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Any time a film begins with a giant, 5-story stone head saying, "The gun is good. The penis is evil," you know you're in for a wild ride.

Oh, I also forgot the horribly silly prologue spoken by some dude with a magic marker moustache and an equally contrived pseudo-Elizabethan accent which is really what makes most people throw in the towel after 5 minutes. But if you can get past all that, it gets a lot better.

Once the Beethoven music begins (7th Symphony, 2nd movement--one of the most powerful compositions ever. Check it out on YouTube), the film takes on a decidedly more serious and legitimate personality. Some IMDb reviewers have said this is SOLELY due to the Beethoven music, and I suspect they're right. But hey, all is fair in film-making.

Anyway, whether it's due to the music or whatnot, the film progresses from the initial cheeziness shock, and we start to uncover some complex & interesting themes. The plot itself becomes more challenging as we realize it's not as straightforward as we had assumed at first. Some nice twists & turns, some clever deception, and a good old fashioned whodunnit type mystery come to the surface. There are some really surrealistic scenes like at the insane asylum which border on Kubrickian genius if you're into that sort of thing (the 3rd part of 2001 A Space Odyssey).

Acting is very good. You even come to accept the goofy guy with the magic marker moustache after a little while, because you realize he's just a jokester... sort of like the Shakespearian "fool".

And stay tuned because the payoff is the meaning of the word "Zardoz" which makes a powerful metaphor if you're paying attention. Overall, this is a nifty flick which--if you're into cool 70s dystopian scifis (Rollerball, Logan's Run)--you'll really enjoy. I'm tempted to rate it higher than a 7/10, but I just can't get over that gun/penis line LOL.

Filmmaker John Boormans' follow-up to "Deliverance" is admittedly not to all tastes. Boorman, who also produced and wrote the film, gives us a one of a kind experience that, ultimately, is better seen than described. Words like "weird" and "provocative" come to mind when viewing it, because it's full of ideas.

It depicts a world of the future (the year 2293, to be exact) where a sly master intelligence, Zardoz, has contrived a way to keep unruly lower classes in line. One of the lower class people is an "exterminator", Zed (Sean Connery), whose job is to kill, period. One day Zed decides to seek truth, and hitches a ride in a great stone head, where he's transported to a "vortex", or environment, where the bored upper class, a group of immortal intellectuals, don't know what to make of him. He shakes up their world as much as they shake up his.

The most striking element of "Zardoz" is the visual approach. Filmed on location in Ireland, it takes us from one surreal set piece to another, with deliberately stylized dialogue. The cast plays the material with very straight faces. Connery looks fairly embarrassed, and considering the fact that his costume partly consists of a red diaper, one can hardly blame him. (He wasn't too happy about having to wear a wedding dress, either.) Charlotte Rampling, Sara Kestelman, John Alderton, Sally Anne Newton, and Niall Buggy co-star; of this group of actors, Buggy does manage to inject some humour into the proceedings.

This is sedately paced and short on action, but it's compelling in its own offbeat way, provided one is able to stick with the story. While it's not likely to be very appealing to a mainstream audience, it's not something easily forgotten for devotees of cult cinema.

Seven out of 10.

I've seen some weird movies in my time! 'The Holy Mountain', 'Human Highway', 'Men behind The Sun', 'Nude For Satan', 'Pink Flamingos', 'Dune', but NOTHING as weird as 'Zardoz'! Nothing!

'Zardoz' has the feel of a Alan Smithee movie. It's like you're watching a movie made by committee or recut behind the director's back. But you see that it is written, produced and directed by John Boorman, the man who made the still dazzling revenge thriller 'Point Blank', and the first rate hillbilly suspense classic 'Deliverance', and you realize that this movie is EXACTLY what Boorman intended it to be. And your mind boggles!

