Review of Zardoz (1974) by Al M — 11 Aug 2010

Zardoz is amazingly original science ficction filled with trippy, surreastic imagery that explores the nature of human sexuality, governmental control of populations, and the human need for death (thanatos or the death drive as Freud might call it).

Zardoz asks two fundamental questions. 1. At what price utopia? and 2.) Do we truly crave immortality? Ultimately, Zardoz is an anti-utopia or critical utopia, as they are sometimes called, because it depicts a utopian civilization only to problematize and deconstruct its basic principles.

Also, Zardoz explores every society's need for marginal populations, for violence, and for ideology whether it is religious or otherwise. Is the human still human if death is removed from the equation? Can we speak of identity if struggle and conflict have been eradicated from the very fabric of society? To what degree are sexuality and violence constituent parts of human nature? Filled with flying heads, trippy and revealing outfits, bizarre rituals and creeds (The gun is good, the penis is evil), and featuring Sean Connery in one of his craziest roles ever, Zardoz is must see for fans of science fiction or 70s cinema.

It is science fiction at its headiest, strangest, and most alienating--it is, in other words, a minor masterpiece in the Sci-fi canon.