks for the information on it.
My pleasure, David.
Day of the Triffids is interesting is that in the original story the "aliens" sort of win. When John W. Campbell was editor of Astounding Science Fiction and ushered in the "golden age of science fiction" one of his rules was that the aliens could not win in a story he published. I don't know if he got Wyndham to change the ending so mankind did not exactly lose, or if that was an original ending, but it was unusual for a Campbell-published story.
As for ZARDOZ, I have always liked it but only because it is a weird movie as you have said. I don't expect a groundbreaking bit of social theater. I expect a 1970s, new generation of directors, they still don't have it all down right, kind of movie. A lot of these were made in the early 1970s and late 1960s. You experience ZARDOZ.
Great job as usual. Happy New Year.
Campbell didn't publish Wyndham. 😀
@@terrytalksmovies I though I read that from Issac Asimov. I'll have to double-check. Thanks
I was hoping you'd talk about Zed's signature weapon, the unique Webley-Fosbery "semi-automatic" (read "inertia-operated auto-charging single-action") revolver, forerunner of all other inertia-operated revolvers that would come later (most if not all of which were Italian).
Edit/Note: He's seen cocking it manually by "pumping" it because blanks didn't produce enough inertia to cycle the upper frame against the lower frame.
It seemed an odd choice to me.
I wrote a complaint letter to, I think, Channel 9 after they'd aired Day of the Triffids. I was 12, in form 1, and had just recently read the book and was so unhappy with how the film ignored the novel. I've learned a bit more about how movies and Tv work now. Like others, the Beeb's version in the 80's was much better and a much better version of the novel-based story. I have, however, always wanted a screen version of The Chrysalids, my favourite Wyndam story.
I tend to agree with you about Zardoz: Connery just seems so miscast, and the story doesn't make much sense. Seen it, not in a hurry to rewatch it. The Tunnel, however, I'd definitely like to see. (I do think I've seen it, just can't remember anything of it but that's more probably due to other things I've gone through.) I'll definitely keep my eyes open, as I love some 30's science fiction. Metropolis has had a great impact on me and it definitely inspired other movies - even, I suspect Welles' Things to Come.
Metropolis just dropped into the public domain, too.
"Come back. I was going to make espresso" - blind monk in Young Frankenstein.
Espresso is nectar. It's a necessary component of the creative process.
Ahhhhh, ZARDOZ, a movie that I figured out after 20 minutes in the theater, was absolutely mind numbingly worthless, but I stayed because it was visually gorgeous. A museum exhibition of Rene Magritte paintings.
I agree. The visuals ARE stunning and imaginative.
Okay, let me explain Zardoz. I would count it to the genre of the "Depressed Computer". I mean it's primary not about the people and their emotional conflicts, or nature versus culture, or revolution and freedom, it's about the computer, who run things in this future society, to hold it in a stable programmed system, i.e. "Penis is evil, the gun is good." The problem after eons of happy hedonistic life, the "Eternals" have lost, they say it in the movie, the knowlege to programme the computer, or/and shut the whole system off. The computersystem has to fulfill the needs of the eternals community and has to perserve them from any mortal danger, but ,alas, it is not able to change its original programming, or destroy itself, as the eternals get more psychotic, and more suicidal every day.
So the computer starts this complicated intrigue, the plot of the movie, to destruct himself, without going against his direct commands and orders of programming.
Stringent?
Other "Depressed Computer" flicks?
Matrix, 2001...?
The Eternals just needed one white hat hacker and things would've ended much better for most of them. 😀
YES... I wondered how the Flic could POSSIBLY be set in 2023... as they made certain we know it was 300 years AFTER the SHTF Event!?! (Alternate Universe where WWIII happens in 1723 CE!?!) & thanks for including the Aldiss Cozy-Catastrophe Moniker!
For me, cosy catastrophe is when I'm close to running out of coffee beans and my roaster hasn't sent my subscription renewal yet.
I have never seen a Maurice Elvey movie so thanks for the tip. Gazelles are an Art Deco standard and they really jumped out at me (3:44) in your clip (I never pardon my puns). I like the Art Deco sets in some movies of the time.
I see the two Maurice Elvery films are on CZcams, plus one he directed with Ida Lupino.
