Zardoz

Zardoz

At first watching John Boorman’s 1974 film Zardoz and audience will be left confused, and probably laughing at the film’s moments of unintentional hilarity and stupidity. The dystopian sci-fi film stars Sean Connery as Zed who discovers that his way of life is effectively a lie and is transported to a land filled with immortals whose greatest worry is the boredom of existence. Again, with a film littered with giant talking floating stone heads and Connery walking around in a red nappy and ponytail all the elements of a B-movie are certainly here. However, Zardoz does is more than shlock it is a look into life, death, mortality and the meaning of existence.

At the beginning of the film the audience is shown the floating head of Arthur Frayn the man who takes on the identity of Zardoz in the film. Frayn is a false prophet, a fake God that controls the brutals that Zed is a part of. Religious imagery is apparent throughout Zardoz. With his floating head we get the idea that Frayn is just a showman. A magician and the puppet master that has invented Zardoz in order to play God as Frayn himself says “who conjures you out of the clay. Is God in show business to.” The floating head of Zardoz descends from the heavens as the exterminators ride over to worship it. Again, this shows how the higher-ups of society create false idols through religion in order to control the less intelligent majority. As Zardoz himself states “you have been raised up from brutality to kill the brutals that multiply and our legion this end Zardoz your god gave youth gift of the gun. The gun is good. The gun is good. The penis is evil. The penis shoots seeds and makes new life the poison the earth with the plague of men. As once it was but the gun shoots death and purifies the earth of the filth of brutals go forth and kill”. Frain has created his own cult through his own false religious deity acting out his own beliefs and wishes in order to purify the world. The idea of the gun being good whilst the penis is evil shows that the brutals must only be subservient to their God and do their task. Lustful thoughts and desires perverts this ideology therefore the gun has become their penis. This is further reinforced with Zardoz throws up guns out of its mouth which the brutals collect again reinforcing their beliefs.

Throughout Zardoz both religious and anti-religious imagery is shown throughout. Zed is trapped inside the stone head finding people cocooned in plastic as the travels across the sky. Again, religious imagery relating to rebirth and an ascension into heaven is all over Zardoz. This sought of anti-religious imagery is further solidified when Zed shoots Zardoz effectively killing his God. As Arthur Frayn states “without me you are nothing”, without God humanity is leaderless. This entire religious subtext continues as it seems as if Zed is transported into a nightmarish version of heaven. There are no angels or fluffy clouds in Zardoz. Instead this supposed “paradise” is more of a boring quiet sterile nightmare. This realisation of the truth seems to go against man’s initial desires within the film. As shown when Zed enters Frayn’s house, he saw immortality as the next step in the evolution of man, therefore constructing Zardoz to play God. Instead of being in heaven Zed is trapped in a mundane hell.

Later in the film, when the immortals capture Zed. We are shown that Zed and by extension the exterminators view Zardoz as a God, they exist only for their false idol. The immortals make Zed replay his memories of killing the brutals. In these scenes we are shown the classiest division of their society. The immortals believe themselves to be better than the exterminators and the brutals despite not actually achieving anything to merit to their high status. However, through Zed’s memories the improvement and evolution of certain classes are also shown making it clear how lesser divisions can ascend themselves through intelligence. As through cultivation it is obvious that the brutal’s have created a more complex society. This idea of a classiest division is further indicated by what the immortals say about Arthur. We are told that Arthur (Zardoz) was deemed to be in control of the outlands where the brutals live, whilst the immortals live in the vortex. Again, this brings up clear parallels to a classiest division within society as well as the illusory nature to play God with institutionalised power.

The surreal imagery throughout Zardoz helps us to further understand the world. As Zed’s memories are played out, we are shown a foetus growing in between the glass. Death is now impossible as the Tabernacle (an alien computer system) simply resurrects them making life meaningless. Again, the underlying theme within the film is that life itself gives life its purpose. The fact that death is inevitable means that we must therefore create meaning within our own existence and live our own lives. With immortality the threat of death no longer exists creating an apathetic existence. This is further reinforced by the way that the men within the film are dressed in drag like the women. If immortality exists and there is no reason to procreate meaning that sexual stimulation would decrease therefore creating a genderless society.

Despite all the interesting ideas and themes and surreal imagery Zardoz ultimately shows the boring and mundane reality of immortality. Within Zardoz apathetics are littered around their society. These are people that have given up doing anything due to their immortality again this shows that death needs to be a part of life and that the idea of immortality creates a meaningless existence. This is further explained when the immortals analyse the sexual stimulus of Zed. It is due to immortality reproduction became pointless, and the erection became impossible. Zardoz contemplates the nature of our existence if humanity was to ascend to a godlike state of being and what changes would we have to sacrifice questioning our own humanity as a result. However, Zed does not get aroused by sexual images either. The idea of sexualisation as a sin and sexual imprisonment is present throughout Zardoz as Zardoz created the brutals to be asexual as they would have no other natural desires other than to kill and serve Zardoz.

The immortals ultimately survive to produce their classiest divisions upon society. They are ultimately no more advanced than the brutals. Friend is punished by disrupting the democratic tranquillity seen the vortex is a curse and is aged and cast out as a result. Behind the utopian aesthetic provides a dystopian society based on an ascension of power. It seems that even with a godlike divinity humanity will still succumb to the same desires of power manipulation and control it has always done. The aged immortals are sent to a location reminiscent of a retirement home where they are subjected to mindless stimulation as they can no longer enjoy death. Through immortality humanity has ultimately become a plague upon the earth. This is further illustrated when friend and the other Aged immortals try to kill Zed in their mind giving him the gift of death, they so desperately desire.

