{"id":80606,"date":"2016-10-03T12:00:48","date_gmt":"2016-10-03T11:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=80606"},"modified":"2016-10-01T16:30:21","modified_gmt":"2016-10-01T15:30:21","slug":"discovering-antonionis-neglected-masterpiece-zabriskie-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/10\/discovering-antonionis-neglected-masterpiece-zabriskie-point\/","title":{"rendered":"Discovering Antonioni’s Neglected Masterpiece, Zabriskie Point"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zabriskie Point<\/a> is a rocky outlook among the Amargosa mountain range that runs along the eastern border of Death Valley.\u00a0 From its vantage point stretches out a panoramic view of the intricately sculpted badlands of the California desert.\u00a0 In 1970 the great Italian cinema director Michelangelo Antonioni chose to set his sights on the American counter-culture of the time, naming the film<\/a> that resulted after this landmark.\u00a0 It was a commercial and critical flop, and it has been considered one of the worst films of all time<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Can it really be that bad, I mused, having been an ardent admirer of Antonioni’s wonderful and innovative preceding films: L’Avventura<\/em>, L’Eclisse<\/em>, La Notte<\/em>, Il Deserto Rosso<\/em>, and Blow-Up<\/em>. Had the master lost his way on American soil?<\/p>\n

So I watched, and so I conclude that this relatively little known movie should be far far better known.<\/p>\n

It opens with a passionate discussion among college activists and a deft characterisation of the racial divide, among whom figures Kathleen Cleaver, real life wife of Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver.\u00a0 And it goes on to follow the meanderings of a disenchanted rich boy turned rebel who steals a plane and meets up with a hippie chick in Death Valley.\u00a0 The two principals, played by unknowns Mark Frechette and Daria Halprin (coincidentally enough named Mark and Daria), experience a sexual awakening that implies an alternative to the world in which they have both been embroiled \u2013 the Vietnam War was in full swing \u2013 and from which they are profoundly alienated.\u00a0 Mark returns to Los Angeles and is shot by police8fter he lands the stolen plane.\u00a0 Daria drives to Phoenix, where she is to meet her lover Lee (played by Rod Taylor), the corporate head of an outfit planning to develop the desert into some species of suburban utopia. Just after she arrives in her old Buick at the expansive mountainside retreat she runs into a Native American woman, obviously a servant, whose glance tells her all she needs to know.\u00a0 She hastily leaves the lodge and looking back fantasises its explosive demolition.\u00a0 This last sequence, of the now furiously wise young woman, features repeated slow motion cataclysms that condense virtually everything artificial about establishment culture flying and bursting out of the fire and through the air: cereal boxes, slogans, and the manufactured promises of material ‘comforts’ \u2013 as the incisive music of Pink Floyd wails in accompaniment.<\/p>\n

Antonioni’s achievement may not have been appreciated in 1970, but the prescience of his cinematic artistry cannot be denied.\u00a0 The years have moved apace but nothing much has changed. We find ourselves now, like then, in an era where savage unnecessary wars are being prosecuted, where racism is rife, and where the soul of the human spirit is virtually captive to the veneer of mollifying deceit ser8ved upon the altar of consumerism.<\/p>\n

Zabriskie Point<\/em> is well worth seeing, revisiting, absorbing: it’s a subversive and startling work of art that is fresher and more relevant than ever.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________<\/p>\n

Dr. Garcia is a Philadelphia-born poet, novelist, theatrical director and physician who resides in New Zealand. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Zabriskie Point is well worth seeing, revisiting, absorbing: it’s a subversive and startling work of art that is fresher and more relevant than ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80606\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}