A review of the 1973 ‘classic’ film “Zarzoz”
It may be a bit of stretch to call the science fiction tale “Zardoz” a classic but, over the last 50 years, it has certainly become something of a cult favourite. I’ve seen it on the big screen three timse: first, on its release at the Odeon in Leicester Square; second, in the early 1980s at the then National Film Theatre; and, most recently, at the now British Film Institute following a question & answer session with the writer, producer and director of the film, John Boorman, then aged 91, in a wheelchair and struggled to give coherent observations. Along the way, I’ve even read the novelisation by Boorman which, as a mark of the story’s durability, was reprinted in 2024.
The timing of the film’s production – it was shot entirely in Ireland – is interesting. Boorman had just achieved a significant commercial success with “Deliverance” which allowed him the freedom to make the much more personal work “Zardoz” which had none of the success of his earlier movies. The star, Sean Connery, had just given up his screen tole as James Bond after massive success in six outings as 007 and he wad keen to do something different – anything more different than Zed, the lightly-dressed Brutal Exterminator in a post-apocalyptic Earth of 2293, is hard to imagine.
It has to be admitted that this original and compelling film often totters along the dividing line between imaginativeness and farce and it is best viewed as a satire on the human obsession with eternal youth and the search for immortality. Visually the work is often stunning with amazing imagery, while aurally the music of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony is haunting, especially in a final murderous sequence. At the BFI showing, Boorman received a standing ovation, even though his interviewer admitted that the film was “nuts”.