Zardoz

1974 science fiction thing

Rating: 7/20

Plot: Sometime in the distant future, the people of earth have been divided into two separate societies--savages in red diapers and silk-clad immortals. An exterminator named Zed sneaks into the mouth of the savage's god (Zardoz) and. . . nevermind. This is all pretty stupid.

This movie starts with a giant stone head proclaiming, "The gun is good. The penis is evil." Then, it vomits guns as a bunch of guys with bad facial hair and red diapers run around retrieving them. Then, Sean Connery (a scantily-clad one) winds up inside the head where he points a pistol at naked people in giant ziploc bags. After that, the movie gets really weird. Then, it manages to get weirder. Zardoz has the feel of the brilliant The Holy Mountain, but there is one key difference--it sucks. Sean Connery looks as baffled as I felt as he runs around in his little leather pants and silly hair and giant boots. His appearance in this movie makes me wonder if he lost a bet or something. There's some really nifty imagery in this movie that saves it from being a complete waste of my time. I especially liked when Sean Connery's character winds up in a psychedelic house of mirrors. But this thing seemed endless, completely inept, wonderfully vacuous, and really really silly. Lots of "What the hell?" going on here. I haven't looked this up or anything, but I bet this movie broke a record for actors asking, "You want me to do what?" during the production.