Zabriskie Point (1970)

Zabriskie Point (1970)

In Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni's simplistic and failed view of 1960s America - the iconic movie was his first (and only) US film, and his second English-language film following Blow-Up (1966, UK). The controversial, anti-Establishment and counter-cultural film, with two disconnected and disillusioned young people as its stars, came out the same year as the Woodstock Festival. It also was released a year after director/star Dennis Hopper's similar culture-clash film Easy Rider (1969). [Note: Interesting fact - from 1972-1976, female star Daria Halprin was married to anti-establishment hero Dennis Hopper.]

The film's two main settings or locales were the congested, urban city of Los Angeles (with its rebelliousness and unrest, consumerist society and its numerous capitalist advertisements-billboards and corporate logos), and the arid, empty and peaceful desert of California (near the CA/NV border). The film's two principal stars were both acting in their debut films. The R-rated film was considered controversial and explicit for its language and desert orgy scene (with some implied oral sex), although restrictions were beginning to loosen up by the MPAA following Midnight Cowboy (1969) and its win as Best Picture.

Some have considered the anti-establishment and anti-materialism movie about dehumanization as one of the worst and least cohesive films ever made, with its romanticized, revolutionary and over-simplified view of reaching utopia. Others regarded it as a cult classic and a perfect 'time-capsule' from its time period, including its Pink Floyd, The Grateful Dead, and The Rolling Stones soundtrack. It was an embarrassing financial box-office disaster for MGM, due to its low revenue of approx. 1ドル million, on a budget of 7ドル million.

The tagline of this unique, one-of-a-kind film was: "Zabriskie Point - How you get there depends on where you're at."

• in the opening sequence set in a university classroom, both revolutionary black militants and white hippie counter-cultural activists were railing against "The Man" and "the system" as they planned a campus protest, shut-down and strike; one criticism lodged against white students was that they were not sincere rebels or revolutionaries, but only involved because it was fashionable: ("Listen man, a molotov cocktail is a mixture of gasoline and kerosene; white radicalism is a mixture of bulls--t and jive!"); it was being argued whether privileged whites were legitimate participants, like the civil rights protests of repressed African-Americans; one student asked: "A lot of us have understood what makes black people revolutionary, but what's gonna make white people revolutionary?"; there was also talk of tactics and strategies to successfuly meet their goals of shutting down the university and its classes and combating the "pigs," and whether anyone would be willing to be arrested or die if caught up in the conflict
• one of the participants listening in the room was a white rebellious youth named Mark (Mark Frechette) - a radical, revolutionary drop-out and drifter; before leaving, he stood up and told how he was becoming bored and disinterested in their conversation about being willing to die - all talk and no action: "I'm willing to die too....but not of boredom"; after he departed, another student wondered: "If he wants to be a revolutionary, he has to learn to work with other people...What was any revolutionary without other people?"
• in another of the film's plot strands, in the lobby of a downtown LA office building, gorgeous, free-spirited blue-eyed Daria (Daria Halprin), an anthropology student, told successful LA real estate tycoon/attorney Mr. Lee Allen (Rod Taylor) about her temp work as a secretary: "I just work when I need bread"
• with his roommate Morty (Bill Garaway), Mark drove in his red 1963 Ford F-250 pickup truck past a large Farmer John's meat packing factory with a painted mural in a congested area of downtown LA; they passed numerous business signs and logos; in Beverly Hills, he swerved at an intersection to avoid hitting a car carrying his sister Alice; Mark was frustrated and impatient about the earlier meeting that he thought was just a lot of talk with no action: "I'm tired of it, man. Kids rappin' about violence, and the cops doin' it"; Mark dropped Morty off outside USC near a picket line of demonstrating, protesting students
• later in the day, during a visit to the Metro police station to see about raising bail to release Morty who had been arrested and booked during the protest, Mark wandered into the off-limits jail's rear entrance where busses pulled up with more arrested agitators; he entered the building, and for his insolence toward one of the officers, he was regarded as one of the recent detainees and booked; when questioned about his name for his arrest report, he responded by identifying himself as Karl Marx - although the ignorant duty officer typed out his name as "Marx, Carl"
• shortly later after being released, the embittered Mark and his other roommate-friend Bill (Bruce Neckels) entered the Martin B. Retting firearms-gun shop in Culver City, demanding weapons from the clerk; Bill asserted that he immediately needed a gun for "self-defense" purposes (for a coming war) and wanted to dispense with the required 5-day waiting period because of the current "emergency" (a coming war?); Mark also added that his minority neighborhood was borderline dangerous: "We've got to protect our women"; the clerk recommended that they purchase nothing "smaller than a .38"; the shop owner (Bill Hickman) emerged and offered a piece of advice: "Say boys, one other thing about the law; it says you can protect your house, so if you shoot 'em in the back garden, be sure you drag 'em inside"
• in Mr. Lee Allen's land-development real-estate office within the LA office building, his executive associates and workers were reviewing a TV ad touting the construction of a modern Sunny Dunes Estates resort development in the Arizona desert, with lots-properties featuring swimming pools, tennis, a 9-hole golf course, private gardens, sunny and clear air and space away from the crowded "rat-race" of "miserable, crowded" city-life, designed for the "independent man" and his domestic housewife; the individuals portrayed in the ad were lifeless mannequins; the promotional ads were designed to entice rich urbanites to flee the city to the expansive desert area
• on a drive through LA while listening to the radio (with reports of new highway development, the continuing war in Vietnam, and arrests following student riots), land mogul Lee Allen was with his passenger-associate (G.D. Spradlin)

