Zabriskie Point is a 1970 film by Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni, widely noted at the time for its setting in the late 1960s counterculture of the United States. Some of the film's scenes were shot on location at Zabriskie Point in Death Valley. This was the second of three English-language films Antonioni had been contracted to direct for producer Carlo Ponti and to be distributed by MGM. The other two films were Blowup and The Passenger . Although later considered a cult film, Zabriskie Point was an overwhelming commercial failure and panned by most critics upon release. The film... has been called "one of the most extraordinary disasters in modern cinematic history." The film opens with a documentary-like scene in which white and black students argue about an impending student strike. Mark says he is "willing to die, but not of boredom" for the cause, which draws criticism from the young white radicals. Following a mass arrest at the campus protest, Mark visits a police station hoping to bail his roommate out of jail.
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