An American-Irish science fantasy; A story set in the distant future about an exterminator who finds a way into a community of bored immortals who preserve humanity's achievements but he is the only virile man and powerless against elitist hyper-intellectual women. Special effects, lush photography and creative ingenuity in stage design helped this film to be thought-provoking but there is a palpable sense it fell short in scope and ambition. The main theme - substitution of one's humanity for a life of intellect and the topic of immortality and its inherent problems was interesting. Nevertheless, the story suffered for handling too many systems of thought using characters that were not built out sufficiently; subjects raised, like eugenics, anthropology, artifical intelligence, are left unexplored yet were important to the story and this made dialogue occasionally sound recondite. Sean Connery is well cast - he embodied both the elemental aspects of Zed and the inquisitive aspects of his transformation. Charlotte Rampling as a haughty, sensual immortal performs well too.
Review of Zardoz
