Episode 280: ZARDOZ (1974) with Natalie Marlin

Trylove

With Natalie Marlin!

Whatever you know about ZARDOZ — it’s by the guy who made DELIVERANCE (1972), it’s a weird meme, Charlotte Rampling’s instant pregnancy, Sean Connery’s nutsling — we promise you, it’s just the beginning. A critically divisive movie that’s garnered a cult following in the five decades since its release, it’s certainly earned that reputation.

It’s a movie where philosophical mishmash rubs shoulders with overt sexual politics and more dick jokes than you can shake a dick at. But when you step back, it’s got way more going under the hood; in fact, some of us are convinced it’s an iconoclast warning signal for the era of the blockbuster, releasing just a year before JAWS (1975) and three before STAR WARS (1977).

Go on this inter-Vortex journey with us as we welcome Natalie to go inside the big stone head, down the yellow brick road, and to the very heart of ZARDOZ!

References:

• Watch ZARDOZ on the Internet Archive
• “Down the Yellow Brick Road and Through the Looking Glass: How Zardoz Was Colored by its Era and Reflects Back on Today” by Zach Staads for Perisphere, the Trylon blog
• “I Have Seen the Future, and It Doesn’t Work: The Off-Kilter, Semi-Genius of Zardoz” by Michael Popham for Perisphere, the Trylon blog

Find Natalie…

• On Twitter and Bluesky at @NataliesNotInIt
• On Letterboxd at @framingthepic
• In the byline for "Noise Music," a forthcoming entry in Genre: A 33 ⅓ Series book about the noise genre
• On Trylove Episode 162: THE THIRD MAN (1949), Episode 182: CHESS OF THE WIND (1979), Episode 197: RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD (1985), Episode 210: MAD MAX: FURY ROAD (2015), Episode 239: MILLENNIUM MAMBO (2001), Episode 249: THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999), and LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT (2018)

Contribute to Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/perisphere-blog-post-guidelines/

#CharlotteRamplingsIllusionsOfInvulnerability #DCP

Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast and email us at [e-mail] to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at trylon.org.

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Closing audio: "Symphony No.7 in A major op.92 - II, Allegretto" composed by Ludwig van Beethoven, conducted by Eugen Jochum, and performed by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra from the ZARDOZ soundtrack.

Timestamps

0:00 - Episode 280: ZARDOZ (1974)

3:06 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary

4:28 - The provenance of ZARDOZ

18:01 - What “versions” of science fiction it’s referencing/playing on

25:30 - The visual communication vs. long stretches of dialogue

29:06 - The fourth wall-breaking setup

38:59 - Aaron FINALLY gets his freak on

41:03 - A sci-fi piss-take that occasionally reads straight

46:18 - Zed’s “base” existence vs. the bored, infallible upper caste

1:04:59 - Where the movie ends up thematically

1:11:00 - An allegorical warning for the future of movies

1:21:16 - The Junk Drawer

1:29:33 - To All the Loves We’ve Tried Before: 1974

1:31:49 - Cody’s Noteys: The Zar-dossier (ZARDOZ-adjacent trivia)