Zabriskie Point

Antonioni really showed some 'cojones' when he had this movie made. He went to America working under a contract from the most lavish studio (MGM) and he made the most damning portrait of American society i've ever seen. Having seen LA first hand this is the most accurate portrayal of the crowded, overheated and impersonal city. If only Antonioni had met Bill Hicks...

The subsequent burial by the studio is understandable, after such a whopping investment and dismal return. It is sad that people don't get to see this film any more as i believe Antonioni has been proved right. Here he predicts the end of the hippie/civil rights movement in the politics of America. Everyone is much more interested in what goes into their pockets and the relentless expansion of living space into the inhospitable (yet beautiful) desert and beyond. How i would love to see interest in this film re-kindled and a lavish DVD release.

I beseech people to watch Zabriskie Point with an open mind and an open heart. We have a genuinely unique film commenting on a turning point in the history of the most powerful nation on the planet, and we have forgotten about it.

An unexpected gem.

The movie presents a view of the United States that only a foreigner could have. Sadly, foreigners can't relate to it and persons from the United States cannot believe it. The movie is, therefore, caught in limbo without an audience. Reviews of the film tend to reflect this.

I have lived away from the US for 30 years and can now pretend to be able to understand what Antonioni was wanting to achieve. My view is that he has excelled. The film is a stunning indictment of the United States and, tragically, I see no remediation in the 29 years since it was first released.

About two hundred members of a Cleveland, Ohio USA film society, named Cinematheque, gathered on August 19, 2000 to view a pristine Cinemascope print of Michelangelo Antonioni's 1970 film, "Zabriskie Point." Cinematheque Director John Ewing, who does a superlative job of obtaining the finest prints for his series, shared with the audience beforehand that this print was specially flown over from Italy for this one showing only.

The audience was held spellbound as the film unfolded its artisty on the huge panoramic screen. Watching this superb print, shown the way Antonioni intended, made one aware that this is indeed a modern art work. It was all the more fitting that the series is housed in the Cleveland Insititue of Art in University Circle.

Antonioni's compositions are created for the Cinemascope landscape. His beautiful balancing of images, striking use of colors, sweeping choreographic movements, all are the work of a genuine artist, using the screen as his canvas.

At last the audience could understand "Zabriskie Point." As its narrative unfolded, it became obvious that this work is not about story per se, but rather an artist's impressionistic rendering of fleeting images of his subject. The setting of some of the more turbulent activities of the sixties provides only a dramatic motor for the artist's sweeping collage.

Antonioni is not bound by conventional narrative standards, and can pause at any point to creatively embroider an event with grandiose embellishments. The audience willingly went with the flow of his remarkable imagination, as his huge images on the massive canvas held one in rapt attention. While the audience may have been only tangentially involved in character relationships, it realized the theme here is human aleination, the director's recurring theme.

It was also realized that no print any smaller or of lesser quality than this original one in Cinemascope can do justice to this particular rendering. The audience was therefore all the more appreciative of viewing "Zabriskie Point" in its original, breathtaking format, and broke into thunderous applause at the end.

These are the late 60's and the early 70's as I have always imagined. As usual Antonioni uses all the registers of communications: the sounds, the colours, the movements of the actors. You could say that the plot is not well balanced, that the dialogues are often silly and meaningless, and maybe you are right. But Antonioni is a master in evoking feelings, simple, rough feelings, using all the tools a filmmaker has.

The movie has some jewels, and among them the most shining are the 10 final minutes. The oneiric explosion sequence, with the music that comes and goes, with the time expanded and slowed down, with the kitsch colours of meaningless objects moving upward in the blue sky. In the movie history this is one of the best images of the explosive and destructive power of the ingenuity of that generation, that wanted to live changing the existing rules. Playing with colour, time, sounds and music Antonioni has given once more a proof of his unforgettable art: he is at the same time a painter, a music composer, a dancer, a poet.

I must admit, it's been (around) 2 years since I last saw Zabriskie Point...

For some reason it's never totally left my conscience yet generally for all the wrong reasons. While the cinematography is certainly impressive throughout I found that the whole ordeal just dragged, and dragged...and dragged, literally to the point of tedium. In the first instance then, Zabriskie Point is clearly suffering from pace, or lack of. The 'desert' or 'love' scene being a prime example of this - it's not art; it's not even vaguely artistic - but mundane and self indulgent. The gorgeous and sweltering locales of the desert are what's worth noting here; not two young protagonists who appear to share little, if no, connection.

In that respect it would seem that most people's opinions of Zabriskie Point are either deeply 'for' it or very much 'against' it. Were the 60s really like this?! Zabriskie Point seems to linger on too many stereotypes and while films such as Easy Rider managed to successful capture the ambience of counter-culture 1960s America Zabriskie Point falls just a bit short. Antonioni certainly knows how to lay-on some thick anti-establishment slurs but it's just so blatantly obvious and very hard to believe. On the plus side, the documentary-esque footage at the start of the film does help to give off a very 'real' vibe and is duly convincing. The acting, or lack of, is apt to an extent but hardly noteworthy. This is the frustrating element - it just seems to try so hard and has now gained a small reputation of being somewhat of a 'cult classic' but it's not justified. For those who try to read what they want to read into a film for the sake of art or intellect; those who subsequently look for hidden meanings that aren't there - maybe try this. If I wanted to do that I'd happily watch El Topo - not that I would ever compare the two.

Oh, did I mention Pink Floyd contributed to the soundtrack – perhaps one of the only serious redeeming qualities here. Thanks Dave and Roger.

6/10