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(More customer reviews)I give this move 5 stars for personal reasons. If you peer ever so closely at the panoramic 'orgy in the desert' shot, you will see me groaning with "her" in the sand. While there was no actual fornicating going on within my range of vision, I can tell you the gal next to me was asking out loud for it! Damn! I miss those incredibly naive, self-indulgent days. It was, I believe, October of 1968 and I was a senior in a Las Vegas high school. I answered the casting call for extras. Miracously, my father allowed me to miss a week of school to "train" with a feely-touchy dance troupe from NY. When shooting started MGM would bus us from Vegas to the Point every morning at 5am. Most of my time on the set was spent gawking at Diana, Antonioni, and all the wild movie equipment. They even imported fine silk sand to blow around. I guess Death Valley sand was not european enough. I remember Antonioni, in full archetypical director mode, chasing Mark F. off the sound set for laughing at our feeble attempts to create "love noises" for the orgy scene. HA! The setting was surreal, the weather incredible, the catered lunch edible, and the young ladies sensuous and willing in that 60's way. You know how you sometimes fantasize about going back to a time in your life that was almost perfect? Well, this is one of those times for me.
Oh, I read the Time Magazine review when the movie came out and the reviewer said, "The moral of the story? Don't help a good boy go bad. Lock your airplane, take your keys." Since I wrote that "review" back in 1991 I had occasion to revisit Zabriskie's Point (the place, not the movie). It was my 50th birthday and my wife treated me to a stay at the famous Furnace Creek Inn.
We went over and it was as I remember it. Stunning. The only change was the parking/view area. You can no longer just drive on in to the canyons as the catering truck did back in 1968. So, while I am 'pointing and pondering' these three beautiful ladies arrive. They are talking away in some Euro language and I hear, "Antonioni". I say, "you know the movie?"
"Yes, we came to Death Valley just to see this place."
I say, "I was there when the movie was filmed".
They all came unglued and plied me with questions. Had to have a photo. My wife was bemused, to say the least. For a moment, I was once again Making Love, Not War.
I am just realizing what an effect this movie has had on so many people and how lucky I was to be even a small part of it.
The real miracle of it all is that my father let a 17 year old wanna-be hippie skip a week of school to bounce around Death Valley with a bunch of radicals. Another odd thing was that I had recently sworn off drugs and alcohol so I got to be totally "present" for the experience. From my observation, I may have been the only sober participant...!
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In a story of youthful rebellion, a young man steals an airplane and flies over the desert, where he meets a young woman and falls in love.
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