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39. Zabriskie Point (1970)


Italian auteur Michelangelo Antonioni’s first and only American film clearly presented a problem for MGM, who valiantly chose to market 1970’s "Zabriskie Point" in the most weirdly obfuscating (and an un-Antonioni obfuscation, at that!) way possible. “Where a boy... and a girl... meet... and touch... and blow their minds” goes the doleful voiceover, as a couple of drifters get naked and roll around in the desert. A psychedelic guitar grinds and a bunch of rapid-fire shots of some sort of Cops Vs. Hippies battle royale replace the wild desert bonking. "Zabriskie Point: How you get there depends on where you’re at." What! Hoping to sell the movie on the strength of salacious images and a tone that hopefully cashes in on the success of films like "Easy Rider," they seemed confident these were sufficient indicators of what the film was actually about. Given that it foreran one of the biggest disappointments of Antonioni’s career, the confusion of the trailer seems to have been matched by that of the audience it managed to attract. --Michelle Orange


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user-pic Amil Dave

I guess you guys haven't seen the trailer for The Hughes Bros.'s Dead Presidents, huh? What about Forest Gump? I think those are the 2 greatest of all time. Gump is better than the movie. And Dead Prez is the best ever.

user-pic Amil Dave

Oh... what about the SW Ep 1 teaser? Maybe you should call this the best film trailers on YouTube! LOL. Dead Prez is probably too hard for you to locate.

user-pic Topher

I think The Dark Knight, Iron Man, and 300 should be included!

user-pic Jeff

Clerks? No love for the Clerks trailer? Sigh.

user-pic Keith

Honorable mention for the Grindhouse fake trailers? "Don't" was brilliant.
Great list, by the way. Thanks for including 'Man Who Wasn't There'

user-pic chris

Seriously? We have to click 50 times just to get the damn list? No thanks.

user-pic Andersen

Like clicking 50 times is soooo hard, right? But you guys forgot about There Will Be Blood!!

user-pic bEtTeRtImEtOwAsTe

50 PAGES?!!! Get back to work researching how to post an article. No Digg for you.

user-pic bEtTeRtImEtOwAsTe

50 PAGES?!!! Get back to work researching how to post an article. No Digg for you.

GREAT article and flawless pick for #1. I actually did a lil piece on that trailer at our own movie blog, so I'm elated to see as your top pick. Yay trailers!

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