TFT 143 – THE AMERICAN / ZARDOZ
posted by
Jett Loe
TFT 143 running time: 49 minutes 55 seconds – 24mb mp3
THE AMERICAN starts at 1 minute 57 seconds
ZARDOZ starts at 22 minutes 27 seconds
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 14th, 2010 at 5:14 pm. It is filed under Action, Blog, Drama, Favorite Posts, Gareth Higgins, Gareth Higgins Reviews, Jett Loe, Jett Loe Reviews, Podcast, Reviews, Science Fiction and tagged with film review podcast, movie review podcast. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
I re-watched this about a month ago and I’ve heard/seen about 5 references to it since then. As usual, TFT got dey finga on da pulse.
I just listened to this podcast on the way into the office. This was an example of solid film criticism in which you detail the film’s strengths and assess it for its thematic and aesthetic impact. I think it’s your strongest podcast yet. Well done.
While I don’t have as much veneration for Zardoz as you both, I certainly regard it as a unique artistic endeavor. Cheers, too, for your recognition of John Boorman’s incredible — and here in the US, largely un-sung — contribution to cinema. (I heartily second the call for a podcast on Boorman’s work, especially if you could get him on the show.)
I appreciated the fact that you didn’t gloss over some of the film’s obvious shortcomings (RED DIAPERS! — I joke), and I was interested to hear more about why Gareth called it “awful” and “boring” in parts.
For me, even though it has its moments of grandeur — certainly the opening sequence with the Brutals is amazing in its terrible barbarity and bleakness — overall I find Zardoz not enjoyable. But hats off to Boorman for pursuing his vision.
As an aside, you both may be interested in the novel Radix by A.A. Attanasio. There are echoes in the book with this film regarding death and spiritual transformation, brutality and the cycle of life, set within a bleak future Earth. (I have a very small blurb about it here.) If either of you get around to reading it, I’d be very interested to hear what you thought of it.
hi daveed – will check out your blog post – cheers for the suggestion of Radix :)
plus of course thank you for the kind comments re: this week’s show – much appreciated – perhaps Gareth and I should do a John Boorman tribute at a rep theatre here in LA when we get the chance! (or at the very least get Mr. Boorman on the show)
If you guys did a John Boorman tribute, I would be interested in hearing what you think about his films with Lee Marvin, especially _Hell in the Pacific_. I also never bought that Lee Marvin and Marlon Brando were 10-15 years too old for _Deliverance_. I don’t think it would necessarily have been a better movie with them in it, but it would definitely have been a better movie for Lee to be in than _Pocket Money_ or _Prime Cut_.
you know i’ve always kinda liked PRIME CUT…but i appreciate that’s probably just me.
No Jett – it’s not just you, I love ‘Prime Cut’ as well.
“I am so sick and tired of a certain kind of film criticism that seems to think movies began with Pulp Fiction and will avoid at all costs any discussion of the themes of a movie, the politics of a movie, the aesthetics of a movie, etc.”
Hear, hear! I want to put this on a flag or something. Maybe write it on a declaration and sign it, or skywrite it in strategic locations.
P.S. I tried desperately to photoshop a picture of myself and Armond White together, but he’s only slightly more prolific on Google Images than I am, which is not at all. The mystery remains.
the fact that there are no photos of you and Armond together on the web just further fuels suspicion…
+ cheers for the kind thoughts re: my feelings about much of contemporary film criticism – well, it’s not criticism really – folks are acting like marketing folks who either are excited about the film they’re selling or not – but they’re always selling.
I concur with the person-allegedly-known-as Brandon Norwalk’s flag idea. ;)
I just ditched another movie podcast for that very reason. I’d rather hear some thought-provoking criticism, some exploration of the ideas a film is trying to bring to life, not listen in on a “liked it/that sucked” feedback session from a couple of film nerds.
I watched Zardoz twice over the weekend at your suggestion. I found it less about religion than the religious nature of politics. I found it very contemporary. Wall Street and Inside the Beltway pols as Eternals, and the Tea Party folks as Brutals. Zardoz is the god of the Elites, who is just an Eternal. And the Brutals have come to see how they have been manipulated by this false god, and so death comes for a visit to the perfect, and boring world as Friend notes, of the Eternals. I think it could easily be made a political thriller without all the SciFi mysticism.
Thanks for the recommendation.
I like the idea of you guys doing, shall we say, pre-Speilberg/Lucas classics. I’d be interested in your take on Visconti’s The Leopard, one of my favorite films of that era. I did a blog post on it back in July that may be worth reading. http://edbrenegar.typepad.com/leading_questions/2010/07/tradition-and-change.html
Keep up the great criticism that you do.
he Ed – the question is – in the Zardoz/Tea Party conception who is Sarah Palin?
+ (is Zardoz Newt Gringrich?)
+ thanks for the link re: THE PRINCE. Now I must, of course, see the film. :)
Now I want to know what Jett and Gareth saw in _Prime Cut_. There are things to like, such as the cast (Lee Marvin, Gene Hackman, and, of course, Sissy Spacek), the sequence in sunflower field, and the cinematography. But overall, when it isn’t brutally misogynistic, it’s sexist. Based on some of your reviews (Jett on _The Killer Inside Me_ and Gareth on several films), I thought one of you would find the way it aestheticises violence and the domination of women revolting.
hi faust – i saw PRIME CUT many many years ago – so would have to revisit it to address your comments. perhaps in a future show?
Or, Zardoz might be Barack Obama, the false god manipulating the politically ignorant Brutals. And the Eternals are coterie of White House hangers-on as those living in the eternal dream state of the 2008 presidential campaign. :P