Cheers
Elvey did some great work. High Treason, which had both a silent and a sound edition is an interesting footnote in science fiction cinema.
I also love the art deco science fiction aesthetic.
Excellent video as always, have been wanting to see Transatlantic Tunnel for awhile now just never got round to it yet, seen this interpretation of Day of the Triffids a number of times on TV always watchable and have seen Zardoz when I was a kid (taped it of the telly) but it went over my head at the time and lost interest in it have since gone back to it and have a second hand DVD of it on the "to watch" pile in order to revisit it, ps love the Paleo Cinema cap
Thanks, Dick. Some friends had the cap made for me a long time ago but it's still in rotation on the rack of hats.
Happy new Year Terry, I recently re watched The Day of the Triffids and Zardoz. I've always seen the 62 version of the Triffids as vastly inferior to the 1981 BBC series mainly because the movie version strayed way too far from the original story (shot 20 years later but the special effects aren't really any better) and as you mention, that tacked on happy ending is extremely weak. I've seen Zardoz many times, sometimes with friends, other times on my own just to see if I could really and completely understand it but every time i've come away thinking "what the hell did I just watch". The tunnel is on my list to watch now so thanks and keep em coming....especially Sci-Fi 🙂
My pleasure @bigratkiller1
For me the 80s TV series is The Day of the Triffids for me. It terrified me as a child and was a lot closer to the book than the highly condensed film (as I recall).
Zardoz just confused younger me and I had the impression it thought it was cleverer than it was, but that may have been projection. Now I'm older and wiser I should re-watch it.
I'll try to, er, dig up the tunnel. :)
Also, horrified to find there is an inaccurate meme on the internet.
The Tunnel is on YT.
Yeah, some people just want to watch the world burn.
I wish you would do a feature on Logan's Run. It's my all time favorite film.
Could happen. :-)
@@terrytalksmovies I really like that you respond to your audience, Terry. It's one the things that put you head and shoulders above other CZcamsrs. If you ever did do a LR segment you could point out how The Island & In Time are essentially rip offs of the same concept. Especially The Island. Look forward to your segments every week. Keep up the good work!
@@owenmadden7577 I will. Thanks!
The Tunnel looks very interesting, if you watched it on disc, Terry, who released it? Or if not, who streams it? We need more of such films from you, please.
Great to see some SF reviews again. The 70s weren’t all terrific for such films, but in a time when it depends on CGI for impact, not acting or script (for example) there were some interesting ideas about back then.
There still are good ideas out there but most of the good SF is on streaming and in series rather than individual movies.
I watched The Tunnel online but Amazon should have it on disk.
Have fond memories of 80's TV series of Day of the Triffids, wether it would hold up to rewatch I don't know the film as you said is scuppered by ending.
Although the book isn't perfect I think the cosy catastrophe line,I think coined by Brian Aldiss,is somewhat unfair as it's centred on the exploits of a set of characters in one place so it makes sense in that respect Wyndham was one of first authors I got into as kid about 13 or so .His pulp stories are fun.
Zardoz is old enough to be ...well me obviously a great year.
Zardoz has a long cultural tail based on the costuming, which was done by Boorman's former wife.
would be cool to do a vid on sci fi movies that borrow footage from other stock sources. planet of blood is an example
Roger Corman has a ton of those!You could easily do a long video on how Roger took a Yugoslavian espionage thriller and eventually turned it into Blood Bath/Track of the Vampire!
I'd rather go back to the movies Corman borrowed from. They're much more interesting.
@@anthonymunn8633 there’s also what’s up tiger lily by Woody Allen
The Tunnel (a.k.a.The Trans-Atlantic Tunnel) here, in the states, is available for free on CZcams! Dive in.
Totally worth hunting down.
I saw both The Day of the Triffids and Zardoz in the theater in their original releases.
Too late to get your money back. 😉😀
@@terrytalksmovies 🙂 I sort of liked them both, but my standards weren't all that high.😁
Yeah, the Zardoz meme pisses me off. I hate memes made by people who didn't see the movie they're actually meeming.
Incidentally, may I suggest you look up the song, "Dome," by the Australian band, "The Church," which is about Zardoz. He claims he fell asleep before the end of the movie, but I think he's lying because he kind of nails the ending he claims to have dreamed.
I'll check it out. Thanks.
