Immortality… The quest to deny death has plagued mankind for as long as mankind has been around. Alchemists sought the means to create the fabled Philosopher’s Stone which would produce the elixir of life; brave explorers searched for the Fountain of Youth; cryogenics, while a staple of science fiction, is a service actually offered today (although hope in this method is in vain). Humanity wants to live forever; religion has instilled in us simultaneously a way to make peace with death and a reason to fear it. But what if eternal life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be?

Tomorrow night, Saturday, Baxter Avenue Theater presents a midnight screening of the classic science fiction film “Zardoz.” (How to describe this film? Words do not do it justice…) The year is 2293 and Zed (played by James Bond himself: Sean Connery) is an Exterminator, a member of a cult which follows a giant floating head-shaped rock called Zardoz which tells them to kill everybody:

The gun is good. The penis is evil. The penis shoots seeds , and makes new life to poison the Earth with a plague of men, as once it was, but the gun shoots death, and purifies the Earth of the filth of brutals. Go forth ... and kill!

 Zed eventually finds himself trapped in a strange Utopian land where everybody is immortal and enlightened – they are the keepers of all of humanity’s knowledge. What happens next? You tell me… It is strange and campy and surreal.

Oh, and this is what Sean Connery is wearing pretty much the whole time:

Baxter Avenue Theater is located at 1250 Bardstown Road. Theater information and advance ticket sales can be found at the theater’s website.

And after watching the film, check out the Movie Meltdown podcast for their discussion on all the craziness you just witnessed.

First Image: Internet Movie Database
Second Image: Wikipedia