Zardoz (1974). Red Zed Redemption.
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- čas přidán 13. 04. 2023
- #scifi #70smovies
Stam Fine Reviews looks at John Boorman's 1974 film Zardoz, starring Sean Connery, John Alderton, Sara Kestelman, and Charlotte Rampling. It tells a fairly straightforward story in not a particularly straightforward way. Fantastic visuals, but if you aren't scratching your head by the end, then you haven't been paying attention.
I was paying attention, I think, though I might have nodded off at one point. - Zábava
I watched it twice, for a paper in college. I picked this one because the teacher hated "weird stuff". It was among the weirdest things I could find.
what, Rocky Horror Picture Show wasn't available?
@@chrisyu98 too many others did it.
Should have done Eraserhead, the teacher would have had a fit. 🤣
@@uhtred7860 For other papers in the same class, I did Videodrome, The Naked Lunch, and a 'compare and contrast' of John Waters' original Hairspray and Polyester. All "A"s for the record.... Teacher hated that I was good at writing about the weird stuff.
Check out "il Topo".
Preposterous, inventive films like this are worth a dozen boring superhero movies.
I have to agree with that. Superhero movies are like Nuremberg rallies. Movies like this, regardless of the results, are the Resistance.
Word!
Original! That's Zardoz.
They're called "art house" movies...
Inventive??? Its a remake of the wizard of oz...
I’ve watched it several times, and feel I’ve gotten everything it has to offer. It is flawed, but really original. I’d recommend it for folks who are looking to expand their film horizons.
Ok, will do. Check out "Mandy" with Nic Cage.
i was raised in wales but live in southern arizona, i've lived it several times, with the same platt.
no seriously i'll do your whole lodge.
fr33 w3st p4pu4
I saw this at a theater when it was first released and walked out humming Beethoven's 7th Symphony and thinking that Connery must have been desperate for work. Decades later, I own both it and Beethoven's 7th Symphony on DVD.
Ah, yes . . the Seventh . .
Gobble gobble
#Desperatefor work ;)))). Yes it's a kitschy fake sci fi ....yet sort of a cult, i guess. Absolutely crazy . And yep . they where smart and '' abused'' Beethoven. Guess the master would have not taken this easy . As he was rather hot tempered .
One of the first times I heard the Seventh. That movement is possibly my favorite piece of music
Successful sci-fi creates a believable world of the future; Zardoz is a Borman masterpice, and a successful sci-fi.
I watched Zardoz all the way through….once. 😊
"the wayward nutsacks" is the name of my new punk-polka band.
A highly underrated movie from a great period in cinema.
Zardoz is absolutely one of the top 20 sci-fi films of all time. Trippy, visually beautiful, a great premise and script, and some very fine acting. And living in the U.S., I can absolutely relate to the idea of the brutals. And it has one of the greatest lines in cinema history: "Is God in show business too?"
Yep, way under-appreciated, though have always had a weak spot for movies made by 'auteurs' anyway, who both write, produce _and_ direct a lotta their own films, delivering a unique, uncompromising and singular vision that's always especially 'interesting', regardless whether it turns out good, or otherwise.
BTW, my fave scene is always the finale featuring Connery 'aging' with Charlotte Rampling, accompanied by Beethoven's 7th playing in the background... exquisite!
Biggest piple of garbage ever committed to celluloid. We walked out 20 minutes into it from the theater (Abko on Wilshire Blvd. in Westwood, L.A., CA) and were promptly refunded the ticket price. There were articles back then in the LS Times and LA Examiner about how many people did this, bolting and demanding back their ticket price. Connery in red panties could not save this garbage.
When I was about 13 my father took me to the local video rental store ( remember those?) and we picked this and another movie up, watching it when we go home to this day I'm not sure which of us was more embarrassed while we watched it.
I first saw this one on late night tee vee in the '90s and thought it was a trip, but also a hot mess.
