which do you think is a better "60s" film?
i like "zabriskie point" more even though i won't begrudge anyone who disagrees cause "zabriskie point" is probably more flawed in some ways and the acting in "medium cool'' is better.
Medium Cool is much more thought out than Zabriskie Point. Antonioni seems to have an outright hatred for what he's filming and that reflects strongly on the film. He views America as corrupt, lazy, deformed, shallow, etc etc... and he makes his two main characters the same way. These two young people never have to explain to anyone what they are doing and while I suppose that's the point of the movie Antonioni handles it poorly with no insight.
Medium Cool on the other hand has a terrific lead performance by Robert Forster to hold the whole film together. To this day I still remember the scene where he goes into the poverty stricken house filled with black people who begin to approach him and yell at him and his response; "If intimidation is your argument than you've got no argument." - the writing in Medium Cool is brilliant, and although it starts to ramble in it's last quarter with all the riots - it still shows up a better view of alienation and the politics of America.
Zabriskie Point tries to get the audience right off the bad with 8 minutes of a protest meeting and never looks back - then we get a good soundtrack and a few good ideas. By the finale when we see a few minutes of slow-mo destruction (albeit it's cool) the film itself hasn't gotten us that angry or energized for this to be effective to the film. At 112 minutes it's about 40 minutes too long.
Medium Cool 8/10
Zabriskie Point 5/10
Straight Time needs to be released on DVD!
They both have a cinema verite style. Medium Cool is so good because it was
filmed in an environment too unpredictable to know. It is unforgettable.
It was wonderful that Wexler chose to release it in a fictional tone.
Hunter S. is missed. No illusions by me that the scenes were entirely noble;
1968 was a very difficult year for everyone in America. Veterans were treated
very badly. Peaceful people should never allow our soldier brothers to be ostracized again.
But maybe the acting in Zabriskie Point wasn't meant to be in the conventional Hollywood style.
I don't accept that Antonioni has contempt for his protagonists either which another poster may have suggested (as I post this I cannot read that post so I can't check). He clearly has sympathy with them, and this feeling within the film is one of the things that makes it more powerful.
Zabriskie Point is very much an art film in a similar way to The Passenger, just more radical.
i havent seen it
share"Medium Cool" is by far the better film.
"I don't deduce, I observe."
Each is a stylistically different film. If I had to pick only one to see it would be Wexler's mainly because he managed to weave actual events(the 68 Democratic convention riots) into the film. Have only re-watched it once since the seventies though, while I've seen ZP 3-4 times and must say it wears well despite the subpar acting from Frechette and Halprin.
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