• meanwhile, Daria's secretary temp-work with boss Mr. Allen had been extended (off-screen), and she was on the road; she was traveling enroute to Phoenix in a borrowed, 1952 gray, 2-door Buick sedan to meet up at a "conference" with Allen (who had plans to fly there) regarding the resort's development [Note: It was significant that her destination was "Phoenix" - the legendary bird that rose reborn from ashes and her trajectory in the film.]
• Allen was unable to locate Daria and was unaware of her whereabouts; he listened to a radio business report that predicted massive economic growth for Southern California in the next 10 years

• the student protests, riots and strikes turned bloody and violent, with tear-gas in the air and gunfire, as a group of armed black militants attempted to take over a building on the university campus; a tear-gas canister thrown inside forced the group to evacuate; outside and perched at the corner of a building, Mark observed as one black protestor ran out (misidentified as having a gun) and was blasted with a shot gun; as he was about to reach for his gun in his boot (and shoot the gun-wielding cop?), the offending cop was targeted and fatally shot and killed by someone else directly in front of him; he ran off from the scene
• to escape, Mark fled by city bus to the LA suburb of Hawthorne, CA where he phoned his roommate Morty, who told him his picture had been captured by the TV media; he asked a store-deli manager for a free sub-sandwich but was denied; he wandered over to the nearby Hawthorne Municipal Airport, and boarded a small, pink-colored, single-engine 1967 Cessna 210 airplane (known as the Lilly 7); as he taxied off to hijack the plane, he told a flight mechanic (George Dunn) that he was just taking a "scenic flight" - he was warned by the tower that he was on the wrong runway before he took off and headed eastward toward Phoenix, and viewed the city landscape and many freeways below him (to the tune of the Grateful Dead's instrumental "Dark Star")
• in the Rumpus Room, a desert ghost-town's diner and pool room, Daria briefly phoned her boss 'collect' about arriving late to Phoenix, due to a detour to either Glenville or Ballyville - a "fantastic place for meditation" for her to "think about things"; the bar-tender (Paul Fix) told her that she was already in Barkstead where she wanted to be, and that the meditation expert she was looking for was named James "Jimmy" Patterson - a "do-gooder from Los Angeles"
• Patterson had brought a group of troubled ("emotionally sick"), unwanted elementary school-aged, semi-feral children to the area, who were causing trouble for the bar owner; one of the kids was found plucking strings on a demolished piano; a group of about a dozen of the kids surrounded Daria outdoors on a large wooden platform, as one teasingly taunted and asked her: "Can we have a piece of ass?" - to which she responded: "Are you sure you'd know what to do with it?"; they began to grab at her, causing her to run off to her car; during much of Daria's time at the roadhouse, the jukebox played Patti Page's "Tennessee Waltz"
  

