Present-day Kremer narrates with no sign of a speech defect. This is endearing and inspiring. He explains his film is about Stanley Kramer’s madcap comedy It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World, and his beloved Zabriskie Point. Besides being set partly in deserts, there is little obvious to connect the two films. So far, so intriguing. The filmmaker promises there will be several mash-ups of them, and he leads with a pretty amusing one of Sid Caesar peeping over a desert ridge to spy on a bunch of buck-naked hippies cavorting in the sand.
There are certainly contrasts worth exploring. It’s a Zabriskie, Zabriskie, Zabriskie, Zabriskie Point represents birth and death in Hollywood. It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World released in November 1963 as one of the last successful breaths of the dying beast that was the old guard. Zabriskie Point confidently represents the new order. From this point on, the focus slips. Kremer casts his cultural net further until the witty title starts to weigh heavy. This is not an issue at first. He begins with some fascinating stories about Greed, identified as the first “location” picture, as it was shot for two agonizing (and deadly) months in 1923 Death Valley, like Antonioni’s film. The critical and commercially successful comedy took place in the other end of the Mojave. It struck me as odd that little attention was paid to Monument Valley, the source of the most iconic American images. Does Kremer not like Westerns? The film powers forward agreeably enough, but the more of it you see, the less it seems to be hewing to its theme.
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