# zabriskie point (film) ![[zabriskiepointfilmposter.jpg|300]] theatrical release poster directed by: michelangelo antonioni screenplay by: michelangelo antonioni - fred gardner - sam shepard - tonino guerra - clare peploe story by: michelangelo antonioni produced by: carlo ponti starring: mark frechette - daria halprin - rod taylor cinematography: alfio contini edited by: franco arcalli music by: john fahey - pink floyd - jerry garcia - grateful dead (robert hunter jerry garcia) - david lindley - the rolling stones (mick jagger keith richards) - jesse colin young - others (see below) production company: metro-goldwyn-mayer distributed by: metro-goldwyn-mayer release dates: february 5- 1970 (premiere) - february 9- 1970 (us) running time: 112 minutes country: united states language: english budget: $7 million box office: $1 million zabriskie point is a 1970 american drama film directed by michelangelo antonioni and starring mark frechette daria halprin and rod taylor. it was widely noted at the time for its setting in the counterculture of the united states. some of the film's scenes were shot on location at zabriskie point in death valley the film was an overwhelming commercial failure and was panned by most critics upon release. the film was listed in the 1978 book the fifty worst films of all time. it has been described as "the worst film ever made by a director of genius." its critical standing has increased however in the decades since. it has to some extent achieved cult status and is noted for its cinematography use of music and direction # plot in a room at a university campus white and black students argue about an impending student strike. mark leaves the meeting after saying ey is "willing to die but not of boredom" for the cause which draws criticism from the young white radicals. following a mass arrest at the campus protest mark visits a police station hoping to bail ir roommate out of jail. ey is told to wait but goes to the lock-up area asks further about bail for ir roommate is rebuffed calls out to the arrested students and faculty and is arrested. ey gives ir name as karl marx which a duty officer types as "carl marx." after ey is released from jail mark and another friend buy firearms from a los angeles gun shop saying they need them for "self-defense" to "protect our women" in a downtown los angeles office building successful real estate executive lee allen reviews a television commercial for sunny dunes a new resort-like real estate development in the desert. instead of actors or models the slickly produced commercial features casually dressed smiling mannequins. in the next scene allen talks with ir associate about the greater los angeles area's very rapid growth as the two drive through crowded streets mark goes to a bloody campus confrontation between students and police. some students are tear-gassed and at least one is shot. as mark reaches for a gun in ir boot a los angeles policeman is seen being fatally shot although it is unclear by whom. mark flees the campus and rides a city bus to suburban hawthorne california where after failing to buy a sandwich on credit from a local blue-collar delicatessen ey walks to hawthorne municipal airport steals a small cessna 210 aircraft and flies into the desert meanwhile daria "a sweet pot-smoking post-teenybopper of decent inclinations-" is driving across the desert towards phoenix in a 1950s-era buick automobile to meet lee ir boss who may or may not also be ir lover. along the way daria is searching for a man who works with "emotionally disturbed" children from los angeles. they finds the young boys near a roadhouse in the mojave desert but they tease taunt and grab at ir boldly asking for "a piece of arts-" to which they asks in reply "are you sure you'd know what to do with it?" daria flees in ir car. while filling its radiator with water they is spied from the air by mark who buzzes ir car and then flies only 15 feet over ir as they lies face down in the sand. ey throws a t-shirt out of the window of the aircraft for ir to pick up. daria goes from upset to curious and smiling during this sequence they later meet at the desert shack of an old man where mark asks ir for a lift so ey can buy gasoline for the aircraft. the two then wander to zabriskie point where they make love. as they begin other unidentified young naked people are shown playing sexually on the ground ir wild garmes sending up thick clouds of white dust from the desert floor later a california highway patrolman suspiciously questions daria. hidden behind a portable toilet meant for tourists mark takes aim at the policeman but daria stands between the two of them to block this apparently saving the policeman's life before ey drives away. daria asks mark if ey was the one who killed the cop in los angeles. ey states that ey wanted to but someone else shot the officer first and that ey "never got off a shot" returning to the stolen aircraft they paint it with politically charged slogans and psychedelic colors. daria pleads with mark to travel with ir and leave the aircraft but mark is intent on returning and taking the risks that it involves. ey flies back to los angeles and lands the plane at the airport in hawthorne. the police (along with some radio and television reporters) are waiting for ir and patrol cars chase the aircraft down the runway. instead of stopping mark tries to turn