Post by klep on Sept 26, 2016 6:42:46 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 9/26: Zardoz
Zardoz is the kind of movie that could only come from the New Hollywood era. When John Boorman came off of the success of Deliverance, he was granted the opportunity to make whatever he wanted on a budget of ~$1.5 million, and no other strings. It's the kind of opportunity directors almost never get these days, and Boorman used the chance to indulge seemingly every good idea he'd ever had for a sci-fi film, all at once. The result is not a great film, but it's certainly a fascinating one.
There is a lot to like about Zardoz. It's an ambitious original science-fiction film, of the kind that was soon to die out after Star Wars hit the scene. The people involved knew how to make a motion picture, and so there's some great scenes and many memorable visuals. I'm in particular reminded of the opening of the Zardoz head floating over the landscape, or the room where the Eternals' interrogate Zed (Sean Connery). Late in the film there's another scene where a group of women share knowledge with Zed, and it's shot in a way that is abstract, functional, and beautiful.
There's also an incredible number of ideas crammed into this 105 minute film. We have several groups of people - Brutals, Eternals, Seniles, Apathetics, etc. We have immortals. We have Sean Connery as not just our thong-clad protagonist, but some kind of enhanced mutant. Space travel is alluded to in a tossed-off comment. There's The Vortex and The Tabernacle and crystals and psychic powers and this is all before we get to Zardoz's plan and Zed's plan and Friend's plan and May's plan.
So it's fair to say the film is overstuffed. It has so many ideas that it struggles to adequately explore them, and many questions or possible contradictions remain unanswered. Who are the people in bags in the Zardoz head? How did Zardoz survive his fall? What is the nature of The Vortex if you can just walk right up to the edge of the Eternals' territory? These and other questions are likely to confound the viewer, even as they admire the interesting visuals and Boorman's clear ambition.
Zardoz comes towards the end of an era when filmmakers were given unmatched freedom to explore their ideas and make the films they wanted to make, and in Zardoz you can see both why that era happened and why it ended. Because while letting great directors off the leash can often result in phenomenal original ideas, sometimes they really need someone to rein them back in.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 10/3: The Thin Blue Line
We had a tie in the voting between this and In Bruges, and I'm going for the older film both for its importance, it being a rare chance to examine a documentary, and to counter our recency bias (we tend to choose newer films much of the time). Errol Morris changed documentary filmmaking when he produced The Thin Blue Line, and that makes it our next Movie of the Week. The Thin Blue Line is available on Netflix Instant and for rent on Amazon Instant Video, though it is not free for Prime members.
Zardoz is the kind of movie that could only come from the New Hollywood era. When John Boorman came off of the success of Deliverance, he was granted the opportunity to make whatever he wanted on a budget of ~$1.5 million, and no other strings. It's the kind of opportunity directors almost never get these days, and Boorman used the chance to indulge seemingly every good idea he'd ever had for a sci-fi film, all at once. The result is not a great film, but it's certainly a fascinating one.
There is a lot to like about Zardoz. It's an ambitious original science-fiction film, of the kind that was soon to die out after Star Wars hit the scene. The people involved knew how to make a motion picture, and so there's some great scenes and many memorable visuals. I'm in particular reminded of the opening of the Zardoz head floating over the landscape, or the room where the Eternals' interrogate Zed (Sean Connery). Late in the film there's another scene where a group of women share knowledge with Zed, and it's shot in a way that is abstract, functional, and beautiful.
There's also an incredible number of ideas crammed into this 105 minute film. We have several groups of people - Brutals, Eternals, Seniles, Apathetics, etc. We have immortals. We have Sean Connery as not just our thong-clad protagonist, but some kind of enhanced mutant. Space travel is alluded to in a tossed-off comment. There's The Vortex and The Tabernacle and crystals and psychic powers and this is all before we get to Zardoz's plan and Zed's plan and Friend's plan and May's plan.
So it's fair to say the film is overstuffed. It has so many ideas that it struggles to adequately explore them, and many questions or possible contradictions remain unanswered. Who are the people in bags in the Zardoz head? How did Zardoz survive his fall? What is the nature of The Vortex if you can just walk right up to the edge of the Eternals' territory? These and other questions are likely to confound the viewer, even as they admire the interesting visuals and Boorman's clear ambition.
Zardoz comes towards the end of an era when filmmakers were given unmatched freedom to explore their ideas and make the films they wanted to make, and in Zardoz you can see both why that era happened and why it ended. Because while letting great directors off the leash can often result in phenomenal original ideas, sometimes they really need someone to rein them back in.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 10/3: The Thin Blue Line
We had a tie in the voting between this and In Bruges, and I'm going for the older film both for its importance, it being a rare chance to examine a documentary, and to counter our recency bias (we tend to choose newer films much of the time). Errol Morris changed documentary filmmaking when he produced The Thin Blue Line, and that makes it our next Movie of the Week. The Thin Blue Line is available on Netflix Instant and for rent on Amazon Instant Video, though it is not free for Prime members.