Zabriskie Point (1970)
Genre: Drama / Romance
Duration: 110 minuten
Country:
United States
Directed by: Michelangelo Antonioni
Stars: Mark Frechette, Daria Halprin and Rod Taylor
IMDb score:
6,9 (18.154)
Releasedate: 9 February 1970
This movie is not available on US streaming services.
Zabriskie Point plot
"How you get there depends on where you're at."
Antonioni's indictment of American consumer society. A policeman is killed during a student demonstration. Student Frechette becomes suspicious and flees into the desert in a stolen plane. There he meets secretary Halprin, who is on his way to a conference in Phoenix.
Actors and actresses
Mark
Daria
Cafe Owner
Lee's Associate
Morty
Kathleen
Lee Allen
Man Departing Airplane (uncredited)
Arrested Student (uncredited)
Diner Owner (uncredited)
Reviews & comments
Fortune
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- 4332 messages
- 2803 votes
My first Antonioni.
I just don't quite know what this was an indictment against? Against advertising? Against emptiness? Against revolutionary youth? I think the latter. The film opens with students talking about a revolutionary party and in my mind the film says it pretty much stays there. The hero of the story doesn't feel like talking but wants action.
The main character is Someone who got kicked out of school because of all the mischief and being rebellious and has a kind of dream to shoot a cop but he couldn't even do that because someone beat him to it. He steals a plane and has a quasi-philosophical monotonous get-together with a weed-smoking hippie chick who he eventually makes love to. Then they paint the plane with hippie-like slogans to bring it back.
So talking about revolution or taking action against revolution, it's all just nonsense. The ending is really beautiful and alienating, the film could have had more scenes like that. It's just all in the fantasy of the girl's head, that's it, fantasy or is that what the movie means that we actually want to explode everything in our head. Mehh.
The ending is great and I thought that commercial with the fashion dolls was pretty funny too. But if this is an indictment of American consumer society, then that should be a little harder. I mean a few close-ups of billboards doesn't make an indictment...
Those scenes don't work for me at all. Looks like Antonioni is hanging out of a car and zooming in on some billboards. That could have been much more intrusive and intense, found it rather sloppy and ineffective.
I don't really know why I give three stars for a number of good scenes, but I like the special structure and idiosyncrasy of the film.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Leland Palmer
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- 23787 messages
- 4902 votes
name? - 'Karl Marx'
2nd Antonioni. What a movie. I am a big fan of LA and all the sand around it. In terms of locations, this film cannot go wrong. Deep, very deep in the middle of Death Valley - on the hottest piece of desert in the world ('Zabriskie Point') Mark and Daria meet. Totally different people with different lives.
What follows is a masterful and scorching hot trip. Before this starts, Antonioni paints a very clear and striking picture of the consumer society in LA. All those billboards, commercials on TV, everything in society seems to revolve around the interweaving of services and goods. Until Mark flees, steals a plane and flies deep into the desert. Antonioni then largely lets the images do the work + the somewhat minimal presence of dialogue, but in this area it hits the mark.
The free-scene is magical, while tripping more people join it in the heat. Mighty scene. But it's only towards the end that this 'Zabriskie Point' really starts to get unimaginably good, making everything that came before in Death Valley fit right into the puzzle. From the moment Daria wants to take ''revenge'' alone - after the death of Mark - this trip starts to take on otherworldly good shapes. That house! Beautiful, a dream. There in the middle of the desert. Wonderful. But he will and must be flat, Daria thinks. The surreal explosion is one of the best scenes I've seen in a very long time.
Or not? Daria quietly drives away. Roy Orbison provides a wonderful closing track with his 'So Young'. The burning sun is pushed in the viewer's face just before the credits and I enjoyed it. Wonderful movie. I didn't think this movie would affect me so much. A masterpiece in my opinion.
Translated from Dutch · View original
mjk87 (moderator films)
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- 14596 messages
- 4552 votes
Very nice film by Antonioni. It's not immediately clear what he exactly wants to say, but somehow it doesn't matter. Kind of reminded me of Knight of Cups I saw the day before. Both are set in and around LA and seem to give certain themes like the emptiness of existence. But where Knight of Cups gives constant drivel through the voice-over (and therefore irritates and above all comes across as pretentious), Antonioni relies purely on the power of his images. Not always strong in terms of content either - I really don't see the criticism of the consumer society mentioned above, then I would rather recommend Ghost World - but that content doesn't stand in the way of enjoying the dreamy images either.
Nice image of LA too and wonderful shots in the desert, especially with the psychedelic music in the background. In addition, this one reminded me a bit more of La Notte, where you notice that the shots have been thought through and that there is always a special image in it, where the angle or composition is slightly different. Halfway through (around the sex scene) the flow goes off a bit, but overall the film looks great and it comes back towards the end. It is a pity that both protagonists do not make much of it, that could have made the film even better.
For me, this is mainly a film about youth who want a lot, and shout, but ultimately do nothing (and also become exactly what they are protesting against, although that last point does not really emerge). But I do believe that country house in the last scene (beautiful scene by the way) was never blown up, only in the girl's mind. 4.0*.
Translated from Dutch · View original
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