The Sunday Morning Movie Presents: Stalker (1979) Run Time: 2H 41M

Greetings gentle readers and welcome to another installment of the Sunday Morning Movie. Today it’s a work of the master cinematographer Andrei Tarkovsky, Stalker. I’m also instituting a rating system based on whether a film should be watched more than once. One * means it’s worth watching at least once but probably only that. Two **’s means it’s worth watching again at some point in the future. Three ***’s means it’s a treasure of human civilization and should be watched at least annually.

Next week’s film: Sweet Movie (Warning: weirdness abounds!)

Sweet Movie (1974)

Reviews of Stalker:

In Session Film says:

It is also important to note the three men. The Stalker, a man of faith. The Writer, a man of art. The Professor, a man of science. The professor fights to destroy a possible evil, an academic exercise in thought. The writer battles to understand it with incessant questioning, an artistic enterprise. The stalker accepts it as a matter of faith, and attempts to bring others in, a proselytizing process. When he is accused of doing this selfishly, The Stalker (Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy) performs a stunning monologue about his desire to help others that will stick with you. Later, after being rejected, he weeps with his wife, understanding that riches and class differences keep us all from connecting with faith.

Stalker can draw a number of conclusions. One of those is that all three versions of man featured here are necessary in the search for truth. The artist is necessary for the expression of faith in a human way. The professor is necessary in order to process and deliver the information to humankind. And the man of faith is the beginning. If we do not believe, there is no hope. As an addendum, there is a lack of modernity in the zone, which shows us that the more advanced we become, in our urge to have the power of gods, the further we get from our faith.

Stalker is an impressive work, even now almost 45 years later. It challenges us, whether we are people of faith or not. In a dramatically fantastic artistic career, Stalker is Tarkobvky’s greatest achievement, and one of film’s greatest accomplishments, as well.

Cinemablend says:

But, I want to talk about the visuals again, because even though it doesn’t really resemble any other sci-fi movie that I’ve ever seen, it’s still incredibly distinct and unique. With cinematography by Aleksandr Knyazhinsky, the film pulls a The Wizard of Oz, by being sepia toned in the beginning, but then turning into full color once our characters get into the Zone.

Now, the colors really aren’t anything special, as they’re mostly dark blues and bright greens, but the shock of seeing the color change sticks with you for pretty much the entire movie, especially since the colors sometimes go back to being sepia toned throughout the film.

And, this really resonated with me, as it made the Zone feel both beautiful, but also alien in nature, which makes sense, since the Room, which is somewhere within the Zone, might possibly be an alien artifact (it’s not entirely clear, nor does it really matter given the story at hand).

There’s also the famous scene with the lumpy sand dunes, known as “The Meat Grinder” in the film. Though there doesn’t really seem to be anything dangerous about the aforementioned “Meat Grinder,” the odd visuals make your imagination go wild, and I think that only works due to the subtle, but inventive, visuals and sound in this film, sparse as they both are.

Deep Focus Review says:

An uncanny cinematic landscape to explore, investigate, and reflect upon, Stalker is an immersive and unwavering search for meaning in terms of what appears onscreen and how audiences have responded since its release in 1979. Andrei Tarkovsky’s metaphysical epic unfolds in a post-apocalypse that serves as an entrenched allegory for the power of belief. Despite the ruined earth setting, this is not a commercial genre film populated by the usual shattered-world tropes of authoritarian rule, tribalism, retrofuturist technology, and desperate battles over resources. Although it contains some familiar aspects of the genre, the great Russian filmmaker repurposes them in a spiritual search for external and existential answers. Whether viewed as a metaphor for religious faith, a meditation on the mystery of consciousness, or a testament to the power of artistic creation, Stalker has continued to transfix and fascinate viewers and influence creatives. The director’s second foray into science fiction, after 1972’s brilliant Solaris, once again draws upon popular source material as a springboard for something more defiantly original, indefinable, and specific to Tarkovsky’s worldview

My take:

Like all of Tarkovsky’s work, this film is a deep well to draw from. I agree with the one reviewer above that this is a movie about the search for truth. The rationalist Professor initially sees the Zone as a threat to be destroyed, a logical deduction given the fact that it can make any lunatic’s deepest desire come true. Why he chooses not to in the end I don’t understand. The Writer’s view of truth as being fluid and relative seems to be reflected by the Zone, which alters its geography and intentions according to the individual’s point of view. The Stalker takes the Zone as it’s own truth, its’ weirdness and uncertainty are the sole certainty to be found there. Finally, there is the truth of one’s inner self. The Zone realizes the innermost desire of the seeker. Do we really know what our innermost desires are?

The cinematography is exquisite. Tarkovsky picked his location perfectly, possibly at the cost of his and other’s lives as the film was shot in a toxic waste site. His camera methods are penetrating and he uses doorways and windows as another kind of lens to focus the viewers gaze on a particular point. The scenery is wild and your imagination will have to fill in what it all means. A firm ***.

Director: Andrei Tarkovsky

Writers: Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky

Notable Actors: Alexander Kaidanovsky, Anatoly Solonitsyn, Alisa Freindlich, Nikolai Grinko

Plot (Spoilers!):

The Zone is a special place. It can make one’s dreams come true if you can survive passing through it. Naturally, having one’s dreams realized can be an incredibly dangerous thing and the Soviet government has shut down access to it with guards and gates.

Stalkers are people who have a special affinity for the Zone. They can maneuver through its perils and lead others to the Room where one’s deepest wish comes true. Two men, a Professor and a Writer, have employed a Stalker to do just that.

Their journey is fraught with peril, starting with sneaking past the guards under a hail of gun fire. Then the trio must navigate the invisible maze of the Zone, feeling their way gingerly by tossing metal nuts with strips of cloth attached ahead of them to trigger any traps. Along the way they argue with one another’s worldviews and grapple with their individual personal issues.

When the Room is finally reached, a scuffle ensues and truths are laid bare. No one enters the Room. Soon the trio is back where they started, a dingy cafe outside of the Zone.