- Actors: Alisa Freyndlikh, Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy, Anatoliy Solonitsyn, Nikolay Grinko, Natasha Abramova
- Directors: Andrey Tarkovskiy
- Writers: Andrey Tarkovskiy, Arkadiy Strugatskiy, Boris Strugatskiy
- Producers: Aleksandra Demidova, Willie Geller
- Format: Colour, Black & White, Full Screen, Subtitled, PAL
- Language Russian
- Aspect Ratio: 4:3 - 1.33:1
- Classification: PG
- Studio: Connoisseur
- VHS Release Date: 24 Jan 2000
- Run Time: 155 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B00004CLJI
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,730 in Video (See Top 100 in Video)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
87 of 92 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
As already mentioned, this film is slow-paced and lacks amazing special effects, but give it your full attention and you will be rewarded by a technically brilliant shot film that cuts deep into the human psyche in a manner few hollywood films have ever managed to do. Images from the film linger on in the mind and stay with you for a life time. Shot using what must have been a very low budget, the film manages successfully to create an incredibly strange, alien/haunting sci-fi environment. It is very well acted and profound in ways I can't even begin to describe.On the other hand my wife thought it was boring, hated reading the sub-titles and didn't think there was a great deal of plot complaining that nothing really happens in the film and gave up half way through, citing Stalker as another of my 'weird choice of films'.If only I could get her to persevere I'm sure she'd see why I like the film so much...but alas. The funny thing is, I can easily identify and see where she is coming from but for me I found the film one of the most haunting, sub-concious penetrating, unforgettable films I have ever seen. Sorry to sound pretentious but this film is worth seeing and truly memorable - and whether in the end you like the film or not the film's tone and images will stay with you forever.
30 of 32 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
A Stalker leads two men, a professor and a writer, into The Zone - A decayed landscape where a meteor may once have crashed. Slowly they make their way to a room where your innermost wish will be granted, all the time haunted by an unseen and unknown threat.
This is not your average SF film. The pace is extremely slow, and there are very few SFX. Centering around a more philosophical core than a scientific one, the film is poetic and filled with atmospheric imagary. There's a genuine sense of otherworldlyness here, partly due to the clever imagary, but also due to the superb unnatural use of natural sound. Everyday noises start to become hints of a threat, and mechanised noises the norm.
The disks are superb. As with previous Tarkovsky releases, these seem to be identical to the excellent Ruscico disks, and present the film in a crisp print - also in it's original (full screen) ratio. Extras include a short extract of Tarkovsky's diploma film, interviews with people who worked on the (troubled) production, a tour around Tarkovsky's house in the style of the film and biographies. Not huge amounts, but what is provided is of extremely high quality. Even the menus are superb.
Highly recommended.
34 of 37 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Stretching to two DVDs, 'Stalker' is a 155-minute film that feels even longer. Full of meaningful silences, existential discourses and lingering shots of landscapes and faces, this is not a film for action fans. Unlike that other great sci-fi film of 1979, 'Alien', there are no special effects of any kind and I suspect that most people will find 'Stalker' boring.
I must confess that my attention wandered at times, as the three main characters made such painfully slow progress towards their goal. However, after watching 'Stalker' I couldn't get it out of my mind and ended up having to see the whole thing again. Why? I think that 'Stalker', like many great works of art, takes time to reveal its secrets.
If Dostoevsky had been born a century later, I could imagine him making a film like 'Stalker'. This is not a sci-fi film, it's about the Russian soul and is as rewarding and frustrating as Dostoevsky's novels.
However, it is ultimately the cinematography which is the most powerful aspect of the film. The damp, lush, verdant landscape of the zone and the monochrome industrial dystopia of the town are some of the most haunting images I have ever seen.
If you prefer questions to answers, I recommend 'Stalker' without reservation.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Sense of Doubt
Wanting action, suspense, resolution and ecapism?
Nothing here for you.
Instead we have a very slow, almost meditative film about an exploration of the... Read more
Nothing here for you.
Instead we have a very slow, almost meditative film about an exploration of the... Read more
Published 4 hours ago by Dr. Delvis Memphistopheles
dvd
I ordered this dvd obviously assuming that I'd be able to watch the movie.
I couldn't.
It seems that this American product cannot be used on European dvd players, so I do... Read more
I couldn't.
It seems that this American product cannot be used on European dvd players, so I do... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Elisabeth
I know, it's only a long Russian film....but I like it
We rented it because Geoff Dyer was writing a book about it. It seemed absurd. A book about some weird Russian film? So we had to rent it. Yeah. I get all the one star reviewers. Read more
Published 3 months ago by J. Reynolds
Guys lying around in puddles
I wanted to like this film but unfortunately i just didnt get it...excruciatingly Slow, cold, miserable and drawn out. Read more
Published 5 months ago by J.D.Salinger
The Greatest Science Fiction Film Ever Made...
...consists of three balding Soviet men wandering around an abandoned hydroelectric power plant for three hours. Read more
Published 10 months ago by R. Myers
In Tarkovsky's Zone
This is a typically challenging film from Tarkovsky: ponderous and bleak; demanding without being impenetrable; guilty of omphaloskepsis, certainly, but too intriguing and... Read more
Published 23 months ago by R. J. Harvey
Someone desribed this as "like Dostoevski"...
...which is entirely true, except we all know he always five words when he could use one. In terms of an actual film, this has absolutely no real tension - as you see three people... Read more
Published on 22 Dec 2009 by Simon Kwong
Utterly brilliant!
This is a truly remarkable achievement. A mesmerizing and visonary film that I can watch time and time again and never tire of. Read more
Published on 28 Nov 2009 by Stuart C. Taylor
Worst film I've ever seen.
A couple of actors travelling through a supposed post-apocalyptic landscape musing about nothing- FOR THREE HOURS! I kid you not! Read more
Published on 12 Oct 2009 by S. L. Alleman
Probably the best film I've ever seen
I was not particularly a Tarkovsky fan before seeing this film but I endlessly search for 'proper' sci-fi, not the gormless trash that most hollywood studios churn out. Read more
Published on 22 Sep 2009 by S. Dodds
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