Zardoz (1974)

Sally Anne Newton: Avalow

Photos 

Quotes 

• Avalow : [addressing the populace of the Vortex]  Death approaches! We are all mortal again! Now we can say 'yes' to death, but never again 'no'. Now, we must make our farewells: to each other, to the sun and moon, trees and sky, earth and rock, the landscape of our long waking-dream.

  [Avalow turns to Zed] 

  Avalow : Zed - the Liberator - liberate me now, according to your promise!

  [Zed readily raises his pistol. Avalow stretches in anticipation. The seconds pass, but no shot rings out] 

  Consuella : [urgently, to Zed, while focusing on Avalow]  Do it! Do it!

  Zed : [slowly lowering his pistol]  All that I was, is gone.

  [There is the bark of a shot, red spurts from Avalow's neck, and she collapses into the fountain's pool as the people moan in passion. Zed looks behind him - his fellow Exterminators have arrived] 

• Avalow : The monster is a mirror and when we look at him we look into our own hidden faces. Meditate on this...

• Avalow : Come. This will restore your sight and you will see more and deeper than you ever saw before.

  Zed : I've seen men rape an old crippled woman in a wet ditch.

• Avalow : How did we conjure up a monster in our midst? And why? That is the question we must answer.

• Avalow : The world was dying. We took all that was good and made an oasis here. We few: the rich, the powerful, the clever, cut ourselves off to guard the knowledge and treasures of civilization as the world plunged into a dark age. To do this, we had to harden our hearts against the suffering outside. We are custodians of the past for an unknown future.

• Avalow : I see now why you are here. You are the one. The Liberator.