'Zardoz' is neither a mindless sci fi action movie not a serious SF-as-ideas film ala Tarkovsky or Kubrick. It's... well, I don't know WHAT it is! A trippy Dystopian fantasy that cribs a few ideas from other sources (Huxley's Savage, Wells' Eloi and Morlocks, Moorcock's Jherek Carnelian), adds plenty of philosophical gobbledygook, some semi-naked babes, an embarrassed looking pony-tailed Sean Connery, and by the look of it, mixes in a bucket full of psychotropics, and hey presto! you end up with a movie like no other before or since!

'Zardoz' MUST be seen! By you. Right now. Unforgettable.

John Boorman's stylish sci-fi silliness about a bizarre future where a flying head named Zardoz is worshipped as a god, and people are divided into two factions, immortals and mortals. Sean Connery stars as Zed, a ponytailed mortal "exterminator" who runs around in a skimpy red outfit that has to be seen to be believed. He kills the man behind Zardoz (the wiZARD of OZ - that's cute) and finds himself transported to the place where the immortals hang out.

Lots of trippy ideas and visuals, which is the main selling point of this movie for many. But it's hard to take any of it seriously and the whole thing is dripping with pretentiousness. Connery does fine attempting to take his absurd role seriously but the best part of the cast is Charlotte Rampling, who actually made me forget I was watching nonsense for a bit. It's worth watching at least once, for the interesting imagery and the unintended laughs. There aren't any other movies quite like it and seeing Sean Connery in that outfit is enough to give anyone a case of the giggles.

"Zardoz" is either a brilliant visionary masterpiece, or the biggest blunder Sean Connery ever appeared in. I still haven't decided which (must watch it again first!). It has beautiful visuals and a surprisingly multi-layered script (the revelation of the title's meaning is a stunning moment), yet it also has parts so embarrassing (the "scientific examination of the male erection" scene comes to mind) that make you wonder how the participants managed to keep a straight face through them (the filming of this movie must have been great fun!). Ultimately, it's a film that defies ratings, but I'll try my best......*** out of 4.

If you're a Sean Connery fan, you have to see 'Zardoz' - not for the film; for him!! This meaty hunk of a man with his lean body and hairy chest is wearing nothing more than what looks like a nappy for almost the entire movie! Allow me to wipe the drool from my mouth...

'Zardoz' is about...uhm, well... its about Sean Connery in his underwear!!! No, seriously, this is a fantasy adventure set in 2293 where the world is divided between God-like immortals and farmers - or Brutals- who produce food for these immortals. The immortals live in luxury in a Vortex, but they've become bored.

Sean Connery stars as Zed, a brutal who finds his way into a giant stone head (supposedly a god to the brutals), and is taken into the Vortex - where no mortal has ever been. Arriving in the Vortex, Consuella (Charlotte Rampling) wants Zed destroyed. However, through voting from the other immortals, it is decided he should be kept alive for study purposes. (I would have liked to study him, too - in detail!!).

Originally believed to be an inferior "beast", the immortals discover Zed is in fact far superior to them, and that he holds the power to destroy them, if he wanted to.

'Zardoz' has a confusing plot. It is all very satirical, off course. It's a mix of modern and medieval. Much of the Vortex might as well have been a depiction of hell. The film is also a mockery of religion, so Christians might view it as blasphemy. There's no denying, this is a very weird film. The final moments, especially, are weird - to say the least!

You have to love some of the silly dialogue, for instance "Guns are good. The penis is evil. The penis shoots seed and make new life...". There's also the scene where the immortals can't understand how a penis can go from flaccid to erect (what, so these immortal men can't?!!), so they show Zed sensual images, waiting for him to have an erection. (I would, too...). This scene has everyone - men included - looking at his crotch.

There are many funny moments and also unintentional funny moments. Ultimately, this is one fantasy adventure that's going to confuse the hell out of you, and which definitely is not going to satisfy everyone's palate. I can't really recommend this - unless you want to stare at a manly physique in the form of Sean Connery...

