ZARDOZ

title: ZARDOZ

year: 1974

cast: Sean Connery

director: John Boorman

rating: *

If you want to see Sean Connery wearing nothing but red bikini underwear and long boots, and grunting his dialog, this is your cup. The movie is set in the future that resembles the middle ages. Centers on a gruff gladiator "outlander" who kills for his god, "Zardoz". He then hitches a ride on the giant statue head that flies around, which is worshipped by the "outlanders" and whose name is... you got it, Zardoz. During the flight he unintentionally kills the wizard who mans the flying-head, and then he lands in a place where beautiful women and sterile men (also beautiful) live in a big white castle. It's here Connery becomes an imprisoned banal stud in a world of ruling-class intellectual softies. This is a John Boorman film, and a bad one at that. Bill McKinney raping Ned Beatty in "Deliverance" - Boorman's only masterpiece - was less uncomfortable than watching this embarressing travesty. One wonders why it was even made, or why Connery agreed to it. It's supposed to have a deep message about religion and its followers, but the only message I got was that Connery would do anything for a buck.