Saw it again in the mid-2000's and it actually made more sense than I expected it to. Decided to pick up the DVD and watch it again, at which point I realized its reach exceeded its grasp, but it did have some truly brilliant ideas and was fantastic to look at in its trippy, early '70s, academia-lampooning way. The cinematography by Geoffrey Unsworth (2001: A Space Odyssey) is fantastic.
Finally got it on Blu-ray a couple of years ago and decided it's the best of all those mid-60's thru mid-'70s post-apocalyptic / far future sci fi films (apart from 2001, anyhow). It's a hot mess but an early attempt to deal with ideas like the singularity, societal collapse and immortality, among other things. You've gotta admire the ambition. Also, the acting is phenomenal. Copious amounts of psychedelics must have been consumed during the making of this thing. You can get a contact high just watching it.
Recommended, but you've been warned.
Good summary! As with a great many '70s films, as well as the hangover hippy vibe, there's also an undercurrent of callous violence throughout the film.
I might have seen it first around the same time if it were the early nineties, I too first saw it on late night TV. I was reminded of the prog rock band Van Der Graaf Generators track 'Still Life' which I feel carried the same warning on the matter of immortality.
I rather like early seventies sci fi movies. They are much more experimentative than movies made after this period.
Sunspot42, your comments put the yeast based nutrients on the table of this sci-fi thread. Mycogen makes the best.
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As per Sunspot42's Zardoz viewing recommendation? Emphatic concurrence.
What must people missed is the older people would not change. Costing them their sanity. When you are immortal the only thing they could punish you with is age.
I actually saw it when it first came out in 1974. It was weird, but that was the style for the time. It does have many interesting ideas, clearly rooted in the counter-culture of the time. It's execution, especially the execution scene at the conclusion is both weird and powerful. It needs to be watched, not as a 'camp classic', but as a relic of the zeitgeist of the time. I still enjoy the concepts and performances. Thanks for giving the movie a fair shake.
I also saw it in a theater when it came out. I was reading a lot of sci-fi back then and this movie captured the feel of British sci-fi of that era to a tea. I’ve also heard that this movie was powered by weed for both the cast and crew. I think that also added to my enjoyment of the film when I saw it.
I heard about this film before I saw it.
I like the 70s wierd movies. Was not disappointed.
@@thecraigster8888 🤣Powered by weed . . . That's great.
I, too, saw it when it first came out, at the Odeon, Leicester Sq. The audience laughed so much at Sean Connery's 'look' it was impossible to do just watch it.
I was 18 when this movie happened in the local theater. Everyone I knew and hung out with showed up at the theater that night. After the movie, outside in the parking lot, we smoked a joint and tried to figure out what the hell we just saw.
Sean doing his very best as Burt Reynolds' stand in
i don't think burt reynolds could have made it. connery's portrayal of a "brutal" was perfect and unique.
I doubt that Reynolds, or anybody else for that matter, could get away with thigh-high boots and diapers...
Burt Reynolds was originally considered for the main role in this film but rejected it.
John Boorman always gets a pass, via "Excalibur".. Truly one of a kind, in the best of eays❤😮
I introduced my Millenial friend to Excalibur and he loved it. No King Arthur approaches that classic. I've not seen Zardoz so that is going to be a shared first experience later this week.
Given Hollywoods liking of remakes, you’d think King Arthur would have been done to death. I think between Boorman and Python, they’ve successfully frightened serious Hollywood attempts away.
Channel 4 in the UK used to show this movie regularly throughout the 1980s and it was probably covered by Alex Cox on Moviedrome for BBC2.
I saw it in the early 90s on BBC2, I recall it being a marvellous film, but I suspect that recollection was caused by all the weed I smoking at the time. Worth a rewatch.
That’s where I first saw it. I remember being freaked out by the end sequence and the speeded up ageing process etc. it’s actually quite powerful. And Charlotte Rampling is wonderful as usual.
@@diverguy3556 🤣Weed'll do that to ya all right.
@@mhoppy6639 Funny, I reacted to the end same as you. But now that I understand better what the movie tried to say, I guess it's all right.