I just love Dodsworth. Happy New Year!
Dodsworth really works well. For me, it's Walter Huston's best picture.
@@terrytalksmovies For us too and Mary Astor is sublime!
I really liked the tunnel when I saw it years ago. I am a big Windham fan, Triffids and Midwich Cuckoos are favorites.
I agree with your point about Triffids. I first saw it in about 1970 and I hated the salt water solution.
I saw Zardoz in the in the theaters and didn't enjoy it at all. I found it to have few redeeming qualities. The only thing I liked was Friend.
John Alderson's Friend really worked. He had the right tone for the material.
Three good movies. The Tunnel was good as the story and the personal relationships (though melodramatic) keeps us interested and the effects are good for their time and more impressive to find out they were snitched from an older movie. Day of the Triffids is great as the story (agan) keeps us engaged to overlook the quality of the of the monster. I had always thought they were two short movies struck together. Zardoz is an odd one which is interesting for the film maker's view of a future. Plus it's warning about the flaws in utopia. However once you see Connery in that outfit and he starts talking, all thoughts of the movie go out of your head and that is the biggest thing you remember
It's interesting that nobody ever tries to repair utopias, they just try to rip them down. A lot of these movies throw out the baby with the bath water.
@@terrytalksmovies Most movies show the outsider or the young person who is alone person/savior that will tear down the corruption of the older generation and organized society. I think there are interesting parallells to the more modern "Chaos Rules" movies like "Caddyshack" or "Animal House" where a young person tears things down and leaves chaos. More interesting is the parallel to the small town utopia which turns out to be corrupt and deadly
I've just seen the 2009 series of The day of the Triffids. I don't remember a lot, just that I liked it.
It was pretty ordinary as I recall.
I always avoided Triffids because it looked very cheesy. I finally watched it and was pleasantly surprised. The novel is even better. I think something more horrific than the plants is the fact that almost everyone goes blind.
Doubling up on the catastrophe was either brilliant or superfluous. I'm not sure which.
Zardoz rocks!
In some ways, I agree with you. In other ways, it's a mess.
"Zardoz" yes a bizarre film and not helped with Sean cavorting about in his under shorts. One critic claimed that the movie was a remake of "The Wizard of Oz". In any event it was a stink bomb.
It's got the core of a good SF film, but it's surrounded by bad choices.
@@terrytalksmovies I have seen the film about the tunnel and enjoyed "Them!". "Them!" is on the television quite a bit - liked it when James Whitmore runs back to the squad car returning with. sub-machine gun to level the playing field.
@@johnzeszut3170 Them! is great fun. There's a remake in the offing, too. I'm okay with that because we still have the original movie... and there's the possibility the new one will begood, too.
Say it with flowers, give her a Triffid!
Nah, I love her.😀😉
Good video. I saw the Tunnel few time when on the ABC in the early 60's then in the 2000's late or early tv. When they edited The Day of Triffids, the producers only hour of footage, so needed that extra 30 mins. That where get this extra drama.. I still like the film. Also prefer 1980 TV version,which was co production between ABC and BBC, tlthan 2006, that just so awful. I think Zardoz is think see once and forget about it. I agree what you about Connery
I like all the movies, but the seams show blatantly these days.
Like Lynch's DUNE. the disembodied head introduction was added to ZARDOZ at the lats minute. I like the film more than you did and maybe you missed a few points in it; I would have to screen the film in real time with you to be more specific. However, more videos have been done about it lately and not just because of the '2023' error.
Thanks, but I doubt if I'll watch it again. 😀
@@terrytalksmovies Ha! It is just one of those films like MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH that is not easy for people to understand or get into and I think both films have a superior use of the scope frame. One of these days, I guess I'll have to do audio commentaries on both. I like the look, the cast, the feel and the boldness of the film. Cannot say many science fiction films are this risky or smart today. Solid video!
Zardoz was very psychedelic and cheezy and misguided in so many ways. Yet when I finally got to see it, I had a much deeper opinion of it by the end. Flawed as it is, there are some pretty interesting ideas in it. As you said, the narrator at the beginning did the film no favors at all, especially with his penned-on mustache and beard. I think of it as a great film to watch while slowly getting drunk. You get to laugh at all the cheezy parts, but also get oddly wrapped up in it. It's fun and whacky and somewhat thought-provoking.
