Movies - TV
The Special Effects-Laden Finale Of Zardoz Sent Sean Connery Into A Rage
By WITNEY SEIBOLD
Spoiler Warning!
This story contains spoilers for the 1974 film "Zardoz."
John Boorman's 1974 dystopian film "Zardoz" is one of the strangest, most bugnuts studio movies ever committed to celluloid, and it might perhaps function better as a midnight movie, meant for group consumption and the involvement of chemical enhancements. “Zardoz” also features a gun-toting Sean Connery, who was sent into a rage over the movie's finale.
In a 2014 interview with Vulture, Boorman talked about how hard it was to shoot the scene, and about the unfortunate circumstances that required his lead actor to do it multiple times. Connery didn't have any issues with the costumes or the psychedelic nature of "Zardoz," but he did hate spending all day on a single sequence.
The sequence required an extensive makeup job, a single take, then further makeup, a second take, and so on throughout the day. Boorman said that Connery didn’t like having make-up or anything touching his skin, and after the first two sequences were ruined, Connery went into a rage that required three grips to restrain him, but he finally agreed to film it a third time.