• afterwards, she was noticed by Mark in his small airplane, partly terrorizing her by buzzing her and harrassing her with the plane (reminiscent of North by Northwest (1959)); after he tossed a T-shirt nightgown down to her, she became more curious and amused, and signaled him; after driving along, and listening to The Youngbloods' "Sugar Babe" on the radio, she watched as he landed the plane near her; her first words to him were about the red "nightie" that she said was not good for her - it was the "wrong sex"; nearby was the desert shack of an eccentric, grizzly old man
• Daria questioned Mark about the theft of the plane early in the day in LA: "The radio said somebody stole a plane in L.A. this morning. Did you really steal that thing? How come?"; he answered that he wanted to feel free: "I needed to get off the ground"
• now distracted from her original destination, she drove off with Mark into the desolate desert and into an area of open landscape known as "no-man's land" of Death Valley; in a parking lot overlook at Zabriskie Point - the lowest point in the United States, Daria read the park's informational sign outloud: "This is an area of ancient lake beds deposited five to ten million years ago. These beds have been tilted and pushed upward by Earth forces, and eroded by wind and water. They contain borates and gypsum"; she asked herself: "Borates and gypsum?"; Mark joked with her: "Two old prospectors that lost their way"; they sat on the edge of a rock wall and marveled at the plants and arid landscape - a period of self-exploration

• Daria learned that up until recently, he had been driving a fork-lift for a warehouse; earlier, he had dropped out of college due to "extra-curricular activities" - such as "stealing hard-covered books instead of paperbacks, making phone calls on the Chancellor's stolen credit card number, whistling in class, and bringing in illegal things on the campus like a dog, a bike, and a woman...we did it in the road... yeah, they finally kicked me out after I broke into the Dean's office and reprogrammed a computer"; she was intrigued and asked about the rest of his "criminal record"; he further elaborated: "Once I changed my color but it didn't work, so, I changed back"
• she mentioned that back in the "real world" and related to LA's recent deadly student strike and protests, she had heard that "a cop did get killed and some bushes were trampled...I think they said the guy who killed the cop was white"; Mark quipped: "White man takin' up arms for the blacks, huh? Just like old John Brown"
• they ran down the very steep slope to the dry river-bed where Daria smoked marijuana, but he abstained; she mentioned something about the protest group he had attended: "What do you mean, 'Reality trip.' Oh yeah, they can't imagine things. Were you in with that group? Why didn't you get out?"; he explained that he had left the group because he was bored, but added "When it gets down to it, you have to choose one side or the other"; she answered: "There's a thousand sides -- not just heroes and villains"; he proposed that the two of them take on the establishment; she asked: "Don't you feel at home here?", but he disagreed: "It's dead"
• she proposed a game of killing small creatures in the desert, realizing that he was nihilistic, and at the end of the game, "the winner will get to kill the loser," but he refused to "play any games at all"
• as the uninhibited couple walked on, now holding hands, she decided to pretend that their thoughts were like plants, and asked: "What do you see? Neat rows? Like a garden? Or wild things? Like ferns and weeds and vines?"; he replied: "I see, sort of, a jungle"; she thought about how nice it would be if the thoughts planted in their heads didn't include "bad memories...wonderful things, like a happy childhood, real groovy parents, only good things"; he thought her idea was "far out" - and proposed: "Make out and forget how terrible it really was"; after frolicking around in the dust and shouting to produce echos, she offered another unusual thought: "Anyway ought to be one word. The name of some place or a river. The So-Anyway River"; shortly later, he asked her to join him on his life's journey: "Would you like to go with me...wherever I'm going?"
• they began to kiss, undress each other, and make love on the desert sand dunes, to the tune of the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia playing "Love Scene" on the soundtrack; it was the film's most extraordinary sequence - an hallucinatory, symbolic, dust-swirling orgy or love-making sequence; several dozen ash-covered copulating and kissing couples (and trios) (at least 100 phantom individuals, credited as the improv Open Theatre group of Joe Chaikin) magically appeared, creating a massive 'love-in'; the views of the contorting bodies began to blend into the landscape, uniting and becoming one

