Review: Antonioni was aiming for another hip masterpiece, this time on the other side of the Atlantic than "Blow up". It wasn't the success with critics and youth like the former though. Why? Maybe because it was a European's view of America filled with cliches that didn't work then and that have not aged well. (The revolutionary students at the beginning is embarrassing.)

Maybe when it was released big blockbuster movies and those aimed specifically at the youth market seemed dated. If it had been released a year before maybe hippes in deserts would have seemed fresh... It's a very interesting film tho, very beautifully shot with some brilliant and Antonionian scenes in between, like the love-making in the desert, the stillness of the desert mansion and the explosive ending... That the leads were two amateurs didn't help. They were beautiful but inexperienced. Mark Freshette is slightly better than Daria Halprin. It would have been so much better with proper actors! Maybe Michelle Phillips or a young Jessica Lange... The dialog is actually quite funny and poignant at times, tho you wouldn't know the way the lines are delivered...

A very intersting document of the late sixties definitely worth a look for the photography and the soundtrack....
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