Beyond 1984, Beyond 2001, Beyond Love, Beyond Death

I have seen the future and it doesn't work

Into a world of eternal life, he brought the gift of death


A resident of 23rd-century Earth becomes involved in a revolution after discovering the hidden truth about society's rulers in director John Boorman's sci-fi drama. Sean Connery plays Zed, the central rebel, who begins the film as a member of the Exterminators, a band of skilled assassins who exact a reign of terror over the lesser Brutals. The Exterminators answer only to their god, a gigantic stone image known as Zardoz. Haunted by doubt about Zardoz's true divinity, Zed chooses to investigate. His disbelief is confirmed when the god proves to be a fraudulent tool of the Eternals, a secret society of brilliant immortals who pretend to divinity in order to exploit the masses. Knowing the truth, Zed sets out to reveal the hoax and destroy the Eternals' unjust rule.


Zardoz is a 1974 science fiction/fantasy film written, produced, and directed by John Boorman. It stars Sean Connery, Charlotte Rampling, and Sara Kestelman. Zardoz was Connery's second post-James Bond role (after The Offence). The film was shot by cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth on a budget of US$1.57 million


Roger Ebert called it a "genuinely quirky movie, a trip into a future that seems ruled by perpetually stoned set decorators ... The movie is an exercise in self-indulgence (if often an interesting one) by Boorman, who more or less had carte blanche to do a personal project after his immensely successful Deliverance."[4]
Jay Cocks of Time called the film "visually bounteous", with "bright intervals of self-deprecatory humor that lighten the occasional pomposity of the material."[5]
Nora Sayre, in a 7 February, 1974 review for The New York Times, called Zardoz a melodrama that is a "good deal less effective than its special visual effects" ... a film "more confusing than exciting even with a frenetic, shoot-em-up climax."[6]
Decades later, Channel 4 called it "Boorman's finest film" and a "wonderfully eccentric and visually exciting sci-fi quest" that "deserves reappraisal."[3]
As of May 2012, Zardoz has a rating of 44% on the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes.[7]
Despite being a commercial failure and mostly panned by critics, Zardoz has since developed a large cult following and found success on the home video market.
The film suffered from negative "word-of-mouth" publicity. The chief example of this is on the second weekend of release, those who had seen the first showing told the people waiting for the next showing their unpleasant reactions. As a result, the potential second-showing viewers vacated the lines and went home. This was related in a 1981 issue of Starlog magazine detailing the making of Zardoz.

Release Date: February 6, 1974


Distrib: 20th Century Fox