Zardoz

R

1974

1h 44m

Sci-Fi

List

49%

39 Reviews

Tomatometer

53%

5,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

In the future, Earth is ruled by Eternals, an advanced and secret sect of beings who reign over a savage group called Brutals. The Eternals have created a god named Zardoz to intimidate the Brutals, making them believe that killing is their natural state. However, Zed (Sean Connery), a Brutal warrior, challenges that assumption when he enters the Zardoz monument and is captured by an Eternal (Charlotte Rampling). There, he learns the truth about the Eternals and the false god that rules society.

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Critics Consensus

Zardoz is ambitious and epic in scope, but its philosophical musings are rendered ineffective by its supreme weirdness and rickety execution.

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Rami A

I found this to be quite.... bizarre. On one hand, the performances are good, and on the other hand, the story and execution was.... strange.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/06/24

Full Review

Ajangviks J

Very interesting movie, not boring for a single minute. Great world building and crazy story! Some questionable acting at times, especially from background characters

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/29/24

Full Review

jerry m

I studied this film in college and made it part of my List of Science Fiction Films thesis paper. This puzzled my instructor who felt it was a strange choice at best. Directed by John Boorman following his huge hit movie "Deliverance." He literally had Card Blanche to make any picture he wanted, and this was his pet project. Not such a great idea. Just ask George Lucas who made THX 1138 after the success of American Graffiti. The movie starred Sir Sean Connery as Zed in a performance that really isn't one of his best. The first choice was Burt Reynolds who starred in Deliverance and I feel would have been the perfect choice. Both actors are handsomely rugged and strong with hairy chests but the material called for a ruthless killer who has figured out he can be so much more. Connery is smug and too refined for the role. He doesn't belong in this universe. Burt has that mean streak that makes be believe he could actually kill everybody in the room and be home for dinner. Especially in his prime. But anyway, the Movie is not quite a dark comedy, or a satire or even an allegory. One it is I think a complex look at the human experience for the existential point of view. The movie takes place in the year 2293. Zardoz is a giant floating head that supplies the outsiders with weapons so they can keep the population under control. One of these Raiders is Zed. But he is different from the others. He explores the ruin of the waste lands and gains knowledge but learning from artifacts he finds. The plot is not into explaining what is going on but we do have a narrator who talks in whimsical prose that makes no sense at the time but later is the truth behind the film's actions. Zed sneaks aboard Zardoz and kills the narrator at the beginning but we find out that he is immortal and is regenerated back to life but while that is happening Zed is taken into the Vortex where the Immortals live. The best part of the film is how they react to him, and we start to get the rundown on how and why the Vortex exist. You really have to pay attention to follow all this. That's why I suggest this to be a dark comedy and satire. The films ending for me was a disappointment thus the 3 and a half stars. Though it does make sense I was waiting for a mind-blowing resolution. This is one of those pictures that should have gone all the way. I know the Studio had no idea what this was so they might have forced some changes as the end feels a little rushed. I can see that this was a film of its time. (Blame it on 2001) It has some fascinating and deep ideas and for the most part they all work. I didn't understand it all when I was 14 and didn't care much for it until I saw it again in college. So, this is not for everyone. But those movie goers who like a good challenge it a real trip.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

12/15/23

Full Review

DanTheMan 2

Why does everyone in this film look perpetually stoned? I do have to hand it to John Boorman because when he's good, he's great but when he's bad, he's terrible with Zardoz being the ultimate exercise in self-indulgence. An incomprehensible misfire that proves impossibly ambitious and pretentious yet also inventive, provocative and visually striking. The plot is so spectacularly offbeat that it's never boring, though it's routinely idiotic, plenty of ideas have gone into the film but any form of cohesion has been sacrificed to create a mass of inoperative fancies and conceits. Sean Connery wanders about the film acting like a man who agreed to do something before he grasped what it actually is he agreed to do, nonetheless he never gives anything less than his best, even when wearing one of the worst costumes I've ever seen. Zardoz remains a fascinating reminder of what cinematic science fiction used to be like. A hodge-podge of literary allusions, highbrow porn, sci-fi staples, half-baked intellectualism and a real desire to do something revelatory misses the mark by a hundred miles.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

11/28/23

Full Review

Gerald H

Ein Glück, dass Boorman nach diesem unfassbaren Scheissdreck überhaupt noch Filme machen durfte.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

10/07/23

Full Review

Honest D

The first 5 or so minutes of this movie are AWESOME. It really loses its way but it could have been something. The first 5 minutes are great tho, I wish that someone would come along and make a movie thats like the beginning of Zardoz. A barren post apocalyptic wasteland with crazy blood thirsty cultists in Zardoz masks who worship bloodshed and terror and are ruled over and manipulated by crazy flying rock statues. I'm totally serious.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

09/21/23

Full Review

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John Boorman

Director

Sean Connery

Zed

Charlotte Rampling

Consuella

Sara Kestelman

May

Sally Anne Newton

Avalow

John Alderton

Friend

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Pauline Kael

New Yorker

The film is a mass of inoperative whimsies and conceits; they're imperative even on the dumbest sci-fi level, because Boorman isn't enough of a writer to make them work together.

Sep 21, 2023

Full Review

Judith Crist

New York Magazine/Vulture

[Zardoz] demonstrates how one can make a cheap sci-fi flick look like a cheap sci-fi flick by using mirrors and prisms as substitutes for imagination.

Oct 2, 2019

Full Review

William Thomas

Empire Magazine

You have to hand it to John Boorman. When he's brilliant, he's brilliant (Point Blank, Deliverance) but when he's terrible, he's really terrible.

Rated: 1/5

Mar 27, 2019

Full Review

Dennis Harvey

48 Hills

This shallow utopia needs our hairy hero’s dose of he-manliness...

Feb 15, 2024

Full Review

Eddie Harrison

film-authority.com

…it’s lofty, ambitious, and has sparky moments of clarity that make it a noble failure…

Rated: 3/5

Nov 30, 2023

Full Review

Kristin Battestella

InSession Film

This deserves to be watched more than once for the Tree of Knowledge osmosis, jacking into their matrix insight...

Jul 25, 2023

Full Review

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Synopsis

In the future, Earth is ruled by Eternals, an advanced and secret sect of beings who reign over a savage group called Brutals. The Eternals have created a god named Zardoz to intimidate the Brutals, making them believe that killing is their natural state. However, Zed (Sean Connery), a Brutal warrior, challenges that assumption when he enters the Zardoz monument and is captured by an Eternal (Charlotte Rampling). There, he learns the truth about the Eternals and the false god that rules society.

Director: John Boorman
Screenwriter: John Boorman
Production Co: John Boorman Productions
Rating: R
Genre: Sci-Fi
Original Language: English (United Kingdom)
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 1, 2013
Runtime: 1h 44m

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