ZARDOZ

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STARRING: Sean Connery, Charlotte Rampling, Sara Kestelman, Sally Anne Newton, John Alderton, Niall Buggy

1974, 105 Minutes, Directed by: John Boorman

This is the type of film that could only have been made in the late 1960s or early 1970s. Back then Hollywood hasn't discovered the Star Wars box office recipe yet and there were still some space for personal film-making. Back then films weren't as formulaic as they are today. Therefor Kubrick could have made A Clockwork Orange, Ken Russell could have made Mahler and John Boorman could have made this film. Whether this is actually a good thing depends on your taste: Zardoz can be either unbearably pretentious or profound and filled with philosophical insights. Or simply incomprehensible . . .

I personally think that the film veers somewhere between all this. It offers some (unintentional?) camp and humour, references to T.S. Eliot, quotes from Nietzsche and extracts from Beethoven's 7^th Symphony, Sean Connery in a red S&M leather outfit (you read right, yeah) and topless women.

The story, set in the distant future, involves a group of immortal intellectuals who lives isolated from a outside reality of unbridled savagery and brutality. One of the people on the outside (Sean Connery) manages to sneak into their utopia and ultimately causes all kinds of havoc inside the intellectuals' utopia. Or something like that.

Ultimately, this is one of those films that brings Moliere to mind: "It must be art because I don't understand a single word of it." Zardoz is one of those films that will leave you completely bewildered. It's one of those love or hate it films that will at least give its audiences something to talk about afterwards - a feat that few of today's films manages to do . . .

Sci-Fi Movie Page Pick: Bad 1970s movie or great art? Love it or hate it - but you probably won't understand what the heck it's all about . . . Stars Sean Connery in a red leather S&M outfit - if that's your type of thing.
 

• See also: Cold Fusion Video Reviews.