Zardoz is a 1974 Irish-American-British science fantasy film written, produced, and directed by John Boorman and starring Sean Connery and Charlotte Rampling, and featuring SaraKestelman. The film was shot by cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth on a budget of US$1.57 million. It depicts a post-apocalyptic world (which Boorman says, in the audio commentary, is matriarchal) where barbarians (the "Brutals")worship a stone god called "Zardoz", who has the power to grant either death or eternal life, and who - in the opening scene - declares: "The gun is good! The penis is evil!". In this future dystopia, while theBrutals live in a wasteland, their overlords (the "Eternals") luxuriate in the Vortex, apparently as self-satisfied as landed gentry. The Eternals createdZardoz to control the Brutals, inciting them to mass murder. However, Zed (Sean Connery) refuses to accept the status quo and his place among the oppressed, embarking on a journey that explores the themeof genetic engineering and exposes the devastating truth about the corrupt society he lives in.
