Twilight Time has released Zardoz on blu-ray. Find out our thoughts on the technical aspects of the release.
 |
| "I'm SO hard." |
British director John Boorman achieved phenomenal
success with his white knuckle 1972 thriller Deliverance about a group of friends who embark on a canoe trip in
Northern Georgia only to tangle with violent mountain men along the way. A box office and critical smash, Boorman
achieved that rare and envious area of carte-blanche where he had the power to
direct any project of his choosing and retain final cut. After initially being offered the task of
directing The Exorcist which he
turned down after finding it unremittingly cruel towards children, Boorman
instead set his sights on a project of his own devising: a post-apocalyptic
metaphysical science fiction thriller he called Zardoz.
Drawing elements from The Wizard of Oz, Planet of
the Apes and A Clockwork Orange, Zardoz is among the wackiest and deeply
insane personal projects ever to emerge from the tail-end of an era of low
budget science fiction filmmaking where the story was based more on ideas than
explosions…too many ideas. Far more
batty and oddly loveable than the recently released Jupiter Ascending with probably the most ridiculous costume design
ever worn by a male lead, Sean Connery more or less carrying James Bond into a
moustache/ponytail bound savage clad in red leather boots and nappy, Zardoz is the kind of self-indulgent
exercise in artistic pretension where the less sense it makes, the more we
can’t stop watching it. Full of floating
stone God-heads, a surreal hippie commune and a brief moment of Sean Connery in
a wedding dress, Zardoz could in fact
be the weirdest film ever released by mainstream Hollywood. It also marks one of the very best and
top-selling Blu-Rays offered by the limited edition series label, Twilight
Time!
 |
| "Dig my underpants?" |
The
Video
Shot by 2001: A
Space Odyssey’s cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth, Zardoz is, if nothing else, totally visually arresting on every
front. The opening vista of an optical
floating God-head slowly careening towards the camera, whether it works or not,
is among the most grandiose and startling images in all of science
fiction. Utilizing endless rear
projection effects in camera with psychedelic colors and kaleidoscopic mirror
effects, Zardoz intends to assault
the viewer’s senses as much as it can with the film’s shoestring budget. Needless to say, the aged 2.35:1 material has
been transferred flawlessly to Blu-Ray. When compared to some of their earlier discs like the gritty master for Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia full
of print damage and dots, Zardoz looks
like it’s undergone a restoration process and is largely free of artifacts or
blemishes. While eccentrically and at
times intentionally erratically photographed, Twilight Time’s Blu-Ray exhibits
a great deal of sharpness and healthy amounts of film grain that don’t distract
or feel like they could have undergone further remastering. After having seen the 20th Century
Fox DVD for many years, this Blu-Ray is quite the upgrade in the video
department and will give your home theater a pleasing visual experience of the
nuttiness that ensues.
The
Audio
Initially offered on DVD in the front-loaded Dolby Digital
3.0, taking up the three front channels of sound, Twilight Time brings Zardoz to Blu-Ray in a DTS-HD 5.1
surround sound remaster. Sonically, the
film is still largely front-loaded though some of the music and ambience does
bleed into the rear channels. While not
necessarily demo material for those wanting to show off their home theaters,
the audio has been mastered relatively well considering its age and it comes
through loud and clear. The subwoofer
still roars to life whenever the floating God-head appears and flies through
the sky and David Munrow’s score, which ranges between the eerie and distant
electronic noises of THX:1138 to
Beethoven’s Seventh, sounds as oddball and beautiful as it did on the DVD. In the time honored tradition of Twilight
Time, an isolated effects and music track has been included on the disc in 2.0
stereo.
 |
| "We ARE so progressive." |
The
Extras
While somewhat light in the way of video extras, only
including the original theatrical trailer, Twilight Time more than makes up for
the lack thereof in the audio department.
As with the aforementioned isolated track, the Blu-Ray ports over
director John Boorman’s audio commentary from the DVD as well as a newly
recorded commentary with Twilight Time’s Nick Redman and film historians Jeff
Bond and Joe Fordham, offering a unique insight into the film’s themes as well
as anecdotes about the film’s checkered past and how Sean Connery became
involved. It’s an engaging listen with a
lot of dissertation on the era of early 1970s low budget science fiction that asked
more of the audience than most films today would. Also included are several radio spots for the
film and, as always, Julie Kirgo’s essay included in booklet form.
Whether Zardoz really
works as a film or not is kind of beside the point. In terms of really strange
but intriguing science fiction films of the era, Zardoz is both completely bananas and oddly grounded in classical
as well as present themes. For trying to
create a completely new and unseen world of a perfect utopian society,
assailing the old ‘man-behind-the-curtain’ theme and attempting to use science
fiction as a comment on the end of the hippie generation, Zardoz is overloaded and completely out there and yet consistently
entertaining and unpredictable. No doubt
a mildly pretentious head scratcher, Zardoz
is wonderfully wacky and almost foresees the unbridled nutty mayhem Boorman
would brew with his much maligned sequel to The
Exorcist. Zardoz is, if nothing else, a truly interesting picture that has
the power to grow on you with time and for having the gall to take its
laughably bizarre premise all the way. A
wonderful addition to any film library for science fiction enthusiasts and
Twilight Time has done a great job with the Blu-Ray!
-Andrew Kotwicki