Why is it that some people think ZARDOZ is horrible?

[Khephra]

And others, like myself, think it's one of the most brilliant films ever made? I don't think I've ever seen this sort of reaction to a film outside of Lynch or Cronenberg works.

I mean, come on now! A flying giant metal head spouting wisdom like "The gun is good. The penis is evil."

What is it about this film that makes some people think its crap and others think it is genius?

[Nimrod]

1. It IS horrible

It's also one of my favorite movies. :)

[Khephra]

3. I complain and others do too

about how Hollywood keeps on remaking good movies. Zardoz is outside of that list. Man, I'll be the first person to say that the film has some.............er...........problems. But the underlying message is just fucking brilliant. Some of the high-tech ideas too.

BUT....

And I'll be the first person to admit it....

Zardoz is a BAD film.

It just happens to be a bad film with fucking great ideas driving the story.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

2. Randomkoolzip and I were working on a song with a Zardoz sample

:)

[Khephra]

4. Which lines or song?

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

7. It was a bass line - I'll have to figure a way to post it

RKZ would be better equiped to describe it

[RandomKoolzip]

11. I always get to the good threads late.....

Yeah. It's in the beginning, wear "MAy" and her cohorts are debating whether to keep Sean Connery around....the fey curley-haired guy goes "Let'sh keep it!" in a real weird voice. Fun!

Anyway...yeah. Zardoz is half trippy/half amazingly stupid. Like Barbarella for girls, what with Connery poncing about in his little speedo and ponytail....

[jeff30997]

5. "The gun is good. The penis is evil."

Sounds like an NRA slogan.:)

[Khephra]

6. Nah, the NRA loves their penises too much

;-)

[ET Awful]

9. They just tend to get the two confused :)

What with the stroking of one and the premature firing of the other and all :)

[Dogmudgeon]

8. How 'bout a little of both?

"Over-ambitious" could be used to describe Zardoz.

I liked the movie, but it's got a lot of corny stretches in it. "The Gun is Good, the Penis is Evil" is part of it. The Zardoz head is supposed to be like the Cowardly Lion, but it looks a whole lot like an old Scientology icon -- maybe Boorman was making an ironic comment on LRH's own sci-fi?

So I'd say Zardoz is about half Heavy Cinematic Experience and half MST3K.

Now, if they had only named it SANDOZ ...

--bkl

[ET Awful]

10. The primary thing that kept Zardoz from being a GOOD film was

budget. Because of low budget, the effects were crap, the cast was crap (yes, even Connery), the makeup was especially smelly crap (sorry, but when you draw moustaches on with an eyebrow pencil, people notice).

The story could have been .. . interesting, it was just so poorly executed that makes me wanna puke.

[C_eh_N_eh_D_eh]

12. I saw that movie once.

Unfortunately, it was on *really* late at night, and I was fighting to stay awake for most of it. As a result, very little registered apart from the fact that it was very badly made. After reading this thread, I might want to watch Zardoz again when I'm in a more receptive state of mind, but probably not.