Zardoz cover art

Zardoz Details

1974 Certificate 15
  • Rated:
  • 50
  • from 797 members

When Sean Connery abandoned the James Bond series to seek out new challenges, he turned to director John Boorman's sci-fi project, ZARDOZ. Connery stars as Zed, one of a carefully bred race of supervisors, the Exterminators, who oversee the agricultural labour of the neanderthal Brutals, since in 2293, with most of the Earth's .. Read more

Starring Sean Connery, Charlotte Rampling, Sara Kestelman, John Alderton
Director John Boorman
Genres Horror

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Zardoz

When Sean Connery abandoned the James Bond series to seek out new challenges, he turned to director John Boorman's sci-fi project, ZARDOZ. Connery stars as Zed, one of a carefully bred race of supervisors, the Exterminators, who oversee the agricultural labour of the neanderthal Brutals, since in 2293, with most of the Earth's surface off-limits as a polluted Outlands, industrial society has been abandoned. All worship Zardoz, a huge flying stone head who makes periodic visits to Earth to pick up grain consignments and issue bizarre statements involving the male anatomy through the voice of Arthur Frayn (Niall Buggy). An increasingly skeptical Zed decides to stow away inside the head, which deposits him in the Vortex, a commune of scientists and intellectuals who are ruled by the ever-youthful and asexual Eternals. They capture Zed, allowing geneticist May (Sara Kestleman) to use him as a research subject for a limited period, but he begins to arouse more than scientific curiosity in the commune's supposedly nonsexual female population.

Starring Sean Connery, Charlotte Rampling, Sara Kestelman, John Alderton, Bosco Hogan, Niall Buggy, Sally Anne Newton, Jessica Swift
Director John Boorman
Studio 20TH CENTURY FOX HOME ENTERTAINMENT
Run time DVD: 1 hr 41 mins
Certificate Certificate 15
Genres Horror
Language DVD: English
Hearing-impaired English
Subtitles DVD: Croatian, Czech, Danish, Finnish, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish, Turkish
Released DVD: 30 Jun 2003
Production year: 1974
Format DVD
  • Critics' reviews (2) of Zardoz

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  • 2 stars out of 5

    Sales of vests plummeted when Clark Gable appeared without one in It Happened One Night, but it is unlikely that this naive piece of futuristic hokum from director John Boorman had an equally astounding impact on the fashion of the day by increasing the demand for orange underpants! Poor Sean Connery Burt Reynolds obviously knew what he was doing when he said no to this film. Yet, thanks to Geoffrey Unsworth's stunning photography, this patently silly story, set in 2293 and telling of a rebellion against sexless intellectualism and soulless technology, has become one of those “risible but unmissable” cult movies, whose main attraction now is the unintentional comedy. The title is a contraction of “Wizard of Oz”.

    • Radio Times
  • A bizarre futurist fantasy which seems to have substituted itself when Boorman's plans to film Tolkien's Lord of the... read more on Time Out

    • Time Out
  • Most helpful member's review of Zardoz

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  • 3 out of 3 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 4 stars

    For a film made in 1974, i really enjoyed watching this film. OK, it feels as if it was influenced heavily by a writer who was on drugs, but the story was decent (all about immortality and how nature will adapt to maintain balance etc).

    It was also fun to see Sean Connery running around in Orange Shorts (which look like nappies). There is nudity in this film, most uncalled for, but its a sign of the times.

      • Richard#249 from STRATFORD UPON AVON
  • Most recent members' review of Zardoz

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  • 2 out of 2 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 3 stars

    A very odd film with flying stone heads. Definatly b movie territory, but actually quite enjoyable sfi-fi fayre. Very dated special effects add to the 1970's charm.

      • Darren#66 from CHESTERFIELD
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Rating breakdown

797 Member ratings
  • 100
44
  • 90
30
  • 80
72
  • 70
83
  • 60
140
  • 50
102
  • 40
115
  • 30
87
  • 20
83
  • 10
41

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    • When Sean Connery abandoned the James Bond series to seek out new challenges, he turned to director John Boorman's sci-fi project, ZARDOZ. Connery stars as Zed, one of a carefully bred race of ...