This movie is truly awful, but at the same time it's got to be one of the BEST SCI-FI MOVIES I'VE EVER SEEN!

There are so many concepts to digest: Civilization's end, immortality, genetic manipulation, artificial intelligence, time control, psychic power, space travel, and on and on and on. If you're the least bit interested in science-fiction, there's more for you in this one movie than you'll find in a year's worth of Star Trek conventions!

Then why do I say it's awful? Well, within this movie's running time are some of the most cheesy moments ever captured on celluloid!

From the opening shots of the hairy-backed, leather-thonged, gun-toting Sean Connery (who at least manages to wear more than most of the rest of the cast), to the catch-cry of the Giant Hovering Stone Head ("The gun is good! The penis is bad!"), as it spews out a torrent of weapons and ammo from its mouth. What about the Eternal's predilection for studying erectile tissue function, by flashing up images of naked mud-wrestling? Or that crazy "wobbling-hands" thing that they do when in some sort of telepathic communion? Completely laughable!

Despite these moments of "cheesy-ness", Zardoz tells an utterly engaging and compelling story. The moment of revelation of the meaning of "Zardoz" took me completely by surprise, even though all the clues had been under my nose right from the beginning! (The Magritte painting "La chateau des Pyrenees", hanging in Frank's house, reminiscent of the hovering stone head, for example.)

If you like hard-core science fiction, and can put up with a few minor flaws, then I think you'll really enjoy Zardoz! It's weird, it's brilliant, it's unique! (Just make sure you watch it while you're wide awake, though, or you may drift off from time to time!)

9 out of 10!

jon :-)

Sean Connery stars in director John Boorman's strange(to say the least) Sci-Fi satire as Zed, a warrior in a future Earth divided into two groups; Zed's, a violent world of marauding raiders struggling for survival, and costar Charlotte Rampling's, an intellectual world of thinkers inside a dome who have grown bored, and look at the outsiders as subhuman savages to be studied. They kidnap Zed to study him, but Rampling's character becomes attracted to his handsome vitality, and escorts him around their world, which has become a very weird place indeed...

Oh yes, a giant flying head appears periodically to the outsiders to give them weapons, which eventually leads to a war.

Bizarre satire is undeniably original and ambitious, but at some point, it becomes obvious that someone connected with it isn't taking this at all seriously, since it rambles close to self-parody(the eventual fates of the intellectuals comes to mind.) A noble failure, best viewed rather than described(Worth seeing at least once, not that I can honestly recommend it of course!)

Without question, the most brilliant bad movie EVER made: Red man-panties, gun-vomiting hot air balloon stone heads, flying books on fishing line, neat-o dance numbers (or at least ballroom catharsis), magic marker facial hair, elitist-hippie government, inexplicable backward-masking (check out Friend in the kitchen), the ugliest bride in the history of cinema, cool jewelry, the Internet before the Internet was the Internet (or even computerized), Big Brother, HAL, and David Niven merged into one, lots of flowy sheer curtains, EXCELLENT decorating ideas, nifty forms of mass transit, a profound sense of anatomy, and, perhaps most chillingly, an apocalyptic warning that, if we do not change our ways, we face a future COMPLETELY DEVOID OF UNDERGARMENTS.

Genius. Simply genius.

In 2223, Zed (Sean Connery) is a kind of priest of a new religion: he terminates with the brutals. This 'new religion' of admirers of Zardoz controls the society simply killing the so-called 'brutals'. The confused plot is presented in flashbacks, so any comment may be a spoiler. Therefore, it is better off not make additional comments. Watching Zardoz in 2003 sounds strange. This low budget B-movie was made 1974, when the world has the 'Peace and Love' generation, the remake of 'Lost Horizon' one year before, 'Logan's Run' two years later and 'Hair' some five years later. In 2003, Zardoz is aged, but twenty-nine years ago it was a cult movie in close touch with the pop culture of that moment. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Zardoz"

Note: On 15 February 2021, I saw this film again.

