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just finished watching STALKER.  What a weird film.  That's not to say I did not like it...it was just weird.  My wife hated it, but then she slept through most of its 2 hr 43 minute run time.

Helmed by Andrei Tarkovsky (who also gave us SOLARIS), I should have expected the slow slow pacing, long takes and more visual clues than dialog.

I'd be interested in hearing comments from anyone who saw it.  This is one of those films that you could talk about endlessly - the nuance, subtlety, metaphors and depth.

The plot is seemingly very basic.  There is a mysterious "zone" in which lies a special room.  This room holds the key to what it's visitors most seek.  The trick is, however, that The Zone is a also a 'special place' and not just anyone can navigate from the guarded outskirts to the room - those few people who know how to find the way are called Stalkers.  Entering The Zone is illegal, so the Stalkers are an outcast group.

The movie focuses on one such Stalker and the two men he leads into The Zone.

My reaction to this film was almost identical to that I had watching SOLARIS.  It was slow, almost 'boring' (actually, my wife said it WAS boring), yet at the same time utterly fascinating. 

I was mesmerized by Tarkovsky's story telling in SOLARIS; having watched STALKER, I am convinced of his genius.  But it's a genius that is hard to pin down because it's all pretty much "feeling."  I cannot fully articulate just what GRABS me about his films...

Sure, they are thought provoking - but lots of films are.  Sure, they include science fiction/religious elements that cause us to wonder, "just where is he going with this," just like many others.  His visuals are stunning and truly visionary, to me at least.  I think part of what I like about his work is that it is just so....DIFFERENT.

He's not Lucas, Spielberg, Bruckheimer, etc.  Tarkovsky gives us truly artistic expression in the visual medium without apology, without asking for our acceptance, without a single nod toward the American box office.  I don't have that reaction to ALL foreign films I watch, but actually quite a few.

But Tarkovsky's films stand out.

It was boring.  Not the most boring movie ever, but it's right up there.  When they got in the zone, it was just long, static shots of the characters standing around, doing nothing.

EDIT:  Didn't the stalker fall asleep in a puddle or something?  I guess that's technically "doing" something.

I saw the beginning of it about 5-6 years ago I think (fell asleep because dose idiots on Swedish television showed it in the middle of the night :hatred:) but I enjoyed the little I saw and can remember .