ZARDOZ!

[Stomski]

Good lord - it has been revealed to me that when Connery goes behind the mirrored pyramid, he "pretends" to fall. I thought this was an authentic drop into a hole they'd dug.

Also...
"I also like this idea of women dominating men..."

"These again are those... um, my travellers, the gypsies. They didn't mind being shot."

"Uh dressing up Sean as a bride was something that he resisted. But I was very persuasive."

[Shockprowl]

Ok, Stomski needs an intervention, guys.

[Stomski]

"You can fast forward this bit if you want to."

Upon hearing that they'd have to shoot the final scene a third time after a camera assistant opened the film can, Connery went into a rage and had to be restrained. The camera assistant was so upset by he ordeal that he left the country. This is the sort of anecdote you listen to commentaries for.

[The Doctor]

Sadly the streaming age has largely destroyed the appetite for commentaries from consumers.

-Ralph

[Andy Turnbull]

A shame.

I miss commentaries.

[The Doctor]

Rightly or wrongly, companies realised consumers were happy to buy downloads/stream material on its own without additional features/commentaries. Such things still exist on some physical material but aren't the default expected extra material that consumers expected/wanted when DVD was at its peak. I would argue that commentaries etc have in sone way now given physical media a unique selling point.

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

I suspect the dying of VHS, meaning DVD didn't have to beat anything, and the rise of Blu Ray, which needed to beat DVD helped result in the special features going to the high definition format.

[Grand Moff Muffin]

I've bought ten new release films on Blu-ray this year (admittedly half of them Marvel) and I think most if not all of them had commentaries.

Martin

[The Doctor]

Sadly most digital copies have the commentaries and extra features stripped off them.

-Ralph

[Andy Turnbull]

When it would be so easy to offer them as well. So annoying.

[The Doctor]

This came in the post today. It features on article on the novelisation of...ZARDOZ!!!

obversebooks.co.uk/product/from-a-story-by-volume-one/

-Ralph

[Stomski]

Speaking of which... Now I've seen it, I'd like to listen to that Stardub podcast where you read excerpts from the novel again. I listened at the time, but my view on the material is sure to have changed now. Is it still available?

Edit: found it - www.star-dub.com/?tag=zardoz

[The Doctor]

I have no idea. That period of my life when I was podcasting has painful memories so I haven't went back to those episodes. Might try something new at some point.

-Ralph

[Stomski]

Well, despite not having any background knowledge on a lot of the content, Turn and Burns were always a quite enjoyable listen.

[Andy Turnbull]

They were fun.

Maybe something we will revisit down the road sometime.

[Rich]

John Boorman interview for his fan club: www.theguardian.com/film/2020/feb/13/john-boorman-you-think-the-holy-grail-is-lost-no-i-have-it-on-my-piano

[Jim]

[Shockprowl]

!

[The Doctor]

Outstanding.

-Ralph

[Stomski]

Can't see from that angle if the kid has a 'tache.

[Benn]

That has broken me

[Shockprowl]

Oct 29, 2020 11:53:00 GMT Stomski said:

Can't see from that angle if the kid has a 'tache.

*SPITS OUT MILK!*



(and by 'milk' I mean 'wine')

[The Doctor]

Star Sean Connery has reportedly passed away.

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

BBC Obit:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-13087132

Identify the actress in the Blood Money photo!

You might also recognise the actor here with Connery in The Offence

www.imdb.com/title/tt0070468/mediaviewer/rm548024576

[Shockprowl]

What a legend. One of the all time greats.

[Andy Turnbull]

It's a cracking film.

[Philip Ayres]

From June 1974 FILM REVIEW MONTHLY via Twitter: https://twitter.com/woodg31/status/1539684569233907714

Zardoz is a God. There he is on the left, hovering over The Outlands.

Zed (Sean Connery) arouses in Consuella (Charlotte Rampling) passions she thought were long dead.

The year is 2293. The earth has become a polluted wasteland called THE OUTLANDS, inhabited by wretched survivors who live like prehistoric people. They are known as BRUTALS. Among them is a physically superior group known as EXTERMINATORS who keep their numbers down by hunting and killing them.

The Brutals produce grain, not for themselves but for Zardoz. This is their God. They hold him in awe, for a most fearful fellow he is. Fashioned from stone, he is a huge head that comes to them out of the sky, hovering over them and spewing from the dark caverns of his mouth rifles and bullets with which the Exterminators suppress the Brutals. After being loaded with grain, the huge stone head floats away commanding the Exterminators to go forth and kill.

Zardoz is accepted without question by the Brutals and Exterminators — until one of the latter, a man with exceptional mental and physical powers, becomes inquisitive. He is Zed (Sean Connery). The film shows how his curiosity leads him into a totally different world that is holding his own under subjugation.

Zardoz is the invention of a group of people who have formed an exclusive community, living in an idyllic valley shut off from the outside world by a gravitational force field. The community is called THE VORTEX. It was founded in 1990 by top scientists and leading intellectuals when industrial society collapsed. Their aim was to make The Vortex a safe-deposit of man's knowledge. The God, Zardoz, is an ingenious means of suppressing the ignorant, superstitious Brutals and at the same time getting them to grow grain for the inhabitants of The Vortex.

These people are called ETERNALS, for they have found the secret of immortality. If one of them is accidentally killed, he can be reconstructed complete with all memories and experiences intact. In this highly evolved state, they have risen above the level of sexual desire and, being immortal, there is no need to procreate.

People who commit crimes are subjected to a physical ageing process — the greater the crime, the older the appearance. Persistent offenders are called RENEGADES and are condemned to live permanently painful lives together. Another category of unfortunates in the Vortex are APATHETICS, people who have found the strain of eternal life too great, lost interest in the community's ideals and spend their time leading an almost zombie-life existence.

Zed, the Exterminator, manages to infiltrate the supposedly inaccessible Vortex by stowing away in the grain he helps to load into the mouth of Zardoz, the godhead.

After his first mind-boggling experiences in The Vortex, he is taken prisoner and discovers that The Eternals are dominated by women. One of the leaders (Charlotte Rampling) senses that his presence threatens the very existence of the community and wants him killed, while another (Sara Kestelman) gets him a temporary reprieve by insisting on being allowed to examine the biologically fascinating specimen. The Eternals' examination of his sexuality — something they no longer possess —provides some of the film's lighter moments.

As time runs out for Zed, he explores the incredible world of the Vortex, causing friction in a society that thought itself perfect and awakening long-lost sexual desires among the women, while Zed himself searches desperately for a means of bringing about the community's downfall.

One of the most thought-provoking films in a long time, Zardoz (a Fox-Rank release) is full of inventive touches. an intriguing example of which is the title itself, a corruption of 'The WIZARD of OZ'. Just as the Wizard was a fake — an old man frightening people by bellowing from behind a mask — so too is Zardoz.

P. S. H.

[The Doctor]

Less of a review and more of a synopsis.

-Ralph

[Pinwig]

Last month's Infinity magazine had a piece in about Zardoz, from which I learn Burt Reynolds was originally cast in Sean Connery's role but pulled out due to illness. That would have been a very different film!

[The Doctor]

Yesh!

-Ralph