Zabriskie Point

(Michelangelo Antonioni, US 1970, 110 min., 35mm)

National Parks. A visually stunning masterpiece, Zabriskie Point tells the story of dropout student Mark, who is loosely affiliated with the activist organizations at UCLA during the tumultuous sixties. When he is suspected of killing a policeman during campus riots, he flees into the Southern California desert. In his Hollywood debut, famed Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni sides with American counterculture of the late sixties, critiquing the country’s mindless consumerist culture. At the same time, the film is critical of the countermovement itself, representing a pessimistic view of its future through images of the desolate sands of Death Valley.