300 years in the future the race of man has been
divided in two. The elite live in the Vortex, a
community of peace and harmony, separated from the
devastated outside world by an impenetrable barrier, no
one in the vortex ever dies. Led by the Eternal
Tabernacle, an all-knowing computer, the Eternals live
their days in pursuit of science, art and literature. On
the other side of the transparent barrier exist the
rest of humanity, the Brutals.
The Brutals are what remains of the mortal human
race. At first the Eternals were simply happy to ignore
the filthy Brutals, but when the apathy of immortality
set in, it was clear to some that the Brutals could be used
to collect food for the Eternals, freeing themselves from
that last, nasty little labor. At the prompting of the
Eternal Tabernacle Arthur Frayn begins a campaign of
religious terror on the Brutals. He utilizes giant
floating heads to terrorize the savages and to collect
the tribute of grain that they farm under the brutal
supervision of the Exterminators.
Unbeknownst to the other Eternals, Frayn has his
own agenda. He uses his position of power to engage in
a selective breeding program amongst the Exterminators that
eventually results in
Zed, a superior man, both physically and mentally.
Frayn is counting on Zed to destroy all the Eternals
because he lacks the will to continue living but is
kept immortal by the Tabernacle.
Zed happens upon an abandoned library one day while
pursuing a mysterious figure. The figure taunts Zed and
eventually teaches him how to read revealing to Zed
that the religion of Zardoz is based loosely, very loosely, on
Frank
L. Baum's WiZARD of OZ. Faced with a lack
of faith and the desire for revenge upon the creators
of Zardoz, Zed sneaks aboard the Zardoz head and
infiltrates the Vortex, where all holy hell eventually
breaks loose. Zed is faced with a completely alien
society where women want him and men want him to kill
them.
Zardoz has taken it on the chin for almost thirty
years and as near as I can tell the only reason for its
vilification is Sean Connery's costume of red he-man
bikinis and thigh high leather boots. Don't let that
image put you off though; Zardoz is far more than a
cheap English Sci-fi flick.
Zardoz was written directed and produced by John
Boorman, the same man who directed Excalibur,
Deliverance, The Emerald Forest, Point Blank and Hell In
the Pacific. Boorman is no cheap thrill director and
his reputation was well established as a man who could
deal with the cranky Lee Marvin and still turn out good
films. In 1972 he had won two Oscars for Deliverance,
one as Best Director and the other as Producer for Best
Picture. Although he faltered with Exorcist II: the
Heretic and spent years in an unsuccessful attempt to
bring Lord of the Rings to the screen, he wasn't the
sort of man to throw it all into what some people refer
to as one of the worst films ever.
I'll step up and admit that the opening line "The
gun is good... The penis is evil, the penis shoots
seeds." doesn't give a film a whole lot of room to
grow, no pun intended. Although the film was eventually
distributed by Twentieth Century Fox, it received little
support from the studio during production. The racy
material of the script and the perceived anti-religious
message of the story caused some problems for Boorman
but didn't prevent him from signing Sean Connery in the
lead role. Connery reportedly reviewed the script while
golfing in Spain and liked it so much he flew directly
to Ireland to meet Boorman.
Boorman claims that he was inspired to write Zardoz
after a trip to California's Nature Communes and by
the
poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S.
Elliot.
Would it have been worthwhile,
To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
To have squeezed the Universe into a ball
To roll it towards some over-whelming question
To say I am Lazarus, come from the dead
Come back to tell you all . . .
What Boorman has really created is a dissertation
of class separation, anti-technology and the danger of
unbalancing natures design. Watch it again, this time
with an open mind for the message and you'll see that in
the end Nature asserts its force over the violators
through the instrument of Zed. His coming was
inevitable and the balance he brought erased the
influence of the technology on the land.
These ideas are probably the most dated part of the
film, with the possible exception of Connery's dashing
wardrobe, and may be largely responsible for the bad
rap the film has received in late years. Make no
mistake though, this is not a B grade Sci-fi flick,
it's one man's honest attempt to parlay a message of
concern and warning against those who would claim that
they have it all figured out, that their way is the
best way.
ARTHUR FRAIN: I bred you, I led you.
ZED: And I have looked in the face of the
force that put the idea in your head. You were bred and
led yourself.
Sources:
http://www.imdb.com
http://othyrworld.com/zardoz/