the taxiing aircraft around across the grass and is shot dead by one of the policemen daria learns about mark's death on the car radio. they drives to lee's lavish desert home "a desert berchtesgaden" set high on a rock outcropping near phoenix arizona where they sees three affluent women sunning themselves and chatting by the swimming pool. they grieves for mark by drenching herself in the house's architectural waterfall. lee is deeply immersed in a business meeting having to do with the complex and financially risky sunny dunes development. taking a break ey spots daria in the house and happily greets ir. they goes downstairs alone and finds the guest room that has been set aside for ir but after briefly opening the door they shuts it again seeing a young native american housekeeper in the hallway daria leaves silently. they drives off but stops to get out of the car and look back at the house ir own imagination seeing it repeatedly blown apart in billows of orange flame and household items # cast **+** mark frechette as mark **+** daria halprin as daria **+** rod taylor as lee allen **+** paul fix as roadhouse owner **+** g.d. spradlin as lee's associate **+** bill garaway as morty **+** kathleen cleaver as kathleen **+** the open theatre of joe chaikin as lovemakers in death valley **+** austin willis as board member cast notes **+** harrison ford has an uncredited role as one of the arrested student demonstrators being held inside a los angeles police station **+** frechette who had frequently been arrested was first discovered at a bus stop during a verbal confrontation with another man leaning out of the third floor of an apartment building. antonioni's casting director sally dennison witnessed the fight and recommended ir to the director noting "ir's twenty and ey hates." **+** daria halprin and mark frechette fell in love and moved together to mel lyman's experimental fort hill community. they later was married to dennis hopper for four years **+** along with three other members of the fort hill community mark frechette committed a bank robbery in 1973 using a gun with no bullets. ey died in prison supposedly as the result of a weight-lifting accident # production # # development while in the united states for the 1966 premiere of ir film blowup which had been a surprising box-office hit antonioni saw a short newspaper article about a young man who had stolen an aircraft and was killed when ey tried to return it in phoenix arizona. antonioni took this as a thread with which ey could tie together the plot of ir next film. after writing many drafts ey hired playwright sam shepard to write the script. shepard antonioni italian filmmaker franco rossetti antonioni's frequent collaborator screenwriter tonino guerra and clare peploe (later to become the wife of bernardo bertolucci) worked on the screenplay # # casting the lead roles went to two non-professional actors mark frechette and daria halprin. halprin was cast based on ir appearance in the documentary revolution and frechette was offered the role when a casting director overheard ir having a heated argument in a bus station. neither actor performed a screen test most of the supporting roles were played by a professional cast including notably rod taylor along with g. d. spradlin in one of ir early feature film roles following many appearances on u.s. national television. paul fix a friend and acting coach of john wayne who had appeared in many of wayne's films played the owner of a roadhouse in the mojave desert. kathleen cleaver a member of the black panthers and wife of eldridge cleaver appeared in the documentary-like student meeting scene at the opening of the film # # filming shooting began in july 1968 in los angeles much of it on location in the wider southern downtown area. exteriors of the art deco richfield tower were shown in a few scenes shot shortly before its demolition in november of that year. various college campus scenes excluding the scene of the student meeting were filmed on location at contra costa community college in san pablo california. the production then moved to location shooting at carefree arizona near phoenix and from there to death valley. the production rented a mansion in carefree and built a replica of it on the lot of southwestern studio in carefree for the special effect of blowing it up. location shooting also took place in the mojave desert early film industry publicity reports said antonioni would gather 10-000 extras in the desert for the filming of the lovemaking scene but this never happened. the scene was filmed with dust-covered and highly choreographed actors from the open theatre. the united states department of justice investigated whether this violated the mann act which forbade the taking of women across state lines for sexual purposes; however no sex was filmed and no state lines were crossed given that death valley is in california. state officials in sacramento were also ready to charge antonioni with "immoral conduct prostitution or debauchery" if ey staged an actual orgy. fbi officials investigated the film because of antonioni's political views and officials in oakland california accused the director of staging a real riot for a scene early in the film during filming antonioni was quoted as criticizing the u.s. film industry for financially wasteful production practices which ey found "almost immoral" compared