I freaking love Zardoz and rewatched it a couple of times. Its obviously very flawed and gets sloppier as it goes but oozes originality and even what some of what is considered flaws adds to it. To this day it feels to me like a bit of detox from formulaic cinema, and i dare say have a classical myth quality to it. Putting the more abstract (and boobs aside) the core story is more akin to iconic short sci-fi stories and myths then the usual scripts or novels. Its almost as if it was an artsy 70s weird adaptation of some great classic... and i never get tired of the opening scenes, i rewatched it way more in youtube
_Zardoz_ is like _Blade Runner,_ if it were made in the 1950s - decades ahead of it's time.
Zardoz is in fact one of my favourite films.
I think it is necessary to watch it several times to fully understand what is going on at all times. Some movies are like that.
A lot of what I would have to say about it has already been writtten in the comments.
Thank you for this objective review.
This film was made on location in my home country of Ireland. Much of it was filmed in the Wicklow Mountains.
I was genuinely excited to see you review Zardoz, as I enjoy your reviews (which often include very incise critique underneath the humour) and I consider this one of my favourite films.
It’s not a perfect film, but it can lay claim to being both ‘interesting’ and ‘taking risks’.
Sadly, this is now completely absent from mainstream motion picture productions for reasons that we are all too painfully aware of (e.g. as more money became involved, those producing film decided to become more risk averse so as to not potentially lose said money, and the viewing public also bear responsibility for allowing this to happen by not ‘voting with their wallets’, so to speak).
As a director, I’ve seen John Boorman receive a lot of criticism over the years, but if I had directed ‘Point Blank’, ‘Hell in the Pacific’ Deliverance’ ‘Zardoz’ & ‘Excalibur’ (which never fails to bring me to tears by the end), then I’d die a happy man.
It is a film from a brief period in mainstream film production where artists were allowed to really follow their muse, for better or for worse,but I’d rather an ‘interesting failure’ than a hundred thousand anodyne, formulaic, toyetic, franchises anyway, and twice on Sundays.
So, thanks for reviewing the film and hopefully bringing it to further attention.
Ps: Was Charlotte Rampling contractually obliged to get her tits out in every film she appeared in during the 1970’s (similar to Jenny Agutter, though not of course in ‘The Railway Children’)
Really good scifi film, interesting themes, not for everyone, esp if you equate scifi with Star Wars. I've watched it several times and it has a lot of layers. Best watched in the early am, for some reason.
Charlotte Rampling was breathtakingly beautiful. Looks like a Milo Manara drawing come to life.
If nothing else this film brought us the awesomeness of the combination bandolier Banana hammock🤯
Waaay more meaningful than suggested in this review, ZardoZ shows us the fallacy of seeking immortality. The whole reason Arthur Frayn created ZardoZ was to accelerate natural evolution and eventually create smarter humans that could take down the Tabernacle. As camp as it is, it is a very legitimate warning. WWZD?
Immortality is only a fallacy to those who are incapable of true advancement.
There is nothing wrong being immortal in itself, and I believe it’s gross to ignore the slavery, amount of corruption and violence that these immortals decided to lean into. This is about the current system we live in in…specifically White Supremacy, and it’s eternal need to have those who have and those who have not.
@@twinborn3850 _WHITE_ supremacy? You think black or brown people would make better decisions? Have you forgotten the very aspect of evolution, and that all of humanity came from the Tigris Euphrates valley 100s of millions of years ago?
@@Alondro77 They'd advanced as far as they could have and got bored with Immortality. That is the premise given in the film.
@@twinborn3850 It's not white supremacy (kind of an oxymoron there) it's jewish supremacy that is the plague of the world.
My best friends uncle got him, and I in the LIBERTY THEATRE in Walla Walla, WA to see ZARDOZ AND ROLLERBALL...What an experience.
