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Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky) 1979
Their slow trek allows much time for philosophizing, and
the Writer and Professor spar with each other about their ideals and
methodology. Clearly, the film means for us to take these two characters as
representatives of man’s approaches in the great struggle toward knowledge,
and it works, for the most part. The Writer is a particularly fascinating
creation (though my preference might reflect my temperament more than anything)
and his arguments against himself are eternal dilemmas caused by knowing too
much. Since he is fully aware of the ramifications of true wish fulfillment, it
creates a sense of fear of his own limitations and the implications of the
room’s very existence. When faced with the prospect of actually reaching
Nirvana, which the film presents as impetus for all art and science, it becomes
daunting to them, lending tragic dimensions to their journey.
The pleasures felt while watching Stalker are mostly sensory. The film’s use of sound is
sophisticated and its cinematography is stunningly good, representing both some
of the best color and black and white lensing ever done. The wasteland of the
Zone is ultra-detailed, brimming with textured filth. The editing rhythms rarely
exceed the pace of the journeymen, and as a result of all this the film manages
to transport us elsewhere without elaborate effects. Ultimately, this is a very
solid film, but it is also more obviously a metaphorical construct than
Tarkovsky’s Solaris, and as a result
is a bit less emotionally satisfying. * * * 1/2 01/21/02 Jeremy Heilman
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Andrei Tarkovsky’s epic length sci-fi opus Stalker
chronicles nothing less than the journey of man toward happiness and
enlightenment. Set in the near future, the film uses highly metaphorical
archetypes for characters as three men, a Writer, a Professor, and a Stalker, or
guide, named only by profession, move through “the Zone.” The Zone is a
wasteland roped off by the government after a meteor strike twenty years
earlier, and they make their way toward a fabled room that will supposedly grant
the innermost desire of any whom enters it. Progress is maddeningly slow, as the
Stalker informs them that a direct route to the room is not possible in the
Zone, since it punishes those who do not show it proper respect. As such, the
bulk of the film records the last two hundred meters of their journey almost in
real time, as they crisscross their way toward the Promised Land. 
The film’s final fifteen minutes take the ambiguous and
dense metaphor that Tarkovsky had created and, presumably under the pretense of
making the film’s concepts easier to grasp, turns the uncertain into the
mind-numbingly literal. It’s wholly unsatisfying, and seems to be the film’s
way of repaying the appropriate lack of catharsis up to that point. It’s not
exactly a cheat, but it feels unnecessary, especially since the film presents a
rewarding, but not cathartic, alternate ending a few minutes earlier. The final
minutes of the film seem to be the most overtly sci-fi of the film, so for them
to be the least successful is irksome. The minimalism that Tarkovsky exercises
throughout is somewhat admirable, but it results in a stodgy film that feels
better in retrospect than it does as you actually view it. It provides the
fodder for much subsequent thought and discussion, though, precisely because it
is spare enough that the viewer can leave the film with a solid remembrance of
every event in it.