• after the free-love experience and the dust cleared, Mark remarked: "I always knew it'd be like this"; Daria asked: "Us?" but he replied instead: "The desert"
• the two climbed back up to the road level where two red portable toilets were located; while Daria was being questioned by a lone, suspicious highway patrolman (William Watson), she blocked Mark's line of sight (he was hiding behind one of the toilets) and prevented him from firing at the officer with his gun, and the officer left unharmed; Daria called Mark "really crazy" and then watched as he unloaded the bullets into the dirt; she suddenly became very wary of Mark, suspecting him of being the cop-killer at the student strike, but Mark dissuaded her: "No, I wanted to, but somebody else was there...I never got off a shot"; she believed him, but he was resigned to being blamed
• now knowing that he was wanted by the police, Mark was anxious to return to Los Angeles by flying back and surrendering the hijacked plane - now decorated with additional flowers, slogans, and peace/love symbols: (NO WORDS, SUCK BUCKS, FREECOME, SHE HE IT - or a long drawn-out "SHEE-IT") with assistance from the eccentric old man; Mark described the plane's new design: "They might not even think it's a plane. Strange, prehistoric bird spotted over Mojave Desert with its genitals out"; although Daria suggested ditching the plane and riding along with her to Phoenix, the brazen young Mark was unfraid to return: "I want to take the risks"; after watching him take-off, Daria proceeded along on her drive to Phoenix, listening to her radio (the Rolling Stones' "You Got the Silver", and Roscoe Holcomb's country song "I Wish I Were a Single Girl Again")
• at the Hawthorne airport after he landed - on his death-defying return trip, Mark's plane was greeted and surrounded by awaiting police patrol cars and KRLA media reporters; as he was chased down the runway (and was believed to be evading capture), he turned the plane onto the grass where he was brutally shot dead in the cockpit by indiscriminating gunfire (Mark was briefly glimpsed slumped over onto the controls)
• Daria was continuing on with her drive to Phoenix, when she heard a radio report of an unidentified officer firing shots into the cockpit of the returning stolen plane and "killing the youth immediately"; she pulled over and stood outside her car, to absorb the news amidst large saguaro cactus; after a moment's pause to possibly reconsider her trip, she decided to continue onward, and arrived at attorney Mr. Allen's luxurious, ultra-modern, maze-like desert dwelling built amongst huge boulders; her boss was scheduled to hold business meetings there about his real-estate plans

• soon after, however, she became distressed by the wealth, greed and empty opulence of the place and Mr. Allen's affluent cohorts sunning themselves at a swimming pool; she stood under the home's indoor waterfall, letting drops of water drench her - symbolic of her grieving for Mark's death; she watched as one of the house-keeper/maids - a Native-American woman, served drinks to Lee Allen's associates as they discussed their real-estate dealings (seen non-verbally from a distance); it appeared that the financial gains for Sunny Dunes resort in the desert were highly-speculative and an overreach based upon the community's interests - their plans would undoubtedly despoil the primitive beauty of the desert
• Mr. Allen found Daria wandering around in the house, and told her that he had set aside an overnight guest room for her downstairs; after her initial disgusted and appalled reaction to everything, and a knowing glance at the Native-American woman, she decided she didn't want to remain there, and ran to her car in the parking area
• as she drove away from the home, she stopped the car, softly caressed the red shirt Mark had given her, and turned around; in the film's explosion-filled finale accompanied by a Pink Floyd soundtrack, she appeared to have an angry, anarchic wish-fulfillment hallucination, fantasy or dream - symbolizing the destruction of capitalistic excess; it was similar to Mark's revolutionary impulses, and to the previous orgasmic sequence in the desert
• the structure was blown up in slow-motion (seen repeatedly exploding from almost a dozen different angles, using 17 camera set-ups); in addition, various materialistic consumer items were seen being destroyed in slow-motion and in extreme close-up (pool furniture, racks of designer clothes, a refrigerator with a cascading and disintegrating loaf of packaged WONDER bread, flying frozen chickens, a box of Special K, a banana, a TV set, and shelves of books); she observed or imagined the apocalyptic end of the materialistic and capitalistic America

• the film ended with Daria beaming as she looked up at the house (had it really been destroyed, or was it only in her mind?); the film ended as she drove away into the desert and an uncertain future (to the tune of Roy Orbison's "So Young"), as the camera panned over to view the golden rays of the sun as it set