Michelangelo Antonioni's American film has become a classic study of alienated youth despite the fact that it's not really a very good movie. It's muddled, poorly acted and awkwardly paced. It's challenging to be sure but there are also a lot of in-your-face imagery (endless signs of the consumerism the US embraces, police shooting AT rioting students) that help to form Antonioni's decidedly anti-American slant. Casting non-actors in the leads doesn't help. Combined, Daria Halprin & Mark Frechette have the charisma of a rock. Following two story lines (one involving Frechette and student revolutionaries, the other involving Haplprin and her boss/lover Rod Taylor) that lead to a highly explosive ending, the film is a beautifully photographed bore. It's dull rather than compelling. The rock songs that pepper the film (by the likes of Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones and The Grateful Dead) add little. The screenplay was worked by Antonioni and Tonino Guerra along with Fred Gardner, Sam Shepard and Clare Peploe, but there's really very little here. As Frechette says early on in the film, "I'm willing to die...but not from boredom." If you feel that way, stay away from this one.
Review of Zabriskie Point
