Let me share something that says a lot about me. When I moved to Fort Worth one of the first places I visited downtown was the Central Library, at 500 W. Third St. Besides books on gardening, Quincy Jones, and Forth Worth history I like to browse the DVD and Blu Ray collection. Am I some Luddite, still hanging around the library with a bunch of hobos when the rest of the world is streaming movies on Netflix, Amazon, etc? No, it shows I have taste and am an independent thinker.
It’s easy to forget, but when Netflix started they delivered DVDs through the mail. They still do but for some reason (probably the profit margin) they hide this part of the business and few people subscribe to it compared to the streaming service. But did you ever notice how Netflix steers you to their latest original content and how their library of non-Netflix movies is dwindling? They save money by owning the content that they can run in perpetuity instead of licensing good movies. Their mail order service had nearly everything, while streaming makes you settle for what they want you to watch. And their original content is often planned by algorithms designed to satisfy target markets that they’ve identified. Instead of presenting us with cinematic art they’re trying to make us respond like Pavlov’s dogs!
DVDs and especially Blu Ray discs look better than streaming, and they often have a lot of special features that you usually don’t get online. The Fort Worth libraries have loads of interesting movies. Here’s one that I’ve wanted to watch for years:
Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, Zabriskie Point was controversial upon its 1970 release, mainly because of a scene showing an orgy in a California desert. I’d seen a couple other Antonioni films before, including “Blow Up”, which I highly recommend. I nearly rented Zabriskie Point several times over the years but always passed because the film’s reputation is just not that great. Besides the orgy scene, this movie interested me because I read that it had original music from Pink Floyd and other counter culture artists like The Grateful Dead.
Zabriskie Point feels almost like a documentary when it starts out as a group of students are planning a strike. It looks and feels real. When the action goes outside the cinematography by Alfio Contino is often gorgeous, even when it’s just capturing the advertising by US corporations like American Airlines. And man, Italian director Antonioni depicts American society on the verge of collapse. The story involves the theft of a small aircraft that lands in the desert where our protagonist, played by Mark Frechette, meets cute with Daria Halprin. This should have been the part of the film where things heat up, but instead it’s the point where things fall apart. The two leads were nearly unknown before this film but they each have some presence – until they get together. They’re supposed to be having a whirlwind erotic awakening in the desert as they meet their intellectual equals, but there’s absolutely no chemistry between these two. Antonioni is an artist but I don’t think it was his intent to have these two deliver their lines like zombies. I was cringing at their dialogue so much that when the orgy started I couldn’t even enjoy it!
And the music by Pink Floyd? Meh. I admit that the only Pink Floyd album I listen to is the amazing Piper at the Gates of Dawn but I do enjoy plenty of other Floyd tunes. The Floyd content is only at the beginning and end of the film and is not memorable. In fact, the film is not worth watching for the soundtrack alone. Zabriskie Point clocks in at under two hours but feels quite a bit longer. Yet there’s no disputing Antonioni was a true artist and there are moments of greatness here. The tone of impending doom is impressive. I wasn’t alive when the film was released but the depiction of an unraveling American society feels prescient today, perhaps even more so than it did to viewers in 1970. If you are fan of Antonioni’s other films it is worth watching. Otherwise I would pass. There are plenty of other flicks to choose from at the Fort Worth Central Library.