April 28, 1970
The N. C. Essay
Page 2
ZflBRISHI€ PO
Like his other major opus,
Bloi) Upi Michaelanglo Antonioni's
Zahriskie Point attempts to open
up the guts of a society that is
externally flourishing, but intern
ally botching the whole trip.
Whereas Mod London in the Mis-
Sixties was the target of Blow Up^
this film looks at America, 1970
(well, sometimes). And while
Btoh) Up, with all of its complex
ities, did strike vital chords,
Zabriskie Point fails to do so.
The problem is Antonioni's
misinterpertation of what this
country is today. He spent little
time in this country gathering
information and seeing what is
really happening. It appears that
he got only a smattering of what
it all means.
Zabriskie Point is a film that
makes issues out of the wrong
things; it studies illness only in
terms of superficiality, using
trite metaphors and bad puns to make
its illustrations. The film cen
tralizes on the plasticity of
American life, but it rarely delves
into why it exists or how it
effects.
The film begins with a revo
lutionary rap session (which in
cludes Kathleen Cleever, Eldridge's
old lady). The kids talk about
shutting down a university (the
setting suggests Berkeley, but the
action clips used are from S.F.
State). There is a disagreement
among the students as to how far
they are willing to go (Are they
willing to die?) This portion is
convincing, because of its realism;
we see Black and White revolutionary
ideologies c3.ash. A Black mili
tant ends it by saying that "White
radicalism is a mixture of bullshit
and jive." This sequence is one of
the few truly honest moments in the
film.
From there, the film centralizes
on three characters who represent
the major motiffs Antonioni explores:
the (quasi) revolutionary (who seems
to be in it for the hell of it), the
middle-grounder, who splits time between
hip and square, and the flashy, plas
tic businessman.
We see Mark, fed up with revolu
tionary rhetoric, wanting some kind
(and kind) of action. He splits from
the meeting and buys guns. Next day,
at a demonstration, acting alone, he
kills a cop. He flees, steals a plane,
and heads for the desert.
Meanwhile, in between Antonioni's
use of the billboard as a major symbol
of this country's decadence, we meet
Daria, a young, pseudo-hip chick, who
runs around frustrating her big-time
boss/lover (? - the relationship is
never fully explained) and looking
for a "groovy place to meditate."
We also see a big tycoon (Rod Taylor -
remember Hawaiian Eye?) wheeling and
dealing.
ni
Somehow (karma, I guess), Mark
and Daria meet in a secluded desert
spot, after he has buzzed her car
with his plane. They rap, go
sight-seeing (they are at Zabriskie
Point), she blows some grass, he
doesn't ("The people I'm in with are
on a reality trip"), They get down
to making it - right there in all
that erotic desert sand - and
suddenly a whole mountain side of
lovers appear, and an extended
communal cosmic bash follows.
Later Daria discovers that
Mark has killed a cop (he denies
it) and stolen the plane. He wants
to return the plane. So, they paint
it freaky and write weird slogans
("Suck Bucks" - clever, eh?). Off
Mark goes, "because he digs the risk
involved."
The cops are waiting and they
nail Mark. Daria, now at her
bosses' desert hideaway, hears of
Mark's death. From there, fantasy
takes over, as Daria sees the huge
plastic complex explode at least
fifteen times. All kinds of
fragmented apparatus fills the air
in a kind of crass culture ballett
tv sets, frozen turkeys, Wonderbread,
etc. It's really a fantastic
bit of footage, but like much of the
film, it obviously and quickly makes
its point, and then subsides in
interest.
But Zabriskie Point, for all its
failings, is a film you should see.
It does say something about this
country. Although he overdoes it,
Antonioni shows the excessive
banality in which we live. The film
?is most successful in the presentation
•of Antonioni's fantasies of America.
I5ut, ultimately Zabriskie Point lacks
the kind of symbolic power and the
technique that made Blow Up so force
ful. There he crept into the eye of
Mod London, inspected it, under
stood it, and dealth with it. Here,
we get only the pretense of that sort
of vision and it won't do. No where
in the film is there an understanding
of the substance of revolution. No
where is the hint of what all those
ugly, grotesque symbols mean. Indeed,
no where does Antonioni acknowledge
the real shallowness of both the
establishment AND the revolution.
Here, in 1970, Antonioni gives us a
film that even ends on a sophmoric,
idealistic key of optimisim, totally
disregarding the existence of
Chicago and white recisim. Zabris
kie Point has no sense of reality
and turns into an intellecually
dishonest piece of work. (It might
be that Antonioni is putting us, via
high camp, but I doubt it; he seems
too serious).
It's a shame in a way, because
this film will stand as Antonioni's
statement about America. And it could
have been so much more significant
had he spent time perceiving, not
just observing. Unlike Blow Upj which
A REVIEW
BY MIKE FERGUSON
had a deep sense of awareness,
Zabriskie Point merely pretends
to know.
Woodstock
A REVIEW
BY KATHLEEN FITZGERALD
Three days and nights of
shooting at the Woodstock Fair in
August of '69 produced 120 hours of
film and sound. After six months of
editing, supervised by Director Mike
Wadleigh and producer Bob Maurice, a
3- hour and 45 minute film of the
pilgramage to Bethel N.Y. by 400-
500,000 New Age Children crystallized,
and Warner Bros, released a documentary
titled simply, Woodstock.
Woodstoak is a tremendously
moving film, it captures the essence
of the Woodstock Fair as the Fair
captured the essence of this gen
eration's culture.
Thematically, there are two
currents in Woodstock. The first
fheme, music - rock music - as vital
to the movement as water is to life,
hits you as soon as the song "By
The Time We Got To Woodstock" (Crosby,
Stills Nash and Young) opens the film.
The legend begins.
The performers in the film are
Baez, Joe Crocker, Country Joe and
The Fish, Arlo Guthrie, Crosby,
Stills, Nash, and Young, Richie
Havens, Jimi Hendrix, Santana, John
Sebastion, Ten Years After, Sha-Na-Na-,^
Sly and the Family Stone and The Who.
Their performances are recorded in
their entirety. This captures the
overwhelming excitement of the
audience-performer relationships. The
sound quality is excellent; although
the music was recorded live there is
no feedback, just pure, joyous sound.
Thunder and rain, music and roaring
applause and more music - it's all
there on four-track stereo and split
screen in Woodstock. Not all of the
electricity ran through the amps and
the microphones, it ran through the
minds and bodies of the crowd and
across their faces.
The second theme is of sociolog
ical impact, ie., this is a film
about young people - their life style,
the validity of their ideals and cul
ture and the survival and success of
same.
In three days 500,000 people
confine to a few acres of land dis
covered that they could have it any
way they wanted, and in this freedom
they chose true peace and love. It
was a tribal festival an agape romp.
It was a positive energy statement on
what we feel and how "together" we
can be without food or shelter, with
only each other.
This film is a beautiful pr'e-
(Con’t. on page ^ )