In this age of convention and comic book conformity, Zardoz is the sort of movie that would give Hollywood execs apoplexy, if not make their heads explode because it violates virtually every rule of contemporary commercial cinema. Zardoz really has to be appreciated as a movie that follows no conventional narrative template and tries to do something unusual - a complete outlier film but with a studio budget and a major star, something almost unheard of these days. Some truly curious ideas emerge in Zardoz, but one I found fascinating is the Janus-like political structure of the Eternals' Society: Within, it is perfectly egalitarian and seemingly progressive, a society in which hunger, poverty and violence are banished, and which celebrates and reveres the greatest contributions of science, art, literature, etc. But outside this utopian bubble realm, the world and its inhabitants live in a slave colony, utterly fascist and cruel and largely run like a labor/death camp.To be candid, we may be closer to this contradictory structure than we realize.
You nailed it.👍
Amen!
In college about 10 or 15 of us dropped acid and watched this. It’s a good way to watch it. The many lines of dialogue were some of our group’s best in jokes. Like if a member of the group pissed the others off, we’d wiggle our fingers at him and threaten to take him to second level meditation.
It’s a really bad film, but it’s great at being bad because it’s so sincere and creative. Let this film have its way with you. Just lay back and enjoy it.
The well timed subtle slapping sound effect at... "particular" intervals well done!
I watched this once in the 80's and decided I didn't need to take acid whilst watching it.
Rollerball, Zardoz, Barbarella, Soylent Green, Logan's Run, The Omega Man, Dune, Silent Running.....good times.
Honestly you are the single greatest video essay channel out there. You're sense of humor is second to none
Totally true! I still chuckle to myself sometimes at: "...or as he's called in Australia, Christopher Laaammmbert"! 😂
Hey, I just love broccoli.
When I was in elementary school, how much I admired the "giant face floating on the ground" in a book introducing science fiction literature, and how confused I was when I saw the movie on TV.
I saw it as a kid in the 70s and it has stuck in my mind ever since, must watch it again.
My 16 year old self and new drivers license saw it at the Drive In with friends in the summer of 1974, it was different, engaging and memorable, any critics who experience it on television decades later just would not understand the spectacle and awe it delivered at that time.
Yes, the big screen is a different experience. Some movies are better there, but here I really appreciate watching a film with full control over re-running etc. Yes, Zardoz is wonderful on the big screen.
Say what ever but this movie was ahead of it's time ,if it were released now it would create waves. the cream of British acting starred in this and the women were gorgeous . I suspect Sean Connery was attracted to this story because it was a complete break from the Bond movies. I bought this on Blu-Ray and never tire of it.
I've always had a soft spot for Zardoz. I appreciate it's quirks and as you pointed out, it's quite well done in certain aspects.
I'll never forget Friends line early in the film regarding Zed: "Obscenely decaying flesh. The sweet scent of putrifaction already in the air..."
I miss movies like this, these days no one takes risks. It's all calculated to be just good enough to sell
I saw this for the first time just a couple of years ago and I thought it was awesome! Old school and campy but still cool.
Zardoz is cool. Sure it's weird. That's kind of what I signed up for. I'll take eccentric and weird film over average storytelling most of the time. Art is kind of supposed to be different and unique. A film like this is memorable and interesting, whether you enjoy it on a level of pure entertainment or not.
Well said, JM. I agree.
Absolutely. And unfortunately, these days you rarely get anything like this. Anything just completely left of centre. Risk taking.
Saw it when I was 12 for the first time and it was just so entertaining. In my top 50 films.
I remember watching this one night (late) on channel 4, i never did work out what was going on. Ive wanted to rewatch it recently but its available on the streaming services i have.
Your videos are among the very few that make me genuinely laugh out loud each time, and more than once. Well done, as always!
I second that.
This is a movie I saw many years ago and revisited recently. I agree that it's worth a watch, and I'm glad you covered it.
I think Zardoz the Musical is well overdue. :)
This was certainly one of the most bewildering movies I ever saw.
I was a kid in the 1970's, so I had an inkling of how weird the adults were then, but when I watched this in my 30's, I realized you needed to be high to appreciate it.
