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!

Review CI - Die Blechtrommel

Review 101
The Tin Drum (1979)

I finished reading Günter Grass' Die Blechtrommel, aka The Tin Drum, a few months ago, only to find out there was a movie adaptation that had won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Picture back when it was released in 1979. Of course this made me very curious because The Tin Drum is a magic realistic piece, i.e. a novel that takes a surrealist turn and everyone takes it as normal. For example, in The Tin Drum (movie and book), little Oskar Matzerath (played by David Bennent in the movie) decides, at three-years-old, to stop growing. So he throws himself down the stairs of the cellar so everyone believes that was the cause and blame Alfred Matzerath (played by Mario Adorf in the movie) for leaving the cellar door open. I kept meaning to watch it, but then other films got in the way. However, Günter Grass recently passed away, so I decided that I'd check out the film after much delay.

The story doesn't actually begin with Oskar - instead, we must get to know his family. In Kashubia (northwest Poland now), a young Anna Bronski (Tina Engel), who wears five skirts, is busy picking her potatoes and cooking them for consumption when she spots a young man being chased down by policemen. She allows him to hide under her skirts, but the two decide to dance the tango as he gets away, and she falls pregnant with Agnes Koljaiczek (Angela Winkler), Oskar's mother. Agnes begins a relationship with her cousin, Jan Bronski (Daniel Olbrychski), though marries Alfred Matzerath (Mario Adorf). A child, Oskar, is born, though his mind is not that of a child, deciding that he'd prefer to stay three for ever after receiving his red-and-white tin drum.

I should be honest right now and say the book was not a favourite of mine. It was an interesting read at times, but it was quite long and, though I have some Lithuanian/German/Austrian blood in me, I have never been to the area and know very little pre-twentieth century history of the whole thing, and so I have very little knowledge of the history behind Poland and Germany, let alone who the Kashubians were! Basically, from what I understand, the Kashubians are an ethnic group that were forced into modern-day Poland, so, as Jan Bronski says in the film (or maybe it was someone else), they're not Polish enough or German enough for either side. However, that is as much as I know. Wikipedia also doesn't seem to provide much information, mentioning that the people occupy a border region with Germany of Poland in the north. I even asked my grandfather, but he didn't seem to know who they were - though maybe it didn't help that I was probably confused as to the name of the people. All that to say, some of the stuff really flew over my head in the film and the book. Is that to say you won't enjoy it? Not quite. I mean, it still takes place during the Third Reich, as well as its downfall, so, slight spoilers I guess, you get to see how the Nazis tried to suppress the Polish resistance in Germany and how the Russians raped whoever they could. And this is stuff I'm sure you know about. It was just pre-World War I and II that the book just escaped me. I really ought to look up about the Kashubians!

Okay, I really went on a talk about Kashubia. As I was saying, the book was not a favourite of mine. Though not as detailed as a Russian novel, it nonetheless has that kind of feel, in a way. I really don't want to compare the two because it's different, but still, you really have to be in the mood to read that stuff. It's deep, strong, powerful, and detailed. So sometimes I'd pick up the book and ravish it, whereas other times, I was just reading for the sake of getting by. I wasn't sure how I'd feel about the film to start off with, but since the book did a great job with surrealism, I wanted to see how the film would handle it. And honestly, it did it surprisingly well! I was very impressed. The initial scene with the skirts was actually really good in my opinion. The birthing scene was creepy...? If only because David Bennent is playing the baby as well. But yeah, it took that surrealist feel super well. Good job, director Volker Schlöndorff! Very impressive! I thought it was funny how in the book, Oskar would see things going on between his mother and Jan Bronski and the descriptions were obvious as to what it was, but still kind of sugar-coated. In the movie, though, they just go ahead and show the sexual acts they had going on between them. I liked the way it was executed in the book a lot, but it's a film, so you can only show what they're doing. I guess they could have had a voice over instead, but this film is from the seventies - they're going to show nudity and sex whenever they can! And the book had sex, so the film takes every advantage.

