Review – Zardoz

Yeah, I could see the world turning out like this after the Hippie Apocalypse. On the other hand, I don’t think John Boorman was really going for post-Armageddon realism here. Instead this is approximately half ham-handed allegory about British class structure and half low-budget sci fi costume epic. Sean Connery (who must have lost a bet or something) stars as Zed, a member of a cruel class of enforcers who murder, rape and enslave the hoi polloi for the sake of growing crops for an effete elite. Our story kicks off when the protagonist sneaks aboard the giant, floating head occupied by one of the overlords and shoots him for no apparent reason. Things go downhill from there. This is one of those movies that’s probably a lot better when you’re stoned. Sober audiences tend to want things like plot and character development. On the other hand, chemical impairment helps one relate to this sort of thing on the level of “whoa, dude, if we had one of those floating heads then we could go float through the Wendy’s drive-thru at 2 a.m. and be all like ‘Give us free french fries! Zardoz commands it!’” I’m not recommending drug use, but then I’m not recommending this movie, either. See if desperate