Zabriskie Point

It seems purposely designed to appeal to no one. Establishment types/mainstream audiences of the era would have obviously hated its overt counter-culture vibes (i.e. the "Carl Marx" joke, the repainted plane, the repudiation of authority, etc.) and hippie revolutionaries would have been put off by the apocalyptic sexual imagery and the forced distance between the audience and the characters that leaves you with an unavoidable sense of emptiness. Ultimately it might be one of the definitive depictions of that era as Antonioni saw through everyone.

Every great director seems to stumble at some point in their career. In the case of Michelangelo Antonioni, that stumble seems to have come with 1970s Zabriskie Point, a disjointed effort about revolution, alienation, and the chasm between the establishment and the counter-culture in 1960's America. The story is weak (a hippy girl and a revolutionary boy escape L.A., meet in the desert, and then go their separate ways), the acting is amateurish (which makes sense since none of them are established actors), and Antonioni's usually sure-handed direction seems to be decidedly unsure of itself. On the plus side, the soundtrack is great and the locations are beautiful, but that's nowhere near close enough to salvage what is otherwise a mess.

I like Antonioni's style, and this his American work lacks tension in my opinion. The ennui his films posses work well in European background. This is hippie, visually stunning though.

I must be missing something. Was this movie supposed to be good?

I'm kind of bamboozled by Zabriskie Point. It's too obvious and heavy-handed to be a sincere mainstream criticism of American social changes in the '60s, and not weird enough to earn the status of cult classic (though it certainly tries; painting some boobs on a plane to fly back to the waiting arms of police feels like Antonioni is trying to be a milquetoast John Waters). The story is pretty wandering and events just sort of happen without a whole lot of justification or sense, and the relationship that the film is based upon seems haphazard and nonsensical, but is so clearly intended to represent an idyllic alternative to the posionous greed and authoritarianism that has become part and parcel of American culture. Zabriskie Point feels like an "outisde looking in" take on counterculture that features some solid landscape shots but doesn't know how to execute its themes effectively, coming off as simplistic or canned at points and aimless for long stretches. Slow-motion shots of exploding clothing racks and refrigerators aren't really insightful in and of themselves, and it's stuff like that that makes the heavy criticism aimed at Antonioni from his contemporaries seem valid. Cool soundtrack, though. (1.5/5)

innovative concepts and visions for the time but seen today it tires the viewer

1001 movies to see before you die. I saw someone else use the word pretentious and I felt that fitting for this film that tried to capture the antiestablishment hippie feeling. It was a boring movie to boot. It was on YouTube.

1970 - The final scene of the explosion has a visual beauty and greatness and fullness of meaning such that almost no other director ever realized anything the like. With this solely invention, Antonioni is 200 years ahead of anyone of his critics.

30 minutes shorter and it'd had been a masterpiece.

While I didn't like the politics of this movie, Antonioni is still Antonioni.