10 Underrated Science Fiction Movies You Must See

There are some that declare John Boorman's 1974 science fiction epic to be one of the worst movies ever made. For many, it's known only for featuring Sean Connery wearing a long dark pony tail and a bright orange, proto-Borat mankini, which seems to confirm it as a high camp classic.

There's no denying that Zardoz is the kind of excessive, bizarre, over-ambitious filmmaking that could only happen on such a large scale in the 1970s. However, it's also an undeniably thoughtful, imaginative speculation on what might become of human society should science crack the problem of immortality.

Connery is Zed, a savage of the wastelands, whose denizens are taught to kill one another en masse and equipped with the guns to do so by their god, Zardoz, a giant floating stone head who visits their land intermittently. However, a curiosity-stricken Zed sneaks into the mouth of Zardoz in hopes of visiting the land of the gods.

Once there, Zed discovers the alarming truth: that his people have been manipulated by a decadent overclass, who live an indulgent lifestyle having been freed from the burden of death. However, eternity has left them jaded, and the presence of this proletariat brute sends a shockwave through their social order.

Yes, Zardoz is bursting with post-flower power weirdness and self-indulgence, has too many ideas for its own good, and was never going to be to all tastes. Even so, it's clearly a pretty unique experience, and a very rewarding one so long as you can get on its wavelength.