Artwork for podcast Subversive Cinema
Zardoz (1974)
Episode 918th March 2022 • Subversive Cinema • Art Hall
00:00:00 00:33:17

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A story about guns, projections, reflections, and Sean Connery's body hair.

Listen in as me and returning guest, Peter, become one with the Tabernacle and aim our kaleidoscopes at this trippy piece of 70s sci-fi.

Written and directed by John Boorman (Deliverance, Exorcist II: The Heretic, Point Blank), Entertainment Weekly called the film "silly [and] impenetrable," while the New Yorker said it was "a glittering cultural trash pile." Man, even the "nicest" review from Entertainment Weekly was harsh.

It tells the story of a future where man has separated in to small bands of immortal folks living in medieval-style villages with killer wifi and an omnipresent AI caretaker, and the rest of humanity has been left outside the walls to roam the lands as killers, rapists, and brutes. Hm... Kinda sounds like a commentary on the 1% or something... Anyway, the barbarians worship a floating stone head controlled by an aforementioned immortal. This faux religion is used to control the barbarians until one day, mustachioed Sean Connery sneaks aboard and is taken to where the immortals live. It just gets weirder and more colorful from there.

The film is currently available on Prime Video for rent or purchase.

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