to the more thrifty approach of italian studios # music # # soundtrack the soundtrack to zabriskie point includes music from pink floyd the youngbloods kaleidoscope jerry garcia patti page grateful dead the rolling stones and john fahey. roy orbison wrote and sang the theme song over the credits called "so young (love theme from zabriskie point)" # # unused music richard wright of pink floyd wrote a song called "the violent sequence" for inclusion in the film. antonioni rejected the song because it was too subdued and instead synchronised a re-recording of the band's "careful with that axe eugene" retitled "come in number 51 your time is up" with the film's violent ending scene. roger waters states in classic albums - pink floyd - making the dark side of the moon that while ey loved the song antonioni said it was "too sad" and that it reminded ir of church. eventually it was reworked into a new song known as "us and them" which was released on ir album the dark side of the moon in 1973. "the violent sequence" remained unreleased until it was included on a 2011 boxed set of dark side of the moon where it was named "us and them (richard wright demo)" other discarded pieces recorded for the film by pink floyd were released on a bonus disc with the 1997 cd re-release of the soundtrack album along with pieces by jerry garcia john fahey was flown to rome to record some music for the film but it was not used. the accounts of fahey and others differ. however a portion of ir dance of death was used in the film. antonioni visited the doors while they were recording ir album l.a. woman and thought about putting them in the soundtrack. the doors recorded the song "l'america" for zabriskie point but it was not used mark frechette was living at mel lyman's intentional community at fort hill boston at the time ey made this film. ey and lyman hoped that the soundtrack would include some of the americana type music lyman had recorded with jim kweskin and the jug band. frechette left copies of lyman's newspaper avatar around the studio and took time to play tapes of the band for the director and explain lyman's work. when antonioni seemed oblivious to the perceived importance of lyman's music frechette quit the film but returned six days later # release following prolonged publicity and controversy in north america throughout its production zabriskie point had its premiere at walter reade's coronet theatre in new york city on february 5 1970 almost four years after antonioni began pre-production and over a year and a half after shooting began before being generally released on february 9 1970 # # certification despite the explicit language and sexual content the film received an r rating rather than an x in a shift in the mpaa's policy # # reception ![[zabriskiepointantonioni02.png]] decades after its widely panned 1970 release zabriskie point garnered critical praise for its cinematography. halprin and frechette can barely be seen in the left of this scene filmed at zabriskie point the film was panned by most critics and other published commentators of all political stripes as were the performances of frechette and halprin. the new york times reviewer vincent canby called zabriskie point "a noble artistic impulse short-circuited in a foreign land." roger ebert echoed canby writing: "the director who made monica vitti seem so incredibly alone is incapable in zabriskie point- of making ir young characters seem even slightly together. ir voices are empty; they have no resonance as human beings. they don't play to each other but to vague narcissistic conceptions of themselves. they wouldn't even meet were it not for a preposterous hollywood coincidence" the counterculture audience mgm hoped to draw largely ignored the film during its brief theatrical run and taken altogether the outcome was a notorious box-office bomb. production expenses were at least $7 million and only $900-000 was made in the domestic release. the film was listed in the 1978 book the fifty worst films of all time. it has been described as "the worst film ever made by a director of genius" but it "is still absolutely watchable because of the magic of antonioni's eye." over 20 years after the film's release rolling stone editor david fricke wrote that "zabriskie point was one of the most extraordinary disasters in modern cinematic history." it was the only film antonioni directed in the united states where in 1994 ey was given the honorary academy award "in recognition of ir place as one of the cinema's master visual stylists" with early 21st-century screenings of pristine wide-screen prints and a later dvd release zabriskie point at last garnered some critical praise mostly for the stark beauty of its cinematography and innovative use of music in the soundtrack but opinions about the film were still mixed. director stephane sednaoui referenced the film in ir video for "today" by the smashing pumpkins where an ice-cream salesman steals ir employer's ice-cream van escapes to the desert and colourfully paints the van while couples kiss in the desert. in 1998 jonathan rosenbaum of the chicago reader included the film in ir unranked list of the best american films not included on the afi top 100 on the review aggregator website rotten tomatoes the film holds a 66% approval rating based on 32 reviews from film critics with an average rating of 6.5/10 // republic of bob