An unrivalled cinematic experience. Illusory, emotional, beautiful - just everything you could ask for.

One of the most powerful expressions of the filmic language I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing. Tarkovsky pushes the medium to its maximum potential, creating a complex and moving work of visual poetry.

I'm going to be digesting this one for a while. Phew!

Bewitching, hypnotic, trance-inducing, whatever you want to call it, it's wonderful and I can't explain my feelings towards this properly so soon after having seen it.

Style really saves this. It's a good enough story, but it took way too long for it to really pick up, about an hour into it's two hour and forty-five minute runtime, and it still dragged from there at certain points. However, to say that this isn't one of the single most beautiful films ever created is a straight up lie.

After I saw Solaris I remember reading a review by Roger Ebert where he said that Tarkovsky's films are more like environments than entertainments, and this is definitely true for Stalker.

"A tangled knot of memories, fears, fantasies, nightmares, paradoxical impulses, and a yearning for something that's simultaneously beyond our reach and yet intrinsic to every one of us." - Nick Schager

I'm beginning to think Tarkovsky just isn't for me. I'm most impressed by films that can address higher-order concepts while still relating them to the established plot and character context. This film gets too lost in esoteric dialogue (neglecting its genuinely interesting plot and characters) to be an effective film. At the same time, I admit perhaps I'm missing some essential je ne sais quoi of Tarkovsky's films and maybe I'll learn to appreciate his works some 15 or so years down the line.

Mysterious, poetic, and deeply meaningful, Stalker attains a level of beauty that few films have matched. Tarkovsky's patience in relating the events extends not simply to the pacing (which helps the film become increasingly engrossing on repeated viewings), but to the slight details he lets out about the characters as well. The Stalker--isolated and looked down on by the rest of society--calls the people back to faith and humility, a message the educated elite seem unable or unwilling to heed.

As perfect as cinema can get.

Stalker is anything but easy to watch - it's almost oppressively slow sometimes, not to mention brooding and mysterious - but it's certainly rewarding in the end. Deals with questions of faith and philosophy in an interesting (albeit occasionally dry) manner, and creates a state of reverie and atmosphere that is hypnotic at times. Something that almost certainly requires repeat viewings.

There's this one scene that will haunt me forever. Three guys, having reached the end of their journey to the room where their wishes could come true, choose not to proceed. Instead they just sit outside, and in one long and beautiful take it starts raining, goes on for a few minutes, and then gradually stops. I can't do it justice in words. Beautiful!

Excelente fotografia!!!

Haunting and beautiful. Too boring and obscure for me to fully enjoy but not enough to completely hide it's value.

The pacing is very slow but the crafting of the scenes, in particular the sound is so clever and exaggerated it jumps out so boldly. The characters and philosophy formed almost constantly create intrigue and clearly the dialogue is very interesting. It's slow and methodical and I felt the first few and the last few scenes weren't necessary but perhaps I just don't understand them.

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