Director John Boorman made a trippy, hippy film that is preposterously 1970s. It is some kind of pseudo intellectual futuristic allegory about society and religion.

This really is an cultish, obscure film. Everyone knows about the silly costumes in the film but it is so rarely shown, very few people have actually seen it.

Zardoz stars Sean Connery wearing some kind of mankini, at least he had the physique for it. He is a pony tailed barbarian who kills and slaughters in order to keep the population under control. They obey a giant stone head who regularly appears to collect the harvest from the slave population and spews out guns so the barbarians can launch a killing spree.

Connery gets inside the head and into a vortex where he finds a race of Immortals who cannot die but they can age as punishment into senility unless they are born again. It looks like death would be welcomed by this people. There is a joker in the pack who pushes Connery to read and realises that Zardoz is pointing him to a yellow brick road.

The Emerald isle stands for this futuristic Emerald city, having a real man about causes some eroticism amongst the women inside the vortex but the film is so loosely structured with some bizarre 1970s fashion, oh my John Alderton and his golden locks, please sir, just put it away.

The film is rather impenetrable, bizarre and yet wondrous. Despite some not very good effects and not being such a good film it is an important part of British/Irish sci fi.

The supremely visionary gifts of imagination of director/writer John Boorman rival those of legendary Arthur C. Clarke in this production, one even more amazing today than it was nearly thirty-seven years ago. Almost a template of what social engineering has wrought as a model for our future, depopulation and protected environment exclusively for the elite (with even a presumption of immortality thrown in) Zardoz is about manipulation through myth and where any ultimate conclusion to inherently confined and opportunistic "unnatural selection", as opposed to that natural selection of evolution, leads. This leap in inevitability is thus an utter inspiration inspired by profound wisdom in the acknowledgment of the complex that makes humankind unique in their adaptability. The very thing social engineering most frequently overlooks, in its mindless service to the elite.

The performances of Sean Connery as, Zed and that of Charlotte Rampling as, Consuella are among this film's many gifts, not the least of which is its beautiful setting, choreography, special effects, and scene changes. Be all this as it may, however, the value of this movie in expressing a potential for the future wholly untenable for most to at once conceive at the time it was made....now, which is becoming more and more apparent, at least in intent, is worthy of utmost praise. JCH

What a crazy film! It seems to be at once both high art and utterly juvenile. Based on the promo shot of Connery in his exterminator uniform, perhaps low expectations were easily triumphed. This image makes a poor advertisement for a film that has a lot more going for it. The artistic ambition and execution of the production design and cenematigraphy were as solid as they were surprising. It feels a bit more like 1968 than 1974, however, so it probably should not be described as, "Ahead of its time." Some of the theatrical staging is quite ambitious, and the cast seem to draw upon dance as much as theater. Sadly, some of the cringe can be a bit difficult to overcome. Looking past the editing indulgences the film was surprisingly impressive.

This is a soft-core, sci-fi porn starring futuristic, psychic, suicidal Egyptians, in which the women are sexually repressed, pre-Princess Leia types, and all the men are gay (except for Sean Connery, who is quite masculine, despite wearing only red briefs and a braided ponytail for the entire film). This film was so awful, that I felt compelled to register in as a new user on IMDb, just to write this quick review. In fact, it was so terrible, that I recommend watching it. Much like the compulsion to slow down and look at a car accident, this film's ridiculousness pulls you in from the opening scene of a "witty" floating head spewing gobbledy gook. And yes, in the first few minutes, there is a line you will not soon forget. Make sure to watch this with your drinking buddies.