I could go on about small details, but I don't think you guys would be too happy about that. The film ends with Maria Matzerath (Katharina Thalbach) moves away from Danzig, Germany to Düsseldorf, so stops short of where the book ended. That was a bit too bad because it would have been fun to see the whole story. But the film was already over two and half hours long, so I guess that would have meant another part. Anyway, the film is interesting. Not really my thing, but neither was the book. Still, looking back, I'm glad I read the novel because the whacky stories were quite imaginative and funny at times, while still providing a view of Poland/Germany, and the movie really tries its best to stay true to the source material, even the magic realism parts. Try reading the book - it's pretty crazy. And if you lose the patience to read it, check out the film. Not my thing, but I still managed to sit through the book and movie. That's saying a lot! Rest in peace, Günter Grass.

Review LXXXIX - Alien

Review LXXXIX
Alien (1979)

As like everyone, my horror film interest spiked in my teenage years. Probably one of the first horror films I watched was Halloween, which I hated. After that, I made it my mission to watch as many classic slasher-horror films as possible to see if the other classics were as bad as Halloween. I stopped after Friday the 13th, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and A Nightmare on Elm Street. While I really enjoyed A Nightmare on Elm Street, screw every other film. They were annoying, badly written, and just out to jump scare me. I don't completely condemn jump scares, but really, if that's all I get, along with characters I hate, I have nothing. After watching some sequel to Hellraiser (watch the original - Clive Baker totally had it!), I realised I liked the gore aspect more than anything, which brought me to zombie movies. I moved away from anything not zombie, catching Silent Hill and other generic shit every so often and, consequently, completely regretting it. This led to me feeling wary every time someone brought up Ridley Scott's Alien. "But Alex, you must see the scene from the alien pops out of the guy's stomach!" I saw the bit in Spaceballs - good enough for me. Until, of course, I was dragged into watching it. I erred and ummed, but when my boyfriend said he liked Aliens, the flippin' sequel to Alien, I had to check it out. I was reluctant, but maybe I was really missing out on a goldmine...

The year is 2XXX, and a space crew (consisting of Captain Dallas (Tom Skerritt), Executive Officer Kane (John Hurt), Chief Engineer Parker (Yaphet Kotto), Engineering Technician Brett (Harry Dean Stanton), Navigator/Helmsman Lambert (Veronica Cartwright), Science Officer Ash (Ian Holm), and Warrant Officer Ripley (Sigourney Weaver)) is on their way home, frozen in stasis until they reach a reasonable distance from home. But they're woken up early. What could be the cause? A distress signal from - could it be - an alien? The crew sets off to find out more about this alien form. However, the signal turns out to be a warning, and soon Kane is infected and the crew is faced with a bigger problem than originally anticipated.

This movie, this movie... Okay, it was not as bad as Texas Chain Saw Massacre if only because the effects were cool and legit. But the plot. Oh god, the plot. Okay, okay, let me back up. Let's compliment it first. Alien, as mentioned, had some pretty cool effects. I mean, I wouldn't go and say it was the best I've seen, but given it was 1979, it was able to come across as not super cheesy even with the whole "in space" bit. I give it that. The shredded condoms, the sheep's stomach, the intestines used to make everything were worth it because it looked cool. The alien egg? Pretty nifty! The facehugger alien? I liked it. The chestburster? Hello phallusism! It went downhill. I didn't mind it, but I guess I found it looked cheesy at this point. When the thing ran across the table, I died. Oh man, I died. It was hilarious. But really, the whole exploding bit was cool. I liked it. I felt bad for John Hurt, but at the same time, didn't at all because he was a complet- no, not yet. Let's not rant yet. The final alien was also legit. It looked cool. Granted, the small, extendable mouth was a tad on the funny side when you see it extract out, but the idea was cool. The creativity and the ingenuity of making each stage of the alien was grand. I liked it. It was new, it was cool. The film totally deserved the academy award it got for effects. And the little relation to the Aztec space jockey, nice, nice. I can see all the interesting ideas that exist for the alien species. I've been told about it, and I've even read up on it myself (Weyland-Yutani, you're hilarious). I really can see all the effort put into this, and I think it paid off. I really do. I could totally watch this film again...

