Zardoz

 

If you Google Zardoz, the first question that comes up is `What was the point of Zardoz?` This may well be the question many involved in the production asked themselves when the results were released. Zardoz is the work of John Boorman, a distinctive filmmaker whose catalogue includes the vivid likes of Hope and Glory, Excalibur and ,Deliverance,. The film turns fifty this year and BBC’s Front Row next week will feature the director talking about the movie while the novelisation is also being republished. So, what better time than to watch it.

 

After the success of Deliverance, the director was able to choose his next project  and was originally planning a version of Lord of the Rings which didn’t happen so he created his own fantasy world set in the year 2293 on a post apocalyptic Earth. “Its about inner rather than outer space” Boorman later said. In that respect you can see why the film is presented as it is with a thoughtful air and I think one of the reasons why people may find is somewhat elliptical is that the dialogue is designed to be evasive; Boorman said he wanted the film to be a mystery. Despite its prominent use for promotional purposes as a striking image, the floating head only features for a short time in the actual film, Boorman seems to lose interest in it once Zed arrives at the Eternal’s community. This may be where the film disappoints those expecting something more epic, it soon becomes apparent this is an altogether more ambient exercise.

Shot in Ireland Zardoz does contain some fabulously wild scenery while the imagery of a giant floating stone Head is iconic. As a movie that clearly has a message though it is less of an easy ride. , It’s the sort of film that seemed to be made a lot in the Seventies, ostensibly sci – fi yet with an elliptical plot that tilts towards intellectualism yet is  just as much an excuse for some nudity and violence. It is a film which seems designed to either challenge the viewer with bold choices or irritate them with bizarre things depending on your point of view. I can honestly say it’s one of the oddest films I’ve seen. I can’t say I liked it but there is something here. I’m just not sure anyone knows what it is.  Visually it makes an impact straight away.  

It opens with a floating human head against a black background informing you that he is the main character Arthur Frayn in a monologue that surely is influenced by Monty Python.   Frayn has a beard painted in ink on his face and what might be a blue towel over his head, perhaps to convey the illusion he talks about? If his speech is designed to illuminate the film we are about to see, then it only succeeds in wrong footing the viewer that this could be a comedy though its whimsical tone is not repeated further. Was this added on at a late stage perhaps?

We are in the twenty third century where a lot of scantily clad warriors  gather where a giant stone head that looks quite angry is descending from the skies. This is their God, Zardoz, and it looks terrific, by far the best aspect of the film. In fact this floating monument deserves a better home. The name is of course derived from the Wizard of Oz and the storyline appears to share some elements of Frank Baum’s tale of deception. In a booming voice Zardoz declares that “the gun is good” while at the same time “the penis is evil” after which dozens of rifles are then spewed from the Head. He encourages his followers to kill everyone, at least I think that’s what is happening. Cut to a montage of senseless slaughter. This was something which proved controversial at the time and remains disturbing now. 

Zardiz then ascends once more but with an unexpected passenger in the form of one of these warriors, Zed (played by none other than Sean Connery wearing considerably less than a tuxedo). He has sneaked aboard out of curiosity and soon shoots Frayn who he finds lurking inside. Though he tumbles out Frayn does return later.  Zed also finds a lot of humans wrapped in plastic, bread perhaps inside this place?  Once the head lands Zed finds himself in what appears to be a bucolic English village but is soon captured and subject to lengthy questioning from the an interrogation machine that handily plays artily directed `memories`. 

These folk he meets are the opposite of the warriors we saw earlier, they are at least fully dressed albeit in pastel coloured clothes while they speak softly and often in riddles. Led by Sara Kestleman, Charlotte Rampling and John Alderton they are supposed to be the opposite of the lawless warriors yet appear to use their own unsavoury methods. They are eternal beings with psychic abilities (looks that can literally kill) and live a simple life with any transgressions dealt with by ageing them years at a time. They have votes over everything which passes the time. Their longevity has bred indolence and boredom it seems.

Unsurprisingly the arrival of Zed creates ripples in their ordered world. Without necessarily doing alot his presence and his memories create disturbances and  provokes different reactions. It’s fair to say that the way all of this is conveyed leans towards the psychedelic with all sort of camera tricks deployed to give this settlement a strange atmosphere. Some of it works well- the eerie psychic scenes suggest the power of these individuals but you have to smile at some of their hippy rituals. A gang of aged Eternals who yearn to die but cannot  so have been locked away is glossed over when it could have provided a more emotional core to film that, despite being about the senses, is surprisingly cold and emotionless.

After the opening spectacle there is a sense that the rest of the film was done on a shoestring budget or at least all the money went into the floating head effect. Considerable use of mirrors, plastic bubbles and garish clothes as well as the rural setting look more like a tv series than a feature film and its one of those set ups where the real life location is not sufficiently disguised to hide its origins. Little is seen of the world outside despite Boorman’s early shots of vistas of the Irish landscape. However, we do see old statues and pictures of old cars so we are on Earth though it unclear what happened in the Vortex until it transpires that Zed’s stowing away inside the Head wasn’t as spontaneous an act as it seemed and that Arthur Frayn was complicit and is still alive.. Zed effectively leads a revolution as his primal instincts infect the Eternals yet at the same time he starts to becomes more educated.

Faced with a role that requires him to be mostly speechless for the first half, Sean Connery simply looks bewildered which I suppose works to an extent yet when Zed begins to change and grasp the world he is in, the actor shows more of what he can do. If the costume removes a lot of his dignity he manages to regain it later. Both Charlotte Rampling and Sara Kestleman give off distant vibes but these are actually subtle performances in which both actresses start to show how, under the surface, Zed’s presence is affecting their characters.  The amazing Zardoz logo looks like that of a band and was designed by Michael Doret derived from crystal rings in the film and is rumoured to have influenced some real band logos such as those of Asia and Anthrax in particular.

The narrative’s most effective reveal is when we learn that Frayn was inspired by the `Wizard of Oz` book to create the stone head and use it to appear as a God mirroring the novel’s deception. How he managed all of that is a mystery but he is actually responsible for breeding Zed for the purpose of overthrowing the Eternals.  The film's willowy presentation doesn't help get the narrative across as well as it might yet Zardoz is an interesting film that challenges the viewer.  Contemporary reviews that have been put online seem as  baffled as apparently cinema goers themselves were. It does feel as if the main message of the film gets lost to the point where I’m not sure what it is. I ended up wondering if there even is a message or whether we’re just supposed to think that there is…