Sean Connery and Charlotte Rampling star in this cold, meandering, often howlingly silly science-fiction melodrama which has futuristic savage Sean led into a world of decadent youths who mean to exploit and kill him. Convoluted premise is cluttered up with pseudo-intellectual dialogue, uninteresting characters and set-pieces, and one embarrassed-looking male lead. John Boorman, who wrote and directed (perhaps on acid), doesn't look as though he gained the trust or confidence of his cast; they stumble about with question marks on their faces. Pretentious in all respects, the film looks bad and has no soul, and the secret behind the title astounds one with its obviousness. The worst funny line (among many) occurs when a male voice, transmitting from a crystal, says to Connery, "You have penetrated me!" An ordeal which completely alienates the audience. *1/2 from ****

This movie just about defines what a Great Bad Movie is supposed to be.

It starts off with Sean Connery dressed only in red diapers and bandoleers sneaking into a giant levitating stone head, passes through a fruity utopian post-nuclear society, and then heads into post-modern literary references.

The film looks like it was cooked up at an LSD fuelled party in the 70's that I wish I had been at. I wonder if Boorman came up with Excalibur at the same party. Visually there is a similar thread in both films. One is just a whole lot more coherent than the other. At first viewing Zardoz makes no sense at all, but is so wonderfully weird, so out there that you stare at it in disbelief. How did they get James Bond to run around Northern England in his undies? Why is the bread green? What's with the magic marker mustache? These are the types of questions that come to mind and keep you wading through the mess on the screen. The questions keep your mind occupied while your eyes feast on state of the art 70's futuristic concepts. It's as brilliantly fascinating as a 10 car freeway pile-up and you can watch it with considerably less guilt.

Everything is so beautifully, perfectly confusing in this film that it was with a heavy heart that I had to admit after the 4th viewing that it DOES MAKE SENSE. I will not spoil the fun for anyone else but the whole thing really does come together. I can only say that you should enjoy the cacophony while it lasts because once you get the film's storyline it's not half as fun. Though there are still some great lines of dialogue left: "I'm voting for him, Monster" being my favourite.

In any case viewing the film from a 21st century perspective reminds me that back in the 70's some very original, idea based SF movies could be made with a fittingly large budget. Some of these films have become classics which is more than I can say for the big-budget, no-brainer crap that mostly comes out of Hollywood nowadays.

I wholeheartedly recommend Zardoz for those who can admit to cinephilic guilty pleasures!

This one definitely goes to "WTF I Just Watched ?!" list. Low-budget independent SF with Sean Connery in the lead role, whose fee of $200.000 makes one-fifth of the total movie budget. Given the very low ratings on the movie sites, I probably would never have looked it up, but when I saw Sean's outfit, the film immediately jumped to my priority watch-list. The movie definitely lived up to my expectations, and Sean's red panties are not by far the silliest thing to see. The whole aesthetic of the film screams the seventies and is reminiscent of the odd blend of "Flash Gordon" and "A Clockwork Orange." But all the cheapness of the production, as well as the over-the-top moments and acting are not a flaw here, but are at the service of the surreal atmosphere and messages that the film conveys. And there are quite a few, and if you don't allow yourself to be distracted by cheesy colorfulness, the movie will give you some interesting topics to contemplate. The symbolism of this film and the philosophy behind it could be discussed broadly, but I think it is better if you experience this unusual and, I believe, unforgettable experience yourself.

7,5/10

The penis is evil.

And thus begins one of the strangest A-list Hollywood films to come out of the 1970's, John Boorman's "Zardoz." Sandwiched career-wise between the captivating "Deliverance" and the travesty of "The Exorcist II," "Zardoz" is pretty much what you'd expect from a guy on the way down -- a movie with big ambitions and little success it meeting them.

Typically, this is the part of the review wherein a user will give a brief plot synopsis, but I have to be honest with you, having seen the film several times, I still can't really tell you what's going on. I know this much -- it's the future, and mankind is now ruled by a big stone head that floats around and vomits guns on the people. The people then take these guns and... shoot each other, I guess. I'm not sure. It's probably a noble idea, and I'm sure it's supposed to say something about man's violent nature, but the sight of Sean Connery's tangerine speedo and a big stone head puking out machine guns is just too bizarre and amusing for the point to get across.

