At a time of chronic civil unrest in late 1960s America, a young idealist and an anthropology student cross paths at Zabriskie Point in Death Valley, California. They start an unrestrained r... Read allAt a time of chronic civil unrest in late 1960s America, a young idealist and an anthropology student cross paths at Zabriskie Point in Death Valley, California. They start an unrestrained relationship by making love on the dusty terrain.At a time of chronic civil unrest in late 1960s America, a young idealist and an anthropology student cross paths at Zabriskie Point in Death Valley, California. They start an unrestrained relationship by making love on the dusty terrain.
- Awards
- 1 win & 1 nomination
- Radical student
- (uncredited)
- Police lieutenant on loudspeaker
- (uncredited)
- Highway patrolman
- (uncredited)
- Airport mechanic
- (uncredited)
- University student
- (uncredited)
- Arrested student
- (uncredited)
- College student
- (uncredited)
- Man in Deli
- (uncredited)
- Gun store owner
- (uncredited)
- …
- Departing Plane Passenger
- (uncredited)
- Documentary cameraman
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAntonioni met with Jim Morrison during early production to ask for a musical contribution to the soundtrack. Morrison and the Doors provided "L'America" which Antonioni then rejected.
- GoofsZabriskie Point, in Death Valley National Park (California, USA) is not actually the lowest-elevation point in the United States. That would be Badwater Basin, at a depth of 282 feet below sea level, which is also located in Death Valley National Park about 20 miles away.
- Quotes
[booking a protester]
Cop: Occupation?
William S. Polit, protester: Associate professor of history.
Cop: That's too long, Bill. I'll just put down clerk.
- Alternate versionsIn the original version, the song that's playing when Daria drives away at the very end and over the closing "End" title card is a Roy Orbison song, but in the 1984 MGM/UA Home Video version it's a continuation of the Pink Floyd song. The 1991 MGM/UA Home Video version restores the Orbison song.
- ConnectionsEdited into Histoire(s) du cinéma: La monnaie de l'absolu (1999)
The audience was held spellbound as the film unfolded its artisty on the huge panoramic screen. Watching this superb print, shown the way Antonioni intended, made one aware that this is indeed a modern art work. It was all the more fitting that the series is housed in the Cleveland Insititue of Art in University Circle.
Antonioni's compositions are created for the Cinemascope landscape. His beautiful balancing of images, striking use of colors, sweeping choreographic movements, all are the work of a genuine artist, using the screen as his canvas.
At last the audience could understand "Zabriskie Point." As its narrative unfolded, it became obvious that this work is not about story per se, but rather an artist's impressionistic rendering of fleeting images of his subject. The setting of some of the more turbulent activities of the sixties provides only a dramatic motor for the artist's sweeping collage.
Antonioni is not bound by conventional narrative standards, and can pause at any point to creatively embroider an event with grandiose embellishments. The audience willingly went with the flow of his remarkable imagination, as his huge images on the massive canvas held one in rapt attention. While the audience may have been only tangentially involved in character relationships, it realized the theme here is human aleination, the director's recurring theme.
It was also realized that no print any smaller or of lesser quality than this original one in Cinemascope can do justice to this particular rendering. The audience was therefore all the more appreciative of viewing "Zabriskie Point" in its original, breathtaking format, and broke into thunderous applause at the end.
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Details
Box office
- Budget
- $7,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross worldwide
- $84,879
- Runtime1 hour 53 minutes
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1