Zabriskie Point

Director: Michelangelo Antonioni

1970 / 110min / 35mm

Widely jeered on its release as Italian interloper Antonioni’s uncomprehending attempt to comment on post-Age of Aquarius American youth in revolt, the divisive Zabriskie Point—which follows a young radical (newcomer Mark Frechette) who lights off for Death Valley in a stolen plane after a clash with the LAPD—has justly gained in stature with each passing year as both a defining treatment of counterculture-discontent, inspired in part by Antonioni’s witnessing of student protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, and an epic expression of the filmmaker’s very European brand of master builder cinema on the MGM dime. The stacked soundtrack features tunes by, among others, John Fahey, Jerry Garcia, and Pink Floyd, whose music accompanies the film’s quite literally explosive conclusion, a glorious repudiation of commodity-choked contemporary life.