Yep but it could've been so much better.
@@terrytalksmovies True. But at least it wasn't Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, or The Witcher: Blood Origin! Ha-ha-ha-ha-haaaaaa!
Richard Dix is terrific in The Ghost Ship ( Val Lewton classic)Day of the Triffids is let down by mediocre fx.M.Night stole the seawater thing :)Borat is wearing Connery's outfit in green i think
Dix was great in The Ghost Ship but in The Tunnel, Leslie Banks steals the movie.
Many science fiction movies in the late '60s early '70s seem disjointed. I saw part of The Tunnel, wish I was able to see the whole movie. The 2023 meme could be people looking to match up the current year with a science fiction movie of yesteryear. The Day of The Triffids did what other such movies fail to do. Seriously look at those who wouldn't be affected. The submarine crews they mentioned. The problem is when characters are hopelessly trapped the choices are either they die or there's a Deus ex Machina.
The screenwriters should've stuck to the original ending.
Dodsworth is a great film. It deserves to be better remembered.
100% For me, it's one of the most interesting films of the 30s.
Perhaps there’s a bit of an Adam & Eve parallel with the realization for Zed and Connie that the metaphorical eating of the apple in the garden of Eden and the unpleasant acceptance of the human condition. IE Utopia wasn’t so bad after all????
Adam and Eve, if Adam knocked up a lot of women before settling down with Eve? 😀
No relation to this movie, There is an early-'70s novel by Harry Harrison called, "A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah!" set in an alternate history in which the American revolution failed, and the British Empire rules like a third of the world. It's awful. One of the few novels in my life that I haven't been able to finish, it's that bad.
Harry was always a journeyman writer. He wrote what he liked and sometimes it hit, sometimes it missed. But he was happy and a lovely man. I had dinner with him and his wife Joan back in the day. Lovely people and delicious gossips.
@@terrytalksmovies Well, now I feel all awkward.
I have always been a bit amazed that no one has made a movie series out of his Stainless Steel Rat books. They seem almost tailor made for that treatment, and I remember hearing as far back as the mid-80s that some of them had been optioned, but.....nothin'.
I love Day of the Triffids, but the lighthouse scenes always just didn’t fit. I’ve just came to assume that the studio didn’t want an ambiguous ending and put those in to have a Hollywood/happy ending.
It's a definite mistake.
If I remember right,the producers brought in an uncredited Freddie Francis to come in and shoot extra scenes.
@@anthonymunn8633 I mentioned that.
Love the word 'Triffid'...Which of the BBC mini series' is best?
The earlier BBC series is the best.
Zardoz was one of those movies that I would call "guilty pleasures." I don't disagree with the "dog's breakfast" assessment of this film but I liked the visuals and the renegade style of filmmaking that Boorman was famous for at the time. I first saw it at TLA (Theater of the Living Arts) in Philadelphia PA when I was in college. I liked it but I couldn't honestly say I LOVED it.
Zardoz for me is a vulgar pleasure. I don't believe in guilt when it comes to entertainment. 😉😀
@@terrytalksmovies I guess it's easier for me to call it a "guilty pleasure' is because I'm still trying to reconcile my enjoyment of a film that has a large number of flaws in its storytelling. You obviously don't have that problem. I envy you....
Okay... I have a couple of Sci-Fi Movie books from the late 70s that mention "The Tunnel" but didn't really say much about it and certainly did not play up the SFX, which do look pretty damn good in these cuts. I also had no idea they were drawn from a German film. Anyway, I've never seen it, so now I'll have to. I love Leslie Banks.
The Day of the Triffids is a good Saturday afternoon sci-fi/monster movie watch, but it never stood out for me. And I agree, that ending is... anti-climactic.
Zardoz is... ugh. Saw it once, have no desire to see it again unless it's to riff on it with friends.
Hopefully you can find The Tunnel.
@@terrytalksmovies That's what she said. Bah-dum-dum.
@@Randall1001 not something with which I have ever had any trouble.
@@terrytalksmovies lol
Zardoz is an interesting dystopian world. Yes it's goofy but I liked it for being different. Sean Connery was looking to do anything after Bond (he was broke at the time) and being a brutal, I thought he did okay. I wouldn't expect him to get all emotional since he was randomly shooting people before he went down the rabbit hole of what the society is about.
