The 1970’s was a curious decade for science fiction films. Almost every science fiction film released in this decade ended up being overshadowed by the release of Star Wars in 1977. But before that, science fiction films were decidedly… strange. One of the strangest of them all was John Boorman’s Zardoz.
Zardoz was released in 1974. Written, produced and directed by Boorman the film was shot on a budget of 1.57 million.
Boorman was riding high after having had huge success with 1972’s Deliverance. Boorman could direct anything he wanted to. What he wanted to do was to direct The Lord of the Rings.
United Artists, the studio backing the project, had second thoughts when Boorman’s budget began to grow out of control. The film was put on hold but Boorman was still interested in creating a strange new world.
“I wanted to make a film about the problems of us hurtling at such a rate into the future that our emotions are lagging behind.” Boorman said. He set the story far in the future, when society had collapsed and a new society had emerged.
Boorman developed the society and the central character who penetrated it. “He’d be mysteriously chosen.” Boorman said about his main character, Zed. “At the same time he would be manipulated. I wanted the story to be told in the form of a mystery, with clues and riddles which unfold, the truth slowly peeled away.”
Boorman said he was influenced by writers such as T.S. Eliot, Frank Baum and Tolkien as well as the medieval Arthurian quests. “It’s about inner rather than outer space,” said Boorman. “It’s closer to the better science fiction literature which is more metaphysical. Most of the science fiction that gives the genre a bad name is adventure stories in space clothes.”
But nobody wanted to do it. “Warners didn’t want to do it, even though I’d made a shitload of money for them.” His then-agent David Begelman knew the head of 20th Century Fox wanted to make a film with the director. Boorman showed the Fox executive the script. The executive was clearly uncertain but he gave the project the okay.
The story of a post apocalyptic world where barbarians worship a stone god called “Zardoz” that grants them death and eternal life was clearly going to be a hard sell. Boorman decided to make the film with his own own self-titled company, John Boorman Productions Ltd. which was based in Dublin. Principal photography for Zardoz took place from May to August 1973 in Ireland at Ardmore Studios in Bray, and on location at his own estate in County Wicklow. Keeping the production in the family he hired his wife at the time, Christel Kruse Boorman.
Christel Boorman has only two other films to her credit as a costume designer, 1985’s The Emerald Forest, also directed by Boorman (another movie where the costumes are sparse) and 2004’s Long Way Round, a documentary about a motorcycle trip taken by her son, Charley and his buddy Ewan McGregor.
In a future post-apocalyptic Earth in the year 2293, the human population is divided into the immortal “Eternals” and mortal “Brutals.” The Brutals live in a wasteland, growing food for the Eternals, who live apart in “the Vortex,” leading a luxurious but aimless existence. Brutal Exterminators kill and terrorize other “Brutals” at the orders of a huge flying stone head called Zardoz.
Almost all the Eternals wear the same form of cloth headdress with flaps at the back, worn with a mostly revealing open shirt, completed with leggings and skirts for the women, shorts for the men. All the Eternals also have a cloth belt that ends in a symbolic curved point in the middle.
The Brutals wear ratty old suits and outfits that look like they wouldn’t be out of place during the Blitz.
But it is the costumes for the Brutal Exterminators, and Zed in particular, that raise the eyebrows. Thigh-high leather boots, crossed bandoliers and a pair of shorts that can be described as “skimpy”, the Brutals and Connery in particular exude raw masculinity, particularly as they ride their steeds and fire their guns. Connery at one point aims his Webley–Fosbery revolver directly at the audience and fires it.
Zardoz supplies the Exterminators with weapons in exchange for food. One of the Exterminators, Zed (Sean Connery), hides aboard Zardoz during a transit, temporarily “killing” its Eternal operator-creator Arthur Frayn (Niall Buggy)
Arriving in the Vortex, Zed meets two Eternals — Consuella (Charlotte Rampling) and May (Sara Kestelman). Overcoming him with psychic powers, they make him a prisoner and menial worker within their community. Consuella wants Zed destroyed immediately; others, led by May and a subversive Eternal named Friend (John Alderton), insist on keeping him alive for further study.
In time, Zed, who is far more intelligent than the immortals give him credit for, learns the nature of the Vortex. The Eternals are overseen and protected from death by the Tabernacle, an artificial intelligence. Given their limitless lifespan, the Eternals have grown bored and corrupt. The needlessness of procreation has rendered the men impotent and meditation has replaced sleep. Others fall into catatonia, forming the social stratum the Eternals have named the “Apathetics.” The Eternals spend their days stewarding mankind’s vast knowledge—through a voice recognition based search engine—baking special bread for themselves from the grain deliveries and participating in communal meditation rituals.
Genetic analysis reveals that Zed is the ultimate result of long-running eugenics experiments devised by Arthur Frayn who controlled the outlands with the Exterminators, thus coercing the Brutals to supply the grain. Zardoz’s aim was to breed a superman who would penetrate the Vortex and save mankind from its hopelessly stagnant status quo.
The women’s analysis of Zed’s mental images earlier had revealed that in the ruins of the old world Arthur Frayn first encouraged Zed to learn to read, then led him to the book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Zed finally understands the origin of the name Zardoz – Wizard of Oz – bringing him to a true awareness of Zardoz as a skillful manipulator rather than an actual deity. He becomes infuriated with this realization and decides to seek out answers by hiding in the stone head.
Led by Consuella, the Eternals decide to kill Zed. Zed escapes and, aided by May and Friend, absorbs all the Eternals’ knowledge, including that of the Vortex’s origin, to destroy the Tabernacle. While absorbing their knowledge Zed impregnates May and a few of her followers as he is transformed from a revenge-seeking Exterminator. Zed helps the Exterminators invade the Vortex and kill most of the Eternals, who welcome death as a release from their eternal existence. May and several of her followers do escape the Vortex’s destruction, heading out to bear their offspring as enlightened but merely mortal beings among the Brutals.
Despite the violence, the skimpy costumes and a good deal of nudity, Zardoz was not a critical or commercial success. “…ambitious and epic in scope, but its philosophical musings are rendered ineffective by its supreme weirdness and rickety execution.” muses one reviewer. Roger Ebert gave it two-and-a-half stars out of four and called it a “genuinely quirky movie, a trip into a future that seems ruled by perpetually stoned set decorators… The movie is an exercise in self-indulgence…” Gene Siskel gave it one star out of four.
Zardoz can be streamed on Youtube Movies and Google Play. It can also be found on Amazon Prime.
Makes a great double-feature with Robert Altman’s QUINTET, another 1970s Science Fiction film made by a prestigious director that is equally baffling in terms of story and plot.