Happy (Belated) Birthday, Sean Connery: Zardoz (1974)

Thanks for the heads up

Well, if Sean Connery was eager to shed his James Bond image, Zardoz certainly goes a long way in helping him out in that endeavor. Wow, just wow. I was trying to find an image that could capture how weird this movie was, and the above one only goes part way in showing that. Yup, its just as odd as everyone says it is, both the picture and the movie. Ostensibly, an extended treatise one class and religion, it takes place in the year 2293. Connery plays Zed, an Exterminator, who just kills for his god and to keep the population down, he finds himself with a group of immortals, who alone keep track of humanity's achievements......from there it even further down the rabbit hole, if thats possible, and it is. This must have been some personal vision for John Boorman, it seems after getting some particularly good Thai stick and then staring at his lava lamp, he had a totally mind blowing vision of how to break people out of their cages of class and religion! I mean maybe who could know. But he DID write, direct AND produce this. Between this and Exorcist II, he seemed to spend the mid-seventies in a very weird place after the success of Deliverance. This movie plays out like a weird fever dream, and yet its sort of impossible to avert your gaze, because, being so odd, you really have no idea where they are going to go next. And, don't get me started on the "twist" at the end where they reveal where their "god" Zardoz got his name...oh man, its just, well, kind of amazing.

Bonus:
Ten Good Non-James Bond Sean Connery Roles:
(no particular order)

1) Professor Henry Jones, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
2) Marko Ramius, The Hunt For Red October (1990)
3) Jim Malone, The Untouchables (1987)
4) King Agamemnon, Time Bandits (1981)
5) Pierce, The Great Train Robbery (1979)
6) Major General Urquhart, A Bridge Too Far (1977)
7) Daniel Dravot , The Man Who Would Be King (1975)
8) Mark Rutland, Marnie (1964)
9) Pvt. Flanagan, The Longest Day (1962)
10) Robin Hood, Robin and Marian (1976)

Here's one more just because it's odd to see him like this, to me, in a different way: Michael McBride, Darby O' Gill and the Little People