Though fans have often clamour for a sequel to 1970s classic Zardoz , only the Hughes Brothers could have done it , with Book of Eli . But did they toss away apart the original film ’s message to boot it for a new generation ?
Spoilers ahead !
release in 1974 , Zardoz starred Sean Connery fresh from his theatrical role as James Bond and became an instant cult classic . Written and directed by John Boorman , who later made Excalibur , the movie is a trippy post - Revelation of Saint John the Divine about a warrior named Zed who come across a precious book that belongs to a God named Zardoz . After having several conversations with Zardoz , Zed decide to go on a pursuit a strange spot called Vortex 4 to recover out more about how the book gave Zardoz his power .
This is the same canonic plot of ground in Book of Eli , with some startling changes that I ’ll go into below . With Eli , we ’ve got our present-day high - wattage action virtuoso ( Denzel Washington ) moving through a world whose rule make as much gumption as an LSD trip . He ’s been give a content from God that he must protect a precious book , and he ’s on a quest to deliver the volume to a deep land .
The Hughes Brothers patently decide to borrow liberally from the apocalyptic landscape painting of Zardoz for Book of Eli , though of course they relocate the story to near - future America from far - future England . ( Zardoz takes place in 2293 , while Eli is set just a few decades into the futurity . ) In the effigy above , you may see that the landscape in Eli ( top ) is much more sparsely - populated than Zardoz ( bottom ) , but still contains the telltale wreck cars and dilapidate road sign of a fallen civilization .
Both films also have their share of rampage post - apocalyptic murderers who stand in for the dark side of humanity . But here ’s where Book of Eli start to vary from Zardoz . Zed is a former member of the bravo in their scarey carmine mask . He ’s join them on foray where they kill people in shabby business clothes that have lasted mysteriously for 300 age . But unlike Zed , Eli has never been a fellow member of an assassin ’s group . He does , however , carry handiwipes in little foil packages from Kentucky Fried Chicken that have mysteriously lasted for 30 years .
Also , Zed utilize a gunman while Eli practice both a gunslinger and a tongue . This reach Eli slightly more awesome than Zed , except for one thing . Denzel Washington never appears in Sean Connery ’s iconic turnout ( visualize at the top of this post ) . This transformation from lustrous red underwear and bondage hemp to dour cargo jacket is a exonerated sign that this reboot of Zardoz has been drained of its masculine intensity . While Connery ’s manhood is display with pride , Washington remains virtuously surcharge ( though there are some Zardoz - esque scenes where he washes his crotch with the handiwipes ) .
One of the things that fans will no doubt determine frustrating is the way Book of Eli completely extinguish one of the most important parts of the original flick : try God verbalise to Zed . In Zardoz , we meet God decent away , as you’re able to see in the cartridge holder below , and we even get to hear his sermon about guns and penises . Clearly Eli is play on this same content , since he carries a stack of guns and never shows anybody his penis . But why egest such an important part of the story ?
At least Book of Eli has the decency to preserve the original villain , a book lover who want to contain people with religion . In Eli , this adversary has been renamed Carnegie . In Zardoz he ’s known simply as Zardoz , and on occasion by his material name , Arthur . Below you may see Carnegie reading about Mussolini , his theatrical role model . Carnegie want a very peculiar book that Eli has in his possession , which he think will help him attain dictatorial power . And then there ’s Arthur with his book of choice .
This make for me to the main problem with this reboot of Zardoz . The Hughes Brothers exchange the holy book from Wizard of Oz to The Bible . Before we get into how lilliputian sense this makes , another basic pointedness call for to be made . This change the whole meaning of the movie ! The point of Zardoz is that religion can be used to control multitude , no matter how silly and random the source material is for that religion . The fact that God is Zardoz , a name drawn from the deed of conveyance of a children ’s book , is supposed to emphasize this basic idea . But when you make that Holy Scripture into the Bible , that detail is lose ! Instead , the Hughes Brothers seem to be saying that the book itself has the king to produce religion , not the other way around . Here is how we rule out about the “ holy Christian Bible ” in the original film :
Now this book is the Bible ? I keep go over this alteration in my mind , wondering what the filmmakers were call back . Did they really want to imply that Christianity , a religion that trillion of citizenry view as the true , is the same thing as Zardoz - adoration ? Are they really go that far out on a limb in their anti - Christian sentiment that they would compare decease to church with worshiping a jumbo floating point that purge up guns ? You could call this move brave , but I think it ’s just an model of a bad reboot .
It seems that the Hughes Brothers are trying to say that the premiss of the flick they remade was totally wrong . They ’re promoting the idea that some book are magically holy and human use has nothing to do with it . And this makes dead no sense . I imply , if the idea is that Eli has a Word of God that can wangle people , it absolutely has to be Wizard of Oz , which is about a hombre who manipulate multitude with Oz - worship from behind a drapery . How can it be the Bible ? Is Moses supposed to be the guy behind the curtain ? How does that suit with the plot of land of the movie at all ? I feel betrayed . And I intend many fan will too .
But that is n’t the worst treachery . It gets much , much bad .
In Zardoz , Zed becomes involved with two women , just as Eli does in Book of Eli . These cleaning woman are combat for his psyche . So far , so good . In Zardoz , these two women are scientist who hate human being , and must be instruct about true manhood so as to be deliver . But the two women in Eli are both cocotte owned by Carnegie – they are n’t even scientists , let alone serviceman - detest women’s rightist . Where is the true manhood in Eli ? He wears that shapeless outfit and never talks about sex at all . And when one of the women offers herself to Eli , he does n’t show her his humanness – or else , he prays with her !
Here is what happens in Zardoz when the scientist is first exposed to Zed ’s true world power [ NSFW ] .
And here is what Eli does in Book of Eli . No erections . Just hand - hold and praying .
How could two men making a film with one of the most virile , masculine actor on screen manage to debilitate away all that is manly about this fictional character ? They ’ve turn him into a churchy milquetoast ! I would be scandalise if this were n’t simply another example of how Hollywood just want to recycle erstwhile classics and twist them into mainstream garbage . I should be used to it by now .
I wo n’t even get into how Book of Eli entirely tossed aside the genetic engine room subplot , which also changes the movie ’s message . Suffice to say Zardoz ’s period about evolution seems to have been tossed aside as easily as Wizard of Oz was .
One way that Book of Eli did succeed was in the engagement scenes . Even though Zardoz is a more stiff film in every way , it did n’t have virtually enough knifing or deal - to - hand combat . Nor did it have tanks or barroom brawl . Also , thankfully , Book of Eli did preserve one of the most important concluding moments from Zardoz . I wo n’t give you plunderer , but I will say that if you are hoping for an updated variation of this scene , below , then you ’re in for a kickshaw when you see Book of Eli . But other than that , it ’s a reboot that barely does Department of Justice to the original . Book of Eli manages to trace the basic plot of Zardoz , while completely debilitate away all the meaning and coherency of the original .
Book Of EliDenzel WashingtonMoviesSean Connery
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