"Stalker" (it isn't what you think it is): Movie Review (No Major Spoilers)
It's weird, fascinating Russian Sci-Fi from 1979.
My friend Damian and I have an irregular habit of watching old (classic?) movies to discuss afterwards. Think East of Eden, Breathless, Black Narcissus or Throne of Blood). Normally we select our cinematic masterpieces from the TCM hub on HBO Max. This time we chose Stalker, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky (Solaris, Andrei Rublev) and released by Mosfilm in 1979.
Based on the novel Roadside Attraction by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky (who wrote the Stalker screenplay as well, the movie struggled upon its initial release but has been since considered a classic of world cinema. The British Film Institute ranked Stalker as 30th in the “50 Greatest Films of all Time,” in the same tier as Rashomon, Taxi Driver and The Godfather, Part II.
Stalker is certainly a gem—but to enjoy the film it also has to be up your alley, storytelling-wise, or else you’ll find it interminably boring. Striking in terms of picture and sound, the movie is also “old European,” meaning slow-moving, subtitled, somber, more interested in psychology, debate and atmosphere than plot. But if you can allow yourself the luxury of letting the film capture your attention you will be rewarded—Stalker takes you to an exceptionally eerie, weird and thought-provoking place.
THE STORY SET-UP (ONLY MINOR SPOILERS) (Skip to next paragraph if you wish)
In Tarkovsky’s distant future story universe the “Stalker” is a guide who takes clients into a forbidden area known as “The Zone.” An unknown force (perhaps a meteorite) has changed the physics of The Zone in unknown ways, prompting the Russian government to evacuate the area (both urban and rural, though the scope of its entirety is never revealed) and seal it off. Armed guards watch the gates, ready to shoot anyone who tries to enter. The narrative follows a stalker (Alexander Kaidanovsky) as he sneaks two clients, a philosophical Writer (Anatoly Solonitsyn) and a practical Professor (Nikolai Grinko) into The Zone. Why would anyone want to risk their lives and enter such a forbidding place? Because some believed the Stalker can take you to a mysterious “room” which can reward you with your greatest desire.
END OF MINOR SPOILERS
Stalker is a science fiction art drama film in every sense of those words. Its mix of science fiction and horror suspense elements is masterful, creating a place (The Zone) where the guide is more frightened than his followers (and the viewer) because he is the only one who has any idea what they’re dealing with. The narrative flows through a maze of urban and rural obstacles only the stalker can navigate. The threat is embodied in an unseen but looming sense that reality has shifted into another existence here, one that can be deadly despite the lure of the “room.”
I’m not going to reveal anything about the ending, but suffice it to say if you enjoy the film you will be satisfied by the way it finishes. If you like tales of the weighty, lingering weird then you’ll discover Stalker to be like an isolation tank pumped full of weirdness.
MOVIE RATING: 8.5 out of 10 (it’s my kind of weird)
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