Zabriskie Point (1970)

61% of critics liked it
(18 reviews)
76% of users liked it
(10,613 ratings)

Zabriskie Point, director Michelangelo Antonioni's only American film, is an unusual, visually stunning examination of youthful rebellion against the Establishment. The film, initially presented in quasi-documentary style, presents a group of college activists discussing key issues of their… More Zabriskie Point, director Michelangelo Antonioni's only American film, is an unusual, visually stunning examination of youthful rebellion against the Establishment. The film, initially presented in quasi-documentary style, presents a group of college activists discussing key issues of their political agenda. Mark (Mark Frechette) steals an airplane and flies over a desert where he meets Daria (Daria Halprin). She is the pot-smoking secretary to businessman Lee Allen (Rod Taylor), while he is a rebel searching for a worthy cause. In the midst of the arid surroundings, Mark and Daria fall in love. Antonioni's nonrealistic approach to American counterculture myths, his loose and sluggish narrative, and the dialogue (credited to Fred Gardner, Sam Shepard, Tonino Guerra, Clare Peploe, and Antonioni) caused Zabriskie Point to be poorly received when it was first released. The score features songs from Pink Floyd, The Grateful Dead, Kaleidoscope, The Rolling Stones, John Fahey, The Youngbloods and Patti Page. ~ Linda Rasmussen, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: R, 1 hr. 52 min.
Directed By: Michelangelo Antonioni
Genres: Drama, Action & Adventure, Romance

In Theaters: Feb 9, 1970 Wide
On DVD: May 26, 2009
Studio: MGM

Critic Reviews

Variety Staff, Variety
Antonioni has sought to bring into the focus of his own insights, the student vs establishment conflict. He is on foreign terrain.
Vincent Canby, New York Times
Because of the fundamental emptiness of his American vision, all sorts of flaws that one might overlook in better Antonioni films become apparent.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
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.
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
[Antonioni's] beautiful handling of 'Scope compositions and moods has many lingering aftereffects, and the grand and beautiful apocalyptic finale is downright spectacular.
Philip Martin, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
...can't be regarded as any sort of success. It's a self-indulgent movie, filled with half-baked ideas and radical sloganeering.
Bill Gibron, PopMatters
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.
Armond White, New York Press
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.
Keith Breese, Filmcritic.com
If you just sit back and let the film ride out as an experience, you're bound to enjoy the journey
Phil Hall, Film Threat
If the film is a failure, then at least it is a striking and provocative failure that attempted to challenge audiences.
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com
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.
, TV Guide's Movie Guide
With this picture the director falls into two traps: employing endless 'anti-Establishment' cliches and saddling himself with the underwhelming talents of Mark Frechette.
Leo Goldsmith, Not Coming to a Theater Near You
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.
Geoff Andrew, Time Out
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.
John Esther, Pasadena Weekly
Antonioni's worse film ever
, Film4
You'll be hard pressed to make much sense out of any of the goings-on.
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Set in the Los Angeles of the late 1960s, this is Antonioni's only foray into American territory.

Read all 16 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

AJ V

Wow, I don't remember this movie at all, I need to watch it again sometime.
Walter M

[font=Century Gothic]In "Zabriskie Point", Mark(Mark Frachete) is a campus radical involved in a college strike. He and his pals have had enough with meetings and decide armed resistance is the way to go. During one confrontation with the police, a policeman is killed.… More
[font=Century Gothic]In "Zabriskie Point", Mark(Mark Frachete) is a campus radical involved in a college strike. He and his pals have had enough with meetings and decide armed resistance is the way to go. During one confrontation with the police, a policeman is killed. Mark flees by stealing an airplane and flies towards the desert. Meanwhile, Daria(Daria Halprin) is driving out to Phoenix via a meditation center she hopes to find...[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]"Zabriskie Point" is a very dated movie about violence in America. The acting is amateurish with the exceptions of Rod Taylor and G.D. Spradlin. Michelangelo Antonioni sure seemed to enjoy photographing billboards. There are a couple of nice sequences, though.[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]What is wrong with nonviolent resistance by the way? Granted, I did not like meetings in my college days and I still do not(The subject matter having changed from socialism to capitalism.) but in any kind of movement, you still need some sort of ideology and idea as to what you hope to achieve. [/font]
George M

Not one of Antonioni's best, that's for sure. But the final sequence with the explosions is BRILLIANT!
Mike T

Michelangelo Antonioni's approach to this film is challenging but deliberate, and anyone willing to embrace its strangeness will find something to admire in his vision. Poetic in execution and visually inventive, it is a picture of undeniably high production value with… More
Michelangelo Antonioni's approach to this film is challenging but deliberate, and anyone willing to embrace its strangeness will find something to admire in his vision. Poetic in execution and visually inventive, it is a picture of undeniably high production value with thought-provoking aftereffects. I found it to be mesmerizing, but its borderline surrealism and narrative rule-breaking will be off-putting for a lot of people. This is a film I will revisit.
Emily B

Was a commercial failure but in it's defence it has beautiful scenery and an amazing ending.