Zardoz

[George]

Saw it when it came out.

It was strange, Connery was himself, and I walked out

of the theater thinking it over.

Like when I walked out from seeing "King Rat".

Any movie, that makes some impact on you, for good or bad, to stop and weigh some of the ideas presented, then sticks over years but you dont know why,

I put in a separate category from good or bad film.

It was just different.

[Virginia Plane]

  This movie is bad enough to be on MST3k. I had an ex who actually took it SERIOUSLY!  (An indication I shouldn't have been in that relationship, hehe.) Charlotte Rampling is such a horrible actress, she's almost as untalented as kirstie alley.  I like how Sean spends much of the movie looking very bored or like he's trying not to laugh. As a het female who is not uptight, I don't really care about boobs in a movie but they should NOT look like they have POOP on them. ycch!

[Hal]

The movie concept was brilliant but the execution a bit jarring. They should have kicked the philosophical aspects up a notch and eased up editing the movie a bit so the apathetics could understand.

[Lola]

I love thsi movie. It makes no sense, and there is no plot, so you cannot predict what will happen next. Not being able to figure out how the whole movie goes in the fisrt ten minutes is a big plus for me. I always like that in a movie.

I must confess, however, that the main reason I love this movie is Sean Connery in a loincloth. There are many things in this world that are fine and hot, but none so much so as a Scotsman! Especially Sean Connery!

[Fred LeTed]

I first read the novel, which I think was written by John Boorman, and it seemed to made strange sense, having read SF by 70's authors like JG Ballard (well, I don't think that I ever read any complete novel written by him), and James Blish, etc ... you get the picture.

Then I saw the movie on TV & convinced myself that it was good. You should never admit to yourself that your judgment in wanting to watch a movie you select is bad. Poor taste and you never regain those 90 minutes of your life.

Then it was like watching an ageing superhero wearing his underwear over his tights having a verbal with the teacher from Please Sir.

and finally: Heheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheh. The 70's was the 70's, as distinct from the 60's.  (I'm trying to be 70's psycho here....)

[Mike]

Just saw it!

WOW!  What a train wreck!  A glorious train wreck!  Great Gay Element!  S.C. half naked all the time and that licking the guys hand!  WOW!  Sean! The early seventies definitely was a psychotropic mess.  I love these naked moments with famous people who fall through the membrane of common sense in cultural times. I.E.> Jane Fonda showing her sympathies and support for N Vietnam.   A genuine (RETHINK).  I would have to say after James Bond this was a true reach of confusion.   
I have to admit being very much entertained at times with this movie.  anyone should  admit a movie like this would never be made today.  Wait.... I'm wrong....it was re-made for our modern times.  In fact, it was made into a trilogy called the MATRIX!!!!!!  Tabernacle vs Architect,  Lump of a brute actually being our savior.   A perfect society cloaked to the real world.   The Oracle vs character May.    What has passed will come again.   I'm not s**tting you real big heady similarities.

At any rate if you like Sean in a loin cloth or a lot of tittie scenes mashed together with  a huge smattering of seventies nihilistic  dillusionism.  "HEY!!!!"..... DON"T GROAN!   Come on! that can be fun.  Silent Running,  They Shoot Horses don't They,  One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.  Bleak and very entertaining. _ This  is the movie for you.!!!

By the way who wouldn't want to shot-put a chick who puts out like a dead fish!

[indianasmith]

This was definitely one of the strangest movies I've ever seen, Exhibit A in my argument that the 1970's were truly "The Decade Without Taste."


Exhibit B is Jimmy Carter.

[Bert]

I love Zardoz a-lot.  I used to work in a video store (circa 1984) and we had it.  I ended up buying the VHS copy for $1 due to it NEVER getting rented.  That copy got watched till the wheels fell off.  I picked t up a few years ago on DVD and I've probably watched it 20-30 times since then.  I'm always intrigued by films that have odd premises and Connery in a leather diaper is just a hoot!  I've showed it to all my friends and most of them enjoyed the experience.  Some were confused...but they're the ones that like Waterboy or Cruel Intentions.  So, they don't count.  I highly recommend Zardoz and I love your take on it!  The timeline is a riot...

[avenger the eagle]

Wierd movie, not the worst I ever saw, but one of the strangest.

[Giant Claw Jr]

Sean Connery going from JAMES BOND to playing some doofus riding on a horse wearing a pampers while a big stone head floats around just how bad can it get?

[qwerty]

I saw parts of this 5 or 6 years ago and ever since I couldn't get it out of my mind.  I don't know why.  I don't think I like it or dislike it, but I'm drawn to it.  I do happen to think that the women in this movie were incredibly hot, and I'm glad they showed their boobs  

I plan to make my friends watch it.

[ChewyMatty]

I subcribe to the "gated community" reading of this movie but try and take it even further. We, the people of the western world, are the immortals, the ppl on the outside of the screen are the worlds poor like africans etc, and Zed represents ppl like saddam hussain, idi amin, etc. He is an agent of the rich to hold down the poor and keep the wolf from our door. The immortals who bring him in are like todays libs lol, who are sick of life and want the poor to overrun us, because in their minds its only fair.

Having said that, great movie. one of the best of all time .

[dartek]

Kudos to you all and to all behold. This is a transcendent film by mere content alone. Who has dared unravel such a comprehensive and ambitious synopsis of the human psyche? Not since Wells and his Time Machine has their been such an exploration of "where does it all end"? To answer T.S. Eliot ... YES .. it would have been worthwhile. So apart from the wonderful cacophony of literary themes there remains a puzzle. What is that force that restored nature over the human species? For years I assumed Bormann was asserting God himself. If not then are we to conclude that nature will find a way to subject us as a species?

God .. could you imagine Burt Reynolds as Zed .. clearly Burt refused because he didn't understand any of the concepts ... Sean is very convincing as an Intellectual.

[Iman Azol]

"They didn't live an unsustainable lifestyle"??????

That was exactly the point of the movie.

Textbook liberals, full of self-loathing, bleating about the poor while treating them as animals.

Pretty simple concept. 

It was only done in Star Trek a dozen times.

[Ken Begg]

There's always been a camp that has derided critics of this film (which I saw in a drive-in when I was like ten, so you can imagine) as just "not getting it."  So I felt pretty vindicated when decades later the DVD came out with a director commentary by the aptly named John Boorman, who clearly didn't have a thought in his head about the film.  The best moment is when the massive stone Zardoz first appears floating up in the sky and Boorman--this being one of those commentaries that goes dead for five or ten minutes at a stretch--suddenly goes, "That's a model."  I literally burst out laughing.  Yeah, no sh*t, Sherlock.

One of those digest review books, maybe the Leonard Maltin one, opined that the filmmakers seemed to think "ideas were meant to be looked at, but not handled."  I always liked that line.