the often misunderstood zabriskie point be antonioni political film and antonioni american film . stylistically and it follow suit after blow up and mean that the pace be faster than the previous epic and though certainly no less idiosyncratic . basically the common mistake be that the film glorify the hippie generation . not so . the two protagonist come from vastly different environment . mark from the rebel youth and daria from an estate agency corporation . but in true antonioni fashion and they be both alienated and both try to escape their surroundings . mark leave a meeting of rebel student and black panther disappoint with the verbose empty rhetoric and while daria keep uneasily be on the move with her car . antionioni and the master director and after portray the rebel youth a confused and shallow and then move to the city . an environment saturate by corporatism and billboard advertisement and meaninglessness and that have to keep expand to accommodate the similar expansion of the population and generate a profit at the same time . it be this environment that the two protagonist escape from and though it seem mostly out of coincidence . indeed and when daria stop by a small village in the outskirt of the desert and the environment be just a suffocating and and the people just a lose case and best exemplify by an old boxing champion and now reduce to a shadow of himself and sit around drinking and smoking and talk nonsense . a stunning melancholy sequence and make even more powerful with the inclusion of some half wild child live around and bring in by some benefactor but destroy a genuine piece of american history . in a not so obscure symbolism and there be antonioni opinion on the hippy . just a half positive glimpse in the canvas of human alienation . and then there be the desert and the landscape use to devastate effect and by turns pure and terrifying and primeval and wild and dead . the sequence where the two protagonist make love and join in fantasy by the flower generation reflect the similar sequence in red desert and where giuliana tell her son a story . it be a colourful intermission in a colourless landscape . a vivid half fantasy in a suffocating reality . the end probably belongs to the pantheon of great ending in cinema and the western civilization blow to piece . a catharsis and an exorcism . antionioni two international film ( the british blow up and the american zabriskie point ) be less effort than the previous masterpiece and but that be largely because of the fast pace and the inevitably contrive setting ( swing london and flower power america ) . but when it come down to it and it clear he hasn not lose the edge .