Zardoz (1974)
Directed by
John Boorman
Mud Wrestling credits
John Boorman
Genre: Fantasy / Sci-Fi (more)
Tagline: Beyond 1984, Beyond 2001, Beyond Love, Beyond Death
Plot Outline: In the far future, a savage trained only to kill finds a way into the community of bored immortals who alone preserve humanity's achievements.
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Savage trained only to kill. Not even toilet trained.
Immortals never have any fun. I would think they would be really dissolute. Imagine being stuck on an forever Island with Cameron Diaz <substitute other favourite star> and finding out that along with immortality there is one other permanent condition you have to put up with. She has PMS all the time, and you have dsylateral perambulatory psychokinesis.
Could Boorman = Zardoz? hmmmm. The artifact on the typewriter font looks different but you never know.
Beyond 1984. It sounds more like beyond Brave New World. We would like to know what is beyond love, but not beyond death right away. We hope they save the best for last.
We have seen 2001, we are glad they said they are beyond it. In trying to place it genre wise and temporily, it is good to know that isn't stuck in that vapid 17 year slot between 1984 rebellions against the machine, and 2001: near-space techno opera. It's way out there, after Mars colonies and warp-driven into Zon-like high-production value Star Trek issues, of the possible-impossible with a technoid backdrop and a grey-area morality tale background. We know it's sheer hell never dying and all, and you are reduced to a shadowy existence, so would not have guessed that plots of perma-beings to control rights for spectral projection of nubile clog dancers to worlds of slave miners and banish dissident time lords to remote regions of arid planet moons can make the synthesizer breaks put you on the edge of your loveseat.
Nevertheless it is bad movie. It cannot escape that categorization. It's badness stands out like the reproductive organs of hairless pet animals. If it had starred Richard Burton, Melanie Griffiths, Levar Burton, and Andy Griffiths, it has been said it would be a worse movie, but that is a matter of some not small controversy.
Preserving humanity's achievements is a noble task. It is hard to know who to leave in charge of that, if not humanity in general. If they cannot co-operate on the matter and get it done, then there will doubtless be squabbles over preservation rights and royalties that will degrade the environment substantially. Preservation quality may suffer some in the process. we may all go straight to hell in a handbasket finally. The very essence of this movie underscores that in a graphic way. It's distinct lack of achievement in any meaningful way, while outlining the self-same subject, is sufficient warning of the perils of failure here.
EC<:-}******* |
