Stalker
1979
With STALKER, Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky returns to the mind-bending, philosophy-tinged science fiction of SOLARIS. The setting is an unnamed country in an unforeseen postapocalyptic future. A meteorite has landed, and its impact has created a mysterious phenomenon known as the Zone, within which resides a sinister room .. Read more
| Starring | Alexander Kaidanovsky, Alissa Freindlich, Anatoli Solonitsyn, Nikolai Grinko |
|---|---|
| Director | Andrei Tarkovsky |
| Genres | Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Thriller, World Cinema |
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Stalker
With STALKER, Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky returns to the mind-bending, philosophy-tinged science fiction of SOLARIS. The setting is an unnamed country in an unforeseen postapocalyptic future. A meteorite has landed, and its impact has created a mysterious phenomenon known as the Zone, within which resides a sinister room said to grant humanity's deepest desires. Only Stalkers are able to enter the Zone, bringing intrepid citizens to test their strength and desires against the Zone's enigmatic treacheries. The film follows one such Stalker (Alexander Kaidanovsky) as he attempts to bring two characters known as Writer (Anatoli Solonitsyn) and Scientist (Nikolai Grinko) into the Zone. The hapless trio makes a difficult and mud-drenched journey, dodging military guards and invisible traps and enduring extreme psychological strain. While Tarkovsky avoids any direct political reading of STALKER, the film's allegorical structure presents a powerful and disturbing metaphor for humanity's loss of and subsequent quest for faith. The Stalker's struggle to rescue himself and his family while guiding those more wretched than himself creates a physical and metaphysical drama that leaves the viewer breathless. Blending visual, narrative, and cinematic conventions to portray the fractured logic of the Zone, Tarkovsky conjures a universe of despair and desire in which science, rationalism, and technology must face off against love, humanism, and faith.
| Starring | Alexander Kaidanovsky, Alissa Freindlich, Anatoli Solonitsyn, Nikolai Grinko |
|---|---|
| Director | Andrei Tarkovsky |
| Studio | ARTIFICIAL EYE |
| Run time | DVD: 2 hrs 35 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Thriller, World Cinema |
| Language | DVD: Russian |
| Subtitles | DVD: Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Russian |
| Released | DVD: 22 Apr 2002 Production year: 1979 |
| Format | DVD |
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Critics' reviews (3)
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Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky could always be relied upon for visual lyricism, but the mysterious terrain traversed here — shot in muted colour by Aleksandr Knyazhinsky — is anything but picturesque. Three men undertake a gruelling trek to the “Zone”, an area of forbidding wilderness that can only be crossed by “stalkers” such as Aleksander Kaidanovsky. He is hired to guide writer Anatoli Solonitsyn and professor Nikolai Grinko to the “Room”, a place in which truth and innermost desire can be attained. The metaphysical discussion that follows their arrival feels somewhat mundane after what has gone before, but this chilling science-fiction drama still succeeds in provoking the viewer to question their own beliefs and values.
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"...A preternaturally vivid style rendered Dosteyevskyan by monochrome photography whose raspingly harsh textures suggest some grainy newsreel footage of the future..."
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Most helpful member's review
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28 out of 29 people found this review helpful
And you thought SOLYARIS was difficult!
My dim memory is that Arkady and Boris Strugatski?s book, ROADSIDE PICNIC, which was the inspiration for STALKER, suggested that if aliens were indeed to visit the Earth, whether for a picnic or some other unfathomable purpose, then the debris (tangible or otherwise) they might leave behind would be, above all, utterly incomprehensible to humans.
This is a wonderful science-fiction idea, but the film?s screenplay (also by the Strugatskis) has a completely different emphasis; Tarkovsky creates a multi-layered, philosophical debate between the three archetypal main characters ? Guide, Artist and Scientist ? as they enter the Zone and make their way to the Room. It seems as if he is using them as mouthpieces for his own questions and uncertainties. Politics, religion? who can say what it?s all really about?
The setting, which appears to be an abandoned factory in an industrial wasteland, is as beautifully-filmed as it is ugly. The fact that Tarkovsky can make you believe that aliens have indeed been here, and can maintain the resulting tension for the whole time the three human visitors are there, without a single special effect or indeed any indication that the place is anything other than just what it seems, is a mark of the man?s genius.
And what does the ending mean? Who (if anyone) do the three glasses represent ? the explorers, or the girl and her mother and father? Who is the one who falls off the table? (There ? I don?t think I?ve given too much away.)
There are many parallels with the same director?s other science fiction film, SOLYARIS: the intercutting of monochrome with colour; the emphasis on water; the long, lingering camerawork. Unlike SOLYARIS, however, STALKER hasn?t been ruined by Hollywood ? yet. Perhaps it will remain safe ? after all, the attention span of yer average media mogul surely can?t be adequate to cope with a film of this slowness and complexity?
The verdict on STALKER seems split between the fans of whizz-bang, who were very bored and hated it, and the rest, who loved it, but have great difficulty in explaining why. It is a difficult, complex, challenging, incredibly detailed film, but it does get you thinking in a life-the-universe-and-everything kind of way ? and isn?t this what the best science fiction is supposed to do? I read a review of STALKER which said that great works of art give up their secrets only slowly; I?ll go along with that, and I?ll keep on coming back to this fascinating film. -
Most recent members' review
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1 out of 1 person found this review helpful
Beautiful Bore
The photography in this film is absolutely stunning, particularly in the black & white/sepia sections. The film stock chosen gives every shot a vivid, startling quality with rich textures.
There is one long tracking sequence where the camera moves from one sleeping adventurer to another that is truly mesmerising. The beauty of the film is easily enough to recommend it to anyone who appreciates cinema as a visual art form.
However, the themes, and more specifically the dialogue are irritatingly overblown and the long, seemingly endless ponificating of the three central characters rather gets in the way of what is otherwise a spectacular and hypnotic film. The female character on the other hand is geniunely interesting and it is a shame that she has such a small part.
If you are expecting a science fiction film then you will be sadly disappointed as it is even less of one than the excellent Solaris. Really it is a philosophical (but rather trite) exploration of desire. But the visual quality of this piece has enough arresting moments to keep the more visually-oriented viewer happy. -
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