Stalker (1979) Movie Review: A slow mesmerizing and enlightening journey from darkness to light.


Stalker
Directed by Andrey Tarkovskiy
Language: Russian, Year: 1979

A drive into an unnamed region filled with unexpected dangerous entrap.
Plot: A Scientist and a teacher decides to go to a conscious ‘Zone’. There they can make their wishes come true. A Stalker helps them to reach there.
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In fact the trip itself was a false one. At a point of time the movie warns us of how our society and so-called-development ruined human’s connection with natural world and tainted this connection to a catastrophe. Metaphors in the movie make us to feel about the modern world which destroyed all hopes. The most difficult but appealing part of the movie for me was to follow dreamy imminent of three characters, from three different backgrounds, with three different view over the life and world.
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Stalker is a tightly packed movie about the incomprehensible mysteries of the world, that's open to innumerable explanations. I think it’s really impossible for somebody to say I understood each and every frame of the movie. It requires a great amount of concentration to really understand. Not a simple film to watch, but undoubtedly a grand one. It is a psychosomatic study of the human condition. It is an enchanting philosophical figurative movie. The images and dialogs are very philosophical and profound. The film is a journey from a dark town to the realistic colored zone, from darkness to illumination.
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Characters:
Stalker – He guides people to the zone. Acts like a priest.
Writer and scientist – They deny spirituality. Argues everything related to being spiritual.
Stalker’s wife – A person with hope.
Stalker’s daughter – The truth or power Stalker was searching for.
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My favorites
When camera moves across different objects lying below the water to reach an image of Christ.
Usage of color and sepia frames. (The zone is shows in color and Stalker’s life in dull color, except when showing his daughter.)
The finale scene of Stalker’s daughter.
The extreme long and lengthy shots used throughout the movie.
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Minuses: Completely unsolved and slow. And viewers need a key about the theme to understand the film better.
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The music is simply hypnotic. The re-recording just suck viewers into the zone so is the cinematography. Poetry of the camera is exceptional. There is hell a lot of shots which are really odd. Lighting, camera placement, movements, tone are a little masterpieces.
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If you don’t feel anything with the story or characters then also you will love to watch it for the absolute gorgeousness of the wholesome cinematic imagery.

Definitely not the best of Andrey Tarkovskiy but still a great inspiring film for classic-film lovers and wannabe film-makers. One sentence to end with – there has never been a movie like Stalker.
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My Rating: 4.5/5

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