| MONKEY |
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 Stalker |
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| by apotheosis |
I like it when things blow up.
More specifically, I like it when things blow up, or get shot, or get chopped up with katanas. I like it when fast things full of flammable fuel, unstable explosives, and squishy vulnerable human bodies chase each other at insanely dangerous speeds with amusing and catastrophic results. I like my heroes to be glowering badasses, and my villains to be effete masterminds with monocles and Persian cats. I like a thin plot wrapped in a stretched premise, deep-fried in napalm, sprinkled with bad dialogue and garnished with gratuitous nudity. Supersized.
In other words I'm the epitome of everything your stereotypical Cannes-and-Sundance attendee recoils from in disgusted horror. Brooding, slow-paced examinations of the human condition just don't do it for me.
With that in mind, I should probably dislike everything about Stalker, Andre Tarkovsky's 1979 philosophical road trip. The pacing is absolutely glacial. The action isn't just sparse, it's nonexistent. There are threats vaguely hinted at which never come to fruition. The characters aren't terribly engaging. I'll cut the dialogue some slack, I'm willing to believe a great deal of nuance was lost in the translation from the original Russian, but even so it's very bland.
And even taking all that into consideration, I liked it anyway, and I'm damned if I know exactly why. Granted, I went into it WANTING to like it. I'm a fan of the flawed-but-enjoyable game loosely based on the film (though I was unaware of the film's existence until recently). So I was predisposed to cut it copious slack.
I liked the cinematography, for one. The way the radiant green nature of the Zone leaps off the screen after the stark, drab sepia of the city. The long tracking shots. The minimalist score that leaves the wilderness sounds of the Zone itself to emphasize the utter loneliness. The vast amount of crumbling infrastructure and artifacts of man, overgrown with weeds and vines. It was compelling. With neither special effects or droning exposition to set the scene, one could easily be convinced something drastic and final had happened there.
The idea is, the Stalker sneaks people into the restricted Zone through a military cordon. He guides them past unseen dangers and ever-changing traps to a room that will grant their heart's fondest wish. What they get out of it depends on what they take in, psychologically and emotionally. In this trip, the Stalker is joined by a Writer and a Scientist - like the Stalker himself, they are identified only by their profession. Each has his own motivation for going, and his own plan for the outcome, but of the three it's pretty clear the Stalker is the only one who's actually digging it.
He's a weird one, that Stalker. Especially if you came into the film with preconceived notions about what a "Stalker" was, which I did, based on what the game suggested. Is he an edgy loner? Well, he's got a wife and kid, but he doesn't seem to mind ditching them. Is he altruistic? Dunno, he's pretty well-paid for an altruist. No, this guy loves the Zone, literally. He rolls in the grass and smells the flowers. He only has clarity of purpose when he's there, and he seems to think of it as a living, sentient...thing.
Which kinda brings me to what I didn't get about it. There was really no conclusive determination as to what The Zone is, was, where it came from, what it was for, and what it would do. The perfect setting for a grand mystery, a knowledge and power apparently beyond human reckoning, was just used as background for a comparatively petty and unoriginal hashing-out of man's motivations and concerns and bickering.
Perhaps that was the point, that we're all surrounded by wonder and beauty and mystery, and we're overlooking it for the silly shit that seems so important in our daily lives. I admit I honestly don't know.
Anyway, not much like the game, but still pretty good flick. Check it out if you haven't.
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