"Zabriskie Point" is the single best film about the United States during the late sixties. The only other works to come close to its comprehension of American life at that moment are "Five Easy Pieces", also released in 1970, and "Play It as It Lays" from 1972.
Unforgettable cinematography in Panavision and Metrocolor by Alfio Contini (who did "Ripley's Game") is only little more conventional and less edgy than the magnificent work of László Kovács in the Bob Ralefson masterwork but clearly shows the unique touch of director Michelangelo Antonioni, who understood the aesthetics of Cinemascope. He understood the use of colour composition and classic structural balance as well as camera movement in ways few other directors grasped. Combining this visual composition with a remarkable soundtrack, he almost made here a film as good as any of his other films.
Sam Shepard, Franco Rossetti, Tonino Guerra, and Clare Peploe worked on the script. Guerra worked with Antonioni on other of his great films. Shepard worked with Wim Wenders on "Paris, Texas", another masterwork film narrative on American life. Members of The Open Theater simulated an orgy in Death Valley for one elegant scene. One recalls that the gifted director of that company Joseph Chaikin was an expert on Samuel Beckett, whose works mirror those of Antonioni.
Dennis Hopper's then future wife Sarah Miles look alike Daria Halprin played one of the two protagonists with grace and understated brilliance. Her future husband made a renowned but not first-rate film about America from this same interval, though released a year earlier. Rod Taylor is especially effective in his supporting role. There is a terrific casting of Paul Fix, friend and acting coach of John Wayne, as the owner of a roadhouse in an exquisitely shot scene.
I agree with commentator Chris Warrington in his review here that it is sad that Antonio did not meet Bill Hicks. Both men had keen takes on American life. Antonioni saw sixties America as it was. This is the narrative of that era that corny trash films such as "Forest Gump" wrongly receive credit for depicting. I too think that the Doors might have been at least as good if not better than Pink Floyd.
In some ways, Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in America" (the director's cut) became a counterpoint to this Antonio film, though a much more gentle and endearing one. However, this is a necessary film for anyone who wants to know about sixties America or, for that matter, America at all.
Unforgettable cinematography in Panavision and Metrocolor by Alfio Contini (who did "Ripley's Game") is only little more conventional and less edgy than the magnificent work of László Kovács in the Bob Ralefson masterwork but clearly shows the unique touch of director Michelangelo Antonioni, who understood the aesthetics of Cinemascope. He understood the use of colour composition and classic structural balance as well as camera movement in ways few other directors grasped. Combining this visual composition with a remarkable soundtrack, he almost made here a film as good as any of his other films.
Sam Shepard, Franco Rossetti, Tonino Guerra, and Clare Peploe worked on the script. Guerra worked with Antonioni on other of his great films. Shepard worked with Wim Wenders on "Paris, Texas", another masterwork film narrative on American life. Members of The Open Theater simulated an orgy in Death Valley for one elegant scene. One recalls that the gifted director of that company Joseph Chaikin was an expert on Samuel Beckett, whose works mirror those of Antonioni.
Dennis Hopper's then future wife Sarah Miles look alike Daria Halprin played one of the two protagonists with grace and understated brilliance. Her future husband made a renowned but not first-rate film about America from this same interval, though released a year earlier. Rod Taylor is especially effective in his supporting role. There is a terrific casting of Paul Fix, friend and acting coach of John Wayne, as the owner of a roadhouse in an exquisitely shot scene.
I agree with commentator Chris Warrington in his review here that it is sad that Antonio did not meet Bill Hicks. Both men had keen takes on American life. Antonioni saw sixties America as it was. This is the narrative of that era that corny trash films such as "Forest Gump" wrongly receive credit for depicting. I too think that the Doors might have been at least as good if not better than Pink Floyd.
In some ways, Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in America" (the director's cut) became a counterpoint to this Antonio film, though a much more gentle and endearing one. However, this is a necessary film for anyone who wants to know about sixties America or, for that matter, America at all.