It's an interesting dystopia... but it makes no sense. Which I suppose is part of the gonzo fun of it.😀
@@terrytalksmovies the story while not exactly the same, is similar to A Boy and His Dog. Outsider in a messed up future enters a hidden society that can't procreate.
Not really a fan of Zardoz, but then again there’s Charlotte Rampling…
Not her best role. She's not given a lot to do and like all the roles except probably Friend, her's is underwritten.
@@terrytalksmovies If I recall correctly, it is actually more interesting to see Paul Newman sock her in the jaw in The Verdict.
i always though zardoz reminded me of the startrek episode val or paradise .....it has a giant head in it that people worshipped as a god.
Imagine what Shatner's Kirk would've done if confronted with a village of topless immortal women.
@@terrytalksmovies Bridge: "Captain! Crisis on deck Six!" Kirk: "I'm busy! Let Spock handle it!"
@@terrytalksmovies According to the lore .... he would’ve had sex with all of them
@@terrytalksmovies Don't give Paramount any ideas.
zardoz is a very good movie terry from a time when directors thought outside the box
It's an interesting film and visually stunning but also a flawed one.
@@terrytalksmovies Yes, Your right terry.
But it had some big ideas. which is something lacking in today's films. I found it quite thought provoking
Amazing - that dumb ass Zardoz meme actually got you to rewatch the movie! Obviously, I think Boormam sticks the landing better than you do, but I'm really happy that you gave it a reassessment - I also happen to think Connery did a excellent job, & was far better than Burt Reynolds would ever be.
Connery was definitely better than Reynolds would've been but the ending was still meh for me.
Yeah the meme should be that Zardoz is set in the same year as Star Trek VI :)
Yep. That will confuse them nicely.
That thumbnail!
I was inspired. 😉😀
I preferred the 80s TV version of Day of the Triffids, had the time to tell the story and I assume followed the novel closer. Maybe the misspellings in Zardoz are due to language changing over time. Some kind of future speak. I think Zardoz is like Logan's Run in that it's a conservative critique of hippy culture. A call to return to "old fashioned" values over hedonism. I like the film but it is odd and maybe pretentious.
The spelling is because of changes over time. I was making a joke. 😀
@@terrytalksmovies Of course, sorry.
I saw all of these as late night movies on the ABC and of the the three I think I liked the Tunnel the best it was an interesting concept fairly well executed and I really have no problem separating myself from aged attitudes to enjoy it.
For some reason Day of the Triffids annoyed me then I read the book and it annoyed me even more as it triggered my 'Huh What' response where I spent too much time asking question than I did enjoying the book or movie.
I have a very low tolerance for pretentious bullshit and well that's Zardoz in a nut shell I think John Boorman thought this was a deeper meditation on society than it was the look was of it's time but the executioner look never made sense
I believe there was a high degree of self-medication involved in the production of Zardoz.
@@terrytalksmovies Cocaine is a hell of a drug :)
@@alankohn6709 early seventies. Maybe MJ and acid.
@@terrytalksmovies possibly some purely medicinal mushrooms
@@alankohn6709 That's a possibility.
ZED IS THE EUGENIC SUPERMAN MUTANT
Okay... 😀
Zardoz is great! Connery is better than in Darby O'Gill and the Little People! lol
But is he better than he was in A Fine Madness?
It should be though.
Nope. The timeline doesn't work.
Zardoz is Boorman at his most pretentious. Good for a giggle if you're in the mood. Exorcist 2 The Heretic is even more hilarious.Boorman's like Richard Burton; when he's good he's great but when he's bad....
The way Richard Burton says 'Pazuzu' is always funny.
@@terrytalksmovies It certainly is! If you're aware of Mark Kermode he reckons Ex 2 is the worst film ever made! Totally disagree, it's a hoot! Btw I love some of Boorman's stuff. Point Blank, Hell In The Pacific, Deliverance, Excalibur, The Emerald Forest are tremendous films.
@@richardjones4466 Exorcist 2 is enjoyable because it is so bad.
@@terrytalksmovies Absolutely. I first saw them both on a double bill around 79/80 and after the sheer terrifying onslaught of The Exorcist, The Heretic was light relief!