I also used to hate broccoli, but now I love it. If I wasn't on a list to eventually become a member of Procrastinators International, I would offer to be the Southern Hemisphere President of the Broccoli Appreciation Society.
Fried Broccoli is da bomb!
@@SaulKopfenjager I have never tried fried broccoli. Sounds interesting.
Lol
I always enjoyed this movie. I have just about every movie of Sean Connery in my collection.
Preposterous but oddly brilliant film. Great review!!
Finally we get zardos ! After all the mentions of it in you're bond reviews. Well worth the wait stam fine 👍
I've loved this flick since my teenage years. It's one of my very favourites along with The Draftsman's Contract if you want to review that - you won't regret it.
Ah, the early days of Channel 4…
see also Zed and Two Noughts and The Cook The Thief His Wife and Her Lover also by the same director
One of my favorite sci fi movies ever
I saw this in the theatre the first time. I've watched twice again since ... all the way thru.
A worthy tribute to a classic one of a kind, for sure.
I saw parts of this movie when I was a kid in the 70's. I still have nightmares about the flying head with guns.
One has to pay respect to Connerys enormous, gigantic pairs of balls by deciding to wear that Borat suit for a whole movie! Connery i salute you!
Thanks, CZcams recommendation, now I know what I'll be watching today
one of my favorites!
While it has its flaws, this movie is vastly underrated. It's weird, it's awkward, the plot doesn't make the best sense, but you can't say it is a bad movie. The acting is (for the most part) magnificent, and who doesn't want to see Sean Connery in bright red knee-high boots, bandoliers, and briefs?
Saw it at the drive-in 40 years ago. I probably would appreciate it more now than l did then.
I watched it when I was 14 it went right over my head.
I remember seeing this on in the mid 80's when I was about 10. I thought it was such a trip. Especially the giant head that pukes out guns...
I think part of this was Connery getting as far away from Bond as he could, which is understandable after Diamonds are Forever!
He said that he took the role because 'no one was offering me anything else' after Bond.
So,...having seen "Zardoz" and Excalibur", I'm now trying to picture in my mind's eye what his version of "Lord of the Rings" would have looked like.🤔
I watched it back in the 70's .... Total freak show!!
I saw this in 74 at 17 years old with my late childhood friend Danny Millen at the run down Malvern movie theater matinee I think 6 people total were in the theater, it was a great experience ☮
One of your best.
I love this one. Especially as part of a double feature with BARBARELLA.
That would DEFINITELY work! (I love coming up with weird but appropriate double-features like that. Like...
HIS KIND OF WOMAN and THE FIFTH ELEMENT
One of my favorites, in top 50 for sure! Movies from that period, like Logan's Run, 2001, Barbarella, Zardoz, 007 etc. forced me to create as a kid and to think about the future.
One of my favourite films. It was filmed in Ireland, and John Boorman has a cameo, being a Brutal shot dead whilst working in a field.
Boorman is the primary reason I have watched and enjoyed this film since it first came out. He could do no wrong to me, even though not all his films are classics. Very similar to my admiration of Kubrick.
I did actually watch Zardoz, all the way through, once.
Nice one! I rewatched this the other night; it's as mad as a car-full of badgers.
Zardoz has to be one of the most bizarre, yet interesting fantasy films produced.
One of my favorite movies of all time. Humanity has the knowledge, but lacks the will to be truthful.
To this day, Zardoz is one of those movies I've never managed to watch more than once. It simply can't be ignored for a single moment or else any sense you were able to make until that point will be as encompassingly lost as you.
If people liked it but want a little more sense with their surrealism, check out Brazil.
I watched 2 minutes of this review, then “I watched Zardoz all the way through, once”. Then I watched to the end of this review. Thus, dawn has arisen.
Excalibur rules. Best film in its genre ever
When I was 20, or so, I loved this film. Saw it multiple times. It was all done with theatrical props.
Cheers Stam. A damn fine recap of a damn strange film. Honestly, Zardoz looks like a Monty Python knock-off at times. The rest of the thing may make one feel nauseated. I've seen Zardoz twice. I hope I never see it again.
