Stalker

This is going to be a hard one to review. The other day I watched a film called "Ivan's Childhood" When I mentioned I had watched it to a friend they suggested I watch this other film by the same director that he did many years later.

A man only known as Stalker wakes up in the morning and has a fight with his wife, he's out on another job and shes not to happy about it. The job being a sort of guide and protector in a place called "The Zone" You see "The Zone" is a place where strange things happen, its even said to have a room where your wishes will come true, but its very dangerous, its a large area of land where the simplest of tasks can kill you, stuff like a river bed can go from dry to under 20 feet of water in mere moments. This place is guarded by men with guns, and there are many theories of how this place came to be, one we hear is that it was due to a meteor that landed there, maybe its a gift from God....or a curse.

Stalker is taking two men in with him, the Scientist, and the Writer, both of whom don't say why they want to go in there, or at least not right away. So after they get in they set to finding the room, "The Zone" though seems to be conscious of their choices and frames of mind, it can and does spit them out, or send them to places they didn't mean to get to. This actually sounds like it would make a really cool American remake, but there is a certain charm to this version, and I'm not really into American remakes. This though......was very long winded.

Clocking in at 2 hours and 45 minutes, with very little happening through out most of it, a certain boredom arises. If you can make it through the first 30-40 minutes or so, and are willing to watch with out a huge pay off then this movie can be very enjoyable. Its Russian and much of it is spent pontificating about the meaning of life, why things happen, what it means to be human, and on and on they go. They even spout off poems at one another, different to say the least. Certain scenes and shots go on for minutes and minutes with nothing happening, and I mean that, people sitting on the ground, for like 2 minutes, talk about boring.

For the most part the cinematography was incredible, but was punched in the face by the lack of a decent editing job, this movie could have easily been 40 minutes shorter and nothing would have been lost story wise, the only thing we would lose is the feeling that the movie will never end.

As interesting as the characters are, they pale in comparison to "The Zone" here is the real focus of the story, it knows you're there, and can see through you. There are rooms filled with piles of sand (kudos to the art department) there are rooms where the floor is filthy water and the walls are falling in (again art department) Its full of that kind of thing, what saved this movie for me and ultimately made me enjoy it as much as I did was the fact that the Cinematography was killer, although sometimes shots lasted forever (editors fault as well) and "The Zone's" amazing imagery supplied mostly by art department. Now this was made in the late 70's so they couldn't exactly do what we can do now in movies like "The Cell" or "The Fall" both of those are by the same director. Other movies being "The Fountain" or "Moulin Rouge" for amazing imagery, but this still has its own real appeal.

The acting was....underdone. They seemed very flat, and all of what they spoke of was misery, perhaps its because its a Russian film, seems to be a theme they go with often. I'm sorry to say this, because the film was good, but I would not recommend it to most, its a difficult pill to swallow, while watching it I was asked several times if I wanted to stop it, but it takes a lot to get me to give up on a film, and I was really interested in this one. Is this a film I need to watch again? No, not really, but I certainly would show excerpts of it to people if I need to show an example of what people can do with film.

Even though I will be giving this a high rating, or at least higher than most people would its because its a good example, not necessarily something you might enjoy. If you're open to philosophy and have the 3 hours and the patience then take a look. 7.5/10 stars.

Director: Andrei Tarkovsky

Starring: Aleksandr Kaidanovsky, Anatoli Solonitsyn, Nikolai Grinko