That's not to say you won't enjoy the film. Pulling four of your film geek buddies together for a case of Icehouse and an evening of watching, deconstructing, and mocking "Zardoz" can be a fine way to spend a Saturday evening. Indeed, this is one of those films you'll want to pick up from the $5.99 bin at Best Buy, only so you can show it to your closest friends -- "Dude, you HAVE to see this incredibly f'ed up movie."

This movie came out when I graduated from high school and I first viewed it with the awe and admiration of a young man seeking intriguing concepts of what the future might be like. Zardoz did not disappoint me. The question of what would happen to mankind if all our physical needs were met and we were thereby allowed to expand intellectually is fascinating. We are constantly striving to make life easier, better and to live longer. Do we really need a struggle to exist or is it merely a leftover animalistic aspect of our evolution? Personally I like living in a climate controlled surrounding versus a cave where I have to kill something with my bare hands in order to eat. For what it's worth, I saw it again as a middle aged adult and I am still impressed with some of the concepts of the movie. My 13 year old daughter was not so much impressed. I'd still give it a good review and wouldn't mind owning it for my personal collection. I guess it takes a sci-fi geek to not be so bored with it and, of course, a bare breast thrown in gets my attention just as it did back in 1974.

Zardoz is an odd - but striking - film. It has flaws, not least a wooden performance from Sean Connery (as Zed), but it has stayed with me over the past fifty years. And as countries have become increasingly obsessed with building walls to keep unwanted people out, the scenes of the "Brutals" locked out of "the Vortex", while being terrorised and killed by the "Exterminators", many of the film's images and ideas have come back to haunt me.

In fact, if perhaps only accidentally, Boorman anticipated many of the ills of the world we now inhabit - a world in which an excessively wealthy and privileged technocratic and political class talk and plan together in gated communities (the Vortex), or at privileged events like the Davos Summit, while the rest of us labour to feed and increase the wealth of these "Eternals", or slide into becoming "Apathetics".

The Eternals manage to achieve one of the dreams of today's Silicon Valley technocracy (eternal life) only to realise that it is not a blissful condition but a new burden, a reality that Swift's struldbruggs were confronted with in Gulliver's Travels.

Also noteworthy is that in Zardoz the Eternals are protected by another dream of today's techno-authoritarians - artificial intelligence (in the form of the Tabernacle, which gives them eternal life but fails them when Zed destroys it).

And like the Eternals, today's technocrats dream of conquering distant stars. The Eternals discovered that this was "just another dead end". So too, perhaps, will the technocrats.

To borrow a phrase from Henry James, Zardoz's greatest weakness is that it is something of a "large, loose, baggy monster" that tends to tell rather than show (dramatize). But perhaps there is a place for such films.

My takeaway: power groups, elites, empires and civilisations come and go, but they don't last, usually because they harbour the seeds of their own destruction. At which point all that is left to say is, "How the mighty have fallen".

There seem to be a lot of people who didn't like this film. I loved it. It is a film for people who aren't perturbed by a lack of surface glitz in science fiction, and can take on the underlying meanings about immortality or the fear of death that other films rarely raise. Some of it doesn't make sense, but only if you are not paying attention. In my view, it gets straight to the point without any polish, which some people are uncomfortable about in any artform. It is not made for Star Trek fans. It is a bleak and powerful story about a cabal of ineffectual immortals who play God to an inferior but more vigourous race, and who long for death yet cannot die. They stealthily invite one of these inferiors (Connery) into their midst to solve their problems. The final scenes are extremely striking, and are set to the 2nd movement of Beethoven's 7th symphony. **You just don't hear this symphony enough in the movies***. I recommend this film to anyone who likes science fiction with a small sf.