SummaryIn the distant future, a savage trained only to kill finds a way into the community of bored immortals that alone preserves humanity's achievements.
Directed By:John Boorman
Written By:John Boorman
Zardoz
Metascore
Mixed or Average
46
User score
Mixed or Average
5.4
My Score
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Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
46
22% Positive
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
56% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
22% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
67
A silly, impenetrable movie starring Sean Connery (attired in the dumbest costume ever) as a ponytailed barbarian who obeys a giant stone head.
63
Every once in a while, a movie like that comes along; a movie you’ve got to see so that you, too, can be in the dark about it.
60
The script gradually falls apart into a mess of philosophical pottage under the whimsically pretentious Tolkien influence. But visually the film remains a sparkling display of fireworks, brilliantly shot and directed.
50
Zardoz quickly degenerates from a voyage through a labyrinth into an ego trip round and round the inside of a goldfish bowl. [28 Feb 1974, p.62]
40
With ideas skimmed off the top of various systems of thought, Zardoz is a glittering cultural trash pile.
25
Frequently brilliant director Boorman--always an interesting visual stylist--falls flat on his face with this pretentious piece of science-fiction claptrap that presents its dull ideas in such a confused and annoying fashion as to anger even the most devoted fan of the genre.
20
Dodgy on every level.
User score
Mixed or Average
5.4
38% Positive
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
25% Mixed
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
38% Negative
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
Jul 11, 2023
3
Writer/director John Boorman (Deliverance) failed in his attempt to adapt The Lord of the Rings to the screen, so he wrote the bizarre fever dream that is Zardoz instead. This film has some admirably high aspirations, but there's no denying that it's a bona fide hot mess. While the artistic design is memorable, the story jumps all over the place, with no clear rhyme or reason to anything. Aggressively opaque pseudo-spiritual mumbo jumbo abounds in an attempt to make the film seem deeper than it actually is, but it makes so little sense while taking itself so seriously that it's hard to enjoy the film, even on an ironic level. An odd film indeed, but by no means necessary viewing.
