Zardoz: Insanity on Screen

David Michael Newstead | The Philosophy of Shaving

Fifty years ago, one of the most bizarre and original films ever was made. For a long time, I only knew about it because of sporadic photos floating around the internet, but these only sparked more questions. Clearly, this was Sean Connery, but was this movie real? Was it released? What could the story possibly be?! As it turned out, Zardoz is even stranger than I imagined. It’s something out of a 1970s science fiction fever dream that even generative A.I. would struggle to conjure up. Decades later, director John Boorman quipped “You know, it’s one of those films that went from being a failure to a classic without ever passing through success.” Rising to the status of a cult favorite isn’t easy to achieve. It’s typically a disheartening, circuitous route years in the making. Yet, Zardoz has reached this pinnacle! I first watched it during the pandemic when you really needed creative ways to pass the time. Even it’s most committed fans talk about it in an unusual way though. “What’s Zardoz about?” asked writer and Zardoz fan Gary Shteyngart on NPR, “I have no idea. By any measure of logic, it makes absolutely no sense.” The poster is beautiful. The novelization is… interesting. In all, Zardoz has a hazy, dream-like quality. The story is a strange mixture of calm and intense violence. Thematically, it’s comparable to Logan’s Run (1976) or The Fountain (2006), except that doesn’t quite do it justice. Maybe nothing ever will. It just has to be experienced, never copied or repeated. The ending, in particular, sits with me even when I haven’t watched it in a while.

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