MovieChat Forums > Zardoz (1974) Discussion > This film deserves higher praise and a r...

This film deserves higher praise and a remake!


This movie is for its peculiar visual style - which nevertheless works very well - mistaken for camp. Nothing could be further from the truth. This movie is a philosophical and sociological treatise, which is still relevant today, even though it ponders specifically the fallout from the 1960s counterculture. A remake would be in order to tackle the present-day counterculture and new views on gender identity, marriage, family and other post-humanist, anti-humanist and similar ideologies at odds with the Natural Order, which this film holds in high esteem. This film is not artsy-fartsy. It was done in classical fashion. It suffers, however from surplus exposition, which renders it a bit verbose, but in the hands of John Boorman and a great cast of British actors it's not that distracting. The movie probably spends 70 percent of its mere 100 minutes explaining what goes on, while the plot is truly minimal. That wouldn't work well in today's standards that would probably require more plot and less exposition, with the latter slated until the very climax of the movie, well into the third act. Regardless, this film is a masterpiece, and thematically intrigues as much today as it did at release: it covers topics of art, love, life, death, sexuality, global economy and the environment, etc; Seldom has any film ever tackled so aptly and audaciously topics of such depth and breadth.

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I agree, it’s a very enjoyably strange movie.

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