Review CXXI - Сталкер

Review 121
Stalker (1979)

I'm back, guys! Exams are over, I got two days of rest, and now my crazy work schedule will begin for Christmas! Fun times, eh? I honestly don't mind all that much - anything to get a break from studying every night. Anyway, I'm back (for now), but I haven't had any time to watch any holiday films... I'll try and watch one, though I can't make any guarantees. Instead I'm here to share with you a classic film, a Russian film, that I had the pleasure of watching a few weeks ago right after regular classes finished. I present you Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker, or Сталкер as it is known in Russian.

The "Zone" is an area forbidden to laypeople after the disappearance of a group of military men. However, the "Stalker" (Aleksandr Kaidanovsky) agrees to take in two curious men, the "Professor" (Nikolai Grinko) and the "Writer" (Anatoli Solonitsyn), who wish to visit the "Room", an area in the "Zone" that apparently grants a selected wish from whoever steps inside it.

I really, really liked this film to start off with. I was told it was long, it was quiet, and it was Russian. But guys, the time didn't seem long at all to me. I felt the two hours and forty minutes were justified and there was never a dull moment. But I'm just gushing over this thing and not reviewing it. Shall we back track a bit?

Stalker was based, very loosely apparently, on a novel titled Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, a novel depicted as one of the greatest science fiction novels ever written (I'm getting this from Wikipedia because I never read the novel, so I can't comment). However, if you've played S.T.A.L.K.E.R. or read/played Metro 2033, you'll start the film and start hmmming it and seeing super close similarities. Indeed, both games refer to stalkers, and even in the novel of Metro 2033, they point out that the word "stalker" is a foreign word to their mouths since it's English (I loved Metro 2033, though the ending was kind of meh). So already, if you really love those games, check out Stalker from 1979. However, it is not exactly the same, so it's probably closer to Roadside Picnic than it is Stalker... I digress! Long story short, I had read Metro 2033 prior to watching Stalker, had enjoyed myself with S.T.A.L.K.E.R., so I was going to like Stalker.

As I said, Stalker is different because it doesn't deal with alien life and creatures birthed through hideous radioactive sewage. While radioactive explosions are a topic of the film, something predating the Chernobyl incident, it also focuses on the journey of man through faith and expectation. I can't say I one hundred percent got the film... I tried reading an analysis of the film, but it went on for so long that I ended up skimming it (reference). I read some shorter ones (here and here), and I basically got the conclusion that Stalker was not a religious piece, a humanitarian piece, a life piece: it was really what the viewer saw in it, with a definite message of keeping faith and harbouring love. This is based on the words of the director. This works throughout the film, but again, the film is long, so there is so much to say about it. I think Andrei Tarkovsky really wanted to raise issues in Russia at the time given that he wasn't happy with the censorship that was occurring at the time. Yet, the ending with the little girl makes you wonder if the whole thing could actually have happened, or if it was just a post-traumatic experience on the "Stalker"'s behalf. ... I really can't offer anything new. Read those articles guys, if you're interested

However, if you aren't the type to really give a shit about meaning, the film will not be lost of you. The reason? The shots are really, really beautiful. The film starts off in a crisp coffee-brown-black-white super contrasting palette that turns into the real world once our protagonists enter the "Zone" (I keep thinking the "void" for some reason). It was jarring, but it worked so well. Honestly, those opening scenes were absolutely beautiful, and it only continued from there. The "Zone" had beautiful, beautiful cinematography as well. I particularly loved the tunnel and the last shot in the "Zone" with the water and stone. If you want a beautiful film, Stalker will not disappoint. It is so, so beautiful. Thank you, Andrei Tarkovsky and Alexander Knyazhinsky!

The 1979 classic really deserves its status. It is long, but honestly, I thought every moment was worth the time. The acting was great (the "Writer" was a beautiful man, hehe, and the wife of the "Stalker" (Alisa Freindlich) was great), the cinematography was astounding (common of classic Russian films ;) ), the story and plot interesting, the meaning, ambiguous yet deep, the film, great. I can't wait to check out Solaris!