Shomebody here named Shtone Head ordered an exshtra large pizza?

ZARDOZ

Welcome to the final post of Tinfoil Hat Thursday, at least for now.  Tonight we have a very special viewing of Zardoz.  How many of you have actually watched this film, as opposed to just making jokes about it?  You young whippersnappers feel like riffing on Zardoz?  Well, this might sober you up.  Let’s see how close we are to being in the world of Zardoz right now:

  • The penis is evil:  Yep
  • The gun is good:  Yep. However, if any restrictive gun laws pass in the next two years, we might all be using new interpretations of Connery’s Webly-Fosbery.
  • Dudes wear women’s clothing: Yep
  • Mankinis are a thing: Yep
  • A group of depraved elites with incomprehensible social rules found a way to live forever and lord over the common folk:  Yep! Oh wait, this is a better picture.

Overall, if we were on a Zardoz clock where midnight meant Sean was raping and pillaging on a beach, I’d say were are at about 10:15 in the evening.  Past dinner, maybe two cognacs down, about time for a Zoom and some ill-advised pants dropping.  Should I go on? Keep watching this film and you’ll run into parallels all over the place.  Zardoz was predicting our future. At the time, nobody believed our future would be such a mess, so reviews of the film indicated confusion with the film’s concepts.  Over time, I personally have rewatched this film and it made more sense with every passing decade.  So how popular is Zardoz these days?  I found all this:

That’s popular.  Zardoz might as well be the next Spaceballs.  So what trivia do you really know about Zardoz, other than that it is a film a bunch of old Glibertarians reference? How about this:

  • Burt Reynolds was going to be Zed.  But he backed out.  Equally hairy and disturbing in thigh high boots was Sean Connery, who won the show. I personally cannot see Burt Reynolds in this role.  He’d smile or laugh, and all the sudden, there’s The Bandit in some kinky boots. No, Sean made Zardoz just like the Ramones made Rock N’ Roll High School.
  • This was the film John Boorman made right after Deliverance.  Deliverance is also another film beloved of the Glibs.
  • Sean had no problem with the mankini.  But he felt the wedding dress was a step too far.
  • The other brutal exterminators were local Irishmen, who really got into it and added to the film.
  • Zed was using a very unusual semi-automatic revolver, which I mentioned above. Here’s a link to a video of using the Webly-Fosbery.  No doubt that will be a topic of conversation tonight. That revolver is also a star of the show.

I can’t wait to see what other trivia you folks come up with in the comments. This is your big chance to see a futuristic dystopian film you may have only ever known about in memes.  So watch!  Or don’t! Everything is all fun and games until Zed gropes your boob.  Here’s a real drinking game for you.  How many times in this movie does somebody say “The penis is evil.” Count up!

See you next week for a change of scenery. It’s been rough, providing all these classy movies for Tinfoil Hat Thursdays. I still love the theme but I will take it down a notch.  So next week, I fulfill my love of classic kung fu and small government with Ninja in the Claws of the CIA. Those government alphabet agencies just can’t leave a man alone!

IMPORTANT NOTE: Internet Archive is a little wonky.  It is unlikely the movie will play the first time ‘Play’ is clicked.  Be patient, you may have to try up to three times to get it to start playing the film. Chrome, Safari or FireFox are recommended.  Microsoft browsers get grouchy. This movie will play, it was tested by the crack GlibFlick team over Christmas break. This is the only way I can get some of these films, so I apologize for any inconvenience.