Antonioni's sorrowing, stranger's-eye view of modern America is sadly flawed by the way his 'story' s bogged down in the mood of student revolt dogging the nation in the late '60s.
Zabriskie Point (1970)
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Reviews Counted:18
Fresh:11
Rotten:7
Average Rating:6/10
Runtime: 1 hr 52 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Legendary Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni's first stateside film is a surreal examination of dissension and rebellion in American society. In particular, ZABRISKIE POINT explores the... Legendary Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni's first stateside film is a surreal examination of dissension and rebellion in American society. In particular, ZABRISKIE POINT explores the discord between rich and poor, as well as the distrust between the "establishment" and young, insurgent adults. By using special effects, documentary-style footage, and unusual camera angles, Antonioni succeeds in revealing how societal conflicts lead to anger--and violence. [More]
Starring: Mark Frechette, Daria Halprin, Rod Taylor, Paul Fix
Starring: Mark Frechette, Daria Halprin, Rod Taylor, Paul Fix
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Reviews for Zabriskie Point
You'll be hard pressed to make much sense out of any of the goings-on.
...can't be regarded as any sort of success. It's a self-indulgent movie, filled with half-baked ideas and radical sloganeering.
You will not see a better distillation of the entire 1960s and everything it stood for - good, bad, indifferent, insightful - than this uncompromising artistic overview.
Almost 40 years later, Zabriskie Point exists to teach us more exact and sensitive perceptions about a cultural moment that its original audience was too close to appropriately observe.
If you just sit back and let the film ride out as an experience, you're bound to enjoy the journey
If the film is a failure, then at least it is a striking and provocative failure that attempted to challenge audiences.
Antonioni got the worst reviews of his career for this, his first all-American work, yet a second look suggests that, despite muddled script and apocalyptic finale, the film has some artistic merits in the breathtaking visuals of Death Valley.
Antonioni has sought to bring into the focus of his own insights, the student vs establishment conflict. He is on foreign terrain.
With this picture the director falls into two traps: employing endless 'anti-Establishment' cliches and saddling himself with the underwhelming talents of Mark Frechette.
Having seen this and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (the latter repeatedly) in the same week, it's hard not to see them as two sides of the same horny, hazy, and hirsute coin.
Because of the fundamental emptiness of his American vision, all sorts of flaws that one might overlook in better Antonioni films become apparent.
Antonioni has no feeling for young people...He has tried to make a serious movie and hasn't even achieved a beach-party level of insight.
Set in the Los Angeles of the late 1960s, this is Antonioni's only foray into American territory.
[Antonioni's] beautiful handling of 'Scope compositions and moods has many lingering aftereffects, and the grand and beautiful apocalyptic finale is downright spectacular.
Latest News for Zabriskie Point
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