Zardoz (1974)

IMDb plot summary: In the late 23rd century, a savage trained only to kill finds a way into the community of bored immortals that alone preserves humanity's achievements.

Directed by John Boorman. Stars Sean Connery, Charlotte Rampling, and Sara Kestelman.

Zardoz is set in a far future when mankind is split into two groups: one lives in a utopia of immortality, the other fending for themselves in brutal wilderness tribes worshiping a god named Zardoz. Sean Connery begins in the second group and finds himself transported to living among the first. What a strange, enormously ambitious weirdo mess of a movie this is. It clearly has a vision, and I'd much rather watch a film with a vision than one without, but it sure is a messy confusing vision! There are a lot of vague points being made about evolving "past" feelings and desire, and how those things are ultimately what make life worth living, or something like that, but mostly we're just watching people in futuristic robes order around scantily-clad Sean Connery, and...well, that's definitely more sleazy fetish territory than deep sociological point. Ambitious, and I would be mildly interested in a coherent version of this concept, but this isn't it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Zardoz (1974)

📊 Ranked #3581/4150 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 14

lost to Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl (held at #2073)

lost to Two for the Money (held at #3111)

beat Courage Under Fire (#3629 → #3630)

lost to The Secret of My Success (held at #3370)

lost to All Dogs Go to Heaven (held at #3499)

lost to Marathon Man (held at #3564)

beat Maid in Manhattan (#3596 → #3597)

lost to Stardust Memories (held at #3580)

beat Mystic Pizza (#3588 → #3589)

beat S1m0ne (#3584 → #3585)

beat Pretty Poison (#3582 → #3583)

beat White Comanche (#3581 → #3582)