I watched this film all the way through once.😊. That was back in 1974 in a movie theater.
Say what you will about Zardoz, it's a movie with big, big ambition and things to say. As ludicrous as the results are, I do admire that.
The basic plot outline reminds me of a dark, more sex-preoccupied Seventies version of Arthur C. Clarke's "The City and the Stars", to the extent that I wonder if Boorman was outright cribbing his setup from that novel.
Agreed, it was, maybe still is a bold attempt to tell serious things, way a way from the main stream idiocracy.But it does that in the most ridiculous way.This upsets even the most avid viewer.
The only one obsessed with sex in this flick was Zed and the Exterminators as they were the only ones allowed to breed. Immortals were not sex-obsessed because love, lust and sexual intercourse were bred out of them over the centuries or the Tabernacle made them asexual and forbid it. In any event they though sexuality was grotesque and barbaric.
I remember first seeing this when I was a little kid. Even without any drugs, all I could think was, "what the cluck???". I wonder if 007 ever looked back on this movie and just rolled his eyes and though, "what was I thinking"...
This is right up there with Clockwork Orange and Logan's Run! ❤❤❤
One of the best movies I ever saw.
very original movie. if hollywood was still hollywood i would dream of a remake!
Fantastic photography
Zardoz showed us the ultimate goal of Google and Alexa..
As a child It seemed a bit slow and my memory of it was quite different. I rewatched it today and really enjoyed it. Back when movies were interesting and not another Not so superhero movie with the same plot as the last twenty movies.
Zardoz: the movie that attempts to answer the question… How ridiculous can we make Sean Connery dress while he somehow still comes off as cool… Apparently it’s a lot lol
I remember stumbling onto this film on TV when I was about eleven or something and started watching thinking it looked like a cool action fantasy with Sean Connery. I don't think I sat through all of it.
It's definitely a two-spliff film.
Really resonated with me when I watched it.
Decades ahead of it's time
I watched this once as a kid, it left an impression. Now as an adult I really want to see it.
Can someone upload it to CZcams please 😊
Great movie, I remember watching it in the theater
My dad took me to see Rollerball, and Zardoz was the second feature. We watched the first ten minutes - right about where the "The Penis is Evil" line was said - then my dad said, "We don't need to watch this." For years, I wondered what it was about. Now I've seen it, I own it, and I still don't know what it's about. Joking aside, it is a chore to get through, but certainly it's an interesting addition to Boorman's filmography. Remember, after this he did Exorcist II: The Heretic. And just when you think you have him nailed down, he goes and does an autobiographical film about his experiences during World War II - and it''s a comedy.
It's not that hard to figure out. Humanity creates vortexes where the elite live forever, they find immortal life meaningless and one enterprising Immortal puts Zed's emergence into fruition as a wrecking ball, to bring death back into play. The Immortals want to die and bring death back into the equation. It's a real 'what is the meaning of life' movie.
@@Hjerte_Verke Thanks! What's a vortex?
I was fascinated by this film when I was child.
Excalibur is one of the top 5 best movies ever made.
A film of depth and ideas
I first saw this movie back in the early 80s and it made me say WTF? I recently had a chance to re-watch it and it made me say WTF?
When I see Jake the snake Roberts , Sean Connery immediately comes to my mind !
Still one of my favorites!
I REMEMBER seeing this movie on cable in the 80's late at night. I thought, whomever wrote this scripts must have been higher than a kite. It was just after the 60's. Bad Acid Trip?
Thumbs up for the title alone! "Red Zed Redemption".
I was the kid in College who ran the local Film Society. We used to order films like this, Don't Look Now, The Night Porter, Soldier Blue and Barry Lyndon. The arrived in big canisters and we wound them on to our old reel to reel projector. Sometimes only a handful of people came but they were happy days indeed. There were some excellent inventive films made in the 70s, a decade like no other to my mind. All this and Heavy Metal too! Boring today, in comparison.
The wedding dress scene......Connery just looks lost. What a guy.