This idea of false idols comes to a head in Zed’s confession to May. Arthur Frain used Zardoz as a false religious ideology to convince zed and the brutals that they were the chosen ones the gun was given to them to make them superior to all the other brutals more superior weaponry. Using man’s primitive instincts to hunt and kill. One day Arthur Frain shows Zed a book that teaches him to read giving him intelligence over the other brutals. Through this he learns more about the history of the world, until one day he finds the book The Wizard of Oz. The Wizard of Oz metaphor within the film is ultimately an allegory for Aruther Frains plan to seize control to dominated society through smoke and mirrors. Zed finds out that his whole life has been a lie dreamt up by a bored immortal wanting to play god. Ultimately, he murdered Arthur as both a way of gaining the truth and as an act of revenge for deceiving him again the entire religious imagery and subtext throughout the Zardoz is quite apparent. Ideas of false idols and profits giving full scope is a common theme throughout the subtext of the film. Zed murdered Arthur (his god) is an act of revenge. Ultimately, he believes that his God has betrayed them by trying to create a more advanced society through acts such as cultivation the brutal’s had ultimately lost their identity becoming freethinking individuals unattached from their ideals of God. Zed wanted to wipe out the immortals as both a way of seeking the truth and a way of getting revenge on his false god. Again, the religious connotations are quite apparent. The idea of not letting yourself be shackled down and controlled by invisible a deity seems to be a running theme throughout the film. Using the Wizard of Oz allegory in the film Zed looked behind the curtain and found the society based on population control and religious indoctrination.

Ultimately, Zed and some of the fellow immortals decide to destroy the Tabernacle to give them mortality. Death is freedom, as with the fear of death that looms over your humanity is forced to create a meaningful existence for itself. Zardoz gives an interesting role reversal within the film as the immortals try to stop the destruction of their society, they themselves become the savage beast they tried to isolate themselves from. Zed however has become more complex character throughout the film. However more than his intelligence progressing what has truly defined Zed is his ability to feel love and compassion, he has become more human. During the climax of the film Zed discovers that the Tabernacle is ultimately a crystal reflecting light giving infinite  storage space effectively creating a computer system. During his confrontation with the ultimate being the Tabernacle asks Zed “would you kill God?” to witch Zed replies “such vanity”. The Tabernacle is ultimately an artificial construct created by Arthur Frain to do the job of God. Zed is effectively wiping out false prophets and the idealisation of God as he brought the gift of death into God’s utopian nightmare. Zed, now inside the Tabernacle wanders through effectively a hall of mirrors with projections of magnified sperm. This is ultimately symbolic of God and the creation of everything. In mirrors reflecting mirrors you ultimately have infinite space reflecting the infinity of the universe and the omnipresent nature of God. With the magnified sperm projected on the mirrors the symbolism of creation is quite clear showing that this is the beginning of everything. As well as the magnified sperm images of the immortals are also shown within the mirrors. The Tabernacle was the sum of all the parts of the immortals due to being infused with all their DNA the Tabernacle is ultimately represents eternity again likening the machine to that of God. As Zed shoots the Tabernacle to kill it, he shoots a mirrored masked version of himself. Zed can now no longer go back to his old life having experienced new thoughts and emotions as well as having his own existence and reason to live destroyed he is no longer the person that he once was, Zed is no longer an exterminator.

The immortals descend upon Zed and his gang destroying pieces of historical art as they go. They can destroy all human history using their mortality as now they are effectively able to start again and create their own history and existence with the newfound life in the inevitability of their death. They must create their own existence in order to be remembered.

Finally, at the end of the film Arthur Frain shows himself again. Revealing that he had been manipulating Zed in order to destroy the immortals. Again, questions upon the nature of immortality brought up and how a classless division using people can be used in order to manipulate the echelons of society in this case controlling the outlines. However, Zed states that Arthur has been used to himself as the Tabernacle ultimately gave him the idea. No matter how great power and authority you have no matter your intelligence you will always be a subservient hire to you. This is to indicate that the way of unshackling yourselves from a higher being such as God is nigh on impossible one way or another you will ultimately be controlled. Zed goes through the biggest change of any character within the film. He realises that he can no longer be an exterminator, after examining his own life, the philosophy of death and the undertakings of his own mortality he realises that he is no longer a liberator of death. Maybe then the meaning of life is to create your own meaning with the short existence you have such as how Zed has found love. However, this idea seems to be somewhat contradictory during the very next scene in which Zeds fellow exterminators coming to kill the immortals. In a way you could interpret this as a liberation from their restraints of life and that now they fully accept death gladly however there is a certain sadness to this scene. Unlike his fellow exterminators Zed can no longer kill for his existence. His purpose in life has become obsolete. He is effectively a ghost able to live within any facet of the world any more.

The ending to Zardoz is one that is both strange and beautiful contradictory and profound. We are shown Zed and Consuella staying in the same position and having a child who eventually leaves the head as Zed and Consuela remain there and eventually die. Although the characters are free with their mortality their lives still seem to be frivolous and meaningless possibly due to the suffering and pain they have experienced. You could argue that this runs contradictory to the overall arc in theme of the film in that mortality is needed to give life meaning. However, the ending could show that the meaning of their lives is not necessarily their own but to make sure that lives have a meaningful future generation. As the boy grows older, he eventually leaves the stone head, leaving his parents to die. Although generations will eventually die the point of humanity is continuation. Life will continue without us meaning that the sole purpose of humanity is to continue no matter what.

Zardoz is a film about finding meaning in your own existence and that change and death are nature parts of this and to experience all aspects of life even its end in order to create your own meaning.