... But the movie made me rage. Everyone, and I do mean every human being, was an idiot. A complete IDIOT. Want me to break it down completely? I doubt you want to hear me complain for so long. But I'll give you little bits. NUMBER ONE. They get this mysterious signal coming from a nearby planet. "'Kay, must be a distress signal, lezz go." They send Dallas, Kane, and Lambert down. No problem. Except when Ripley finally asks Ash if she can check out the signal. Oh, look, binary! It's actually decipherable (albeit freakin' tedious), especially since Ripley is a master at the bare-bones of hardware. So what does Ripley find out? "Hey, this is actually a warning." Now, fine, I understand a certain excitement at finally finding an alien species. But SERIOUSLY. You LEFT the SHIP before even DECIPHERING the SIGNAL, ESPECIALLY since it takes Ripley FIVE minutes to figure it out. Screw it. This can be explained - spoilers a bit - given Ash's motives of deceiving the crew later on for reasons I won't explain. But I don't give a shit. There are how many kids besides Ash? Six. None of them questioned the fact that they didn't know why they were being sent out. Wait, no, the plot wields it! Okay, fine. Whatever.

Next issue. Kane, Dallas, and Lambert head off to check out this alien signal. They come across the Aztec space jockey (oh, pretty face and lights) and explore. Hmm... seems a bit unsafe, but what can you do? I mean, if anything were to happen, it's okay, they could totally fly awa- oh, wait, they can't. When they landed, their ship exploded or something. Anyway, it's being fixed by Brett and Parker. Well, it's fine. They'll be okay (ignore the warning signal bit here). They travel around until Kane sees an opening, a tunnel, leading downward. "Hey, guys, a tunnel! See yaz!" He heads down. Fine. They gotta explore. I mean, they come in, guns flashing. If they were to meet an innocent species - first contact, first impressions ("I don't believe in first impressions"), I might add - and blew their heads off, well, that might be kinda bad. Protocol seems... odd. But whatever. Anyway, Kane heads down. Apparently hot as a tropical forest. Then he spots eggs. Now, imagine you're in the Amazon. You spot eggs about the size of your torso. Would you, one, take your distance and/or run away, two, try and contact an expert of the forest or use the super computer just five minutes away to assess the situation, or three, go up to it, shine light on it, see it MOVING, and stick your face in the hole that opens up? If you choose three, congratulations! You have been chosen to work on the spaceship Nostromo! It's just... who would do this except a completely ignorant person? No one. Because seriously, you have a gun, but the gun is gone all of a sudden, and when you stick your face in the hole, your gun is of no use to you. And guess what happens to Kane? WELL, SHIT, HE GETS ATTACKED. What a FREAKIN' surprise. I could keep ranting, but you get the point. You get the point that, at every turn, at every corner, at every moment they could do something cautiously, carefully, they don't. "Quarantine those suckers!" Don't. "Stick together!" They immediately separate. Granted, some things can be explained given Ash's motives, as I mentioned, but sometimes, they were stupid. Sometimes you can say that, though one guy was maybe against something, there were still six other people to think rationally. But whatever. Just whatever.

My next issue is, well, a personal one. Probably most wouldn't care, but seriously, the growth rate of the alien? Ri-dic-ulous. The facehugger to chestburster? Fine. It was fast as shit, but fine. But chestburster to full on alien form? What? The thing shed some skin. It didn't shed enough. To get that big, the crew should have found a room full of old skin. That thing grew from phallus size to larger than a human in five minutes or less. An exaggeration, but seriously, I didn't like that part. It went too quickly. It should have been longer. My boyfriend argued, "No, it scares the audience because it shows that you never know what stage the alien will be at." That is true, but the human form was the largest. We got small, small, final form. Show it transform. Don't just show it as a final form. It was too meh. I was like, "Damn, the amount of energy that creature used up to get that huge." It's science fiction, but as I said, this was more personal. I was not accepting of this. I didn't like it. Point final.

Alien had some nice shots, the effects were legit, and the creativity behind it was cool. But the plot was stupid. Everyone was stupid. I can't say I'm that upset or surprised, but seriously, while I like Ripley Scott's idea of "manbirth" and showing rape on the man's side, if the plot had been given as much thought as the effects, it could have been awesome. I can see why people still watch it to this day - versus Friday the 13th which was horrendous - but seriously, that plot. I'm out.

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