Unwatchable without being sped up.
Everyday I thank our Great and Loving Heavenly Father for The Playback Speed button.
shareUpon its release the film's reception was less than favorable. Officials at Goskino, a government group otherwise known as the State Committee for Cinematography, were critical of the film.[35] On being told that Stalker should be faster and more dynamic, Tarkovsky replied:
The film needs to be slower and duller at the start so that the viewers who walked into the wrong theatre have time to leave before the main action starts.
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You see?
The "main action"? What was that? The characters arguing over walking into a door?
shareHmm I think so, yes. Also you find out there's a working telephone in the zone. And when the writer walked through that tunnel, I really felt that.
..
I guess the word "action" is really weird there. I haven't seen the movie in a while but I watched it like twice or maybe even 3 times and what sticks the most to me long-term is the depicted silence once you they the industrial soviet shithole and get to nature.
In my opinion that's the soil of the movie. The things that actually happen are merely trees growing on it. Hehehe.
I suppose there absolutely must be some meta plot about an exchange between science, art and theology/spirituality in this movie, but I don't really want to break my head about that one. I find two of the characters extremely relatable (the scientist isnt very close to me I guess) and when you find out that he doesn't only bring booze and a gun to the trip (lol, what preparation!) but also has several dogs at home, that really just adds up to quite a character, you want to see more of it, nobody wants to see a happy writer. Hehe. Hehe.