Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world
Stalker (1979) (Andrei Tarkovsky)
Extraordinary film, deep, meaningful and transcendent.
Nominally, a science fiction film, nevetheless it doesn't have any of the usual sci-fi trappings you associate with the genre. No car chases with futuristic vehicles, Schwarzenegger doesn't get cloned and loses his identity, and Ben Affleck doesn't reverse engineer a time travel device with John Woo doves flying about.
No, it's something more fundamental than that. Something dealing with the humanistic values and belief systems we use to get through life.
The Writer, full of self-loathing, wants to reach the Zone for inspiration. He wants people to read what he writes for a 100 years. Not because he thinks he has something brilliant to offer the world. No, because otherwise he feels that he has wasted his life. It's about him, and not them. However, when push comes to shove, he's afraid to enter the Room. He doesn't know what his inner-most desire is. More than that, he's afraid of what it might be. Does he really want what he wants the most? As he says himself, "how do I know that what I want is what I want?" Is his inner-most desire to be remembered and read?...or is it something more sinister. He is too afraid to find out.
The Scientist wants to objectify. He sees the world from what can be proven empirically. What can be measured. What can be quantified. In the end, we discover that brought along a destructive device to blow up the Room. Why?...because anything that cannot be measured and understood with scientific principles is too dangerous to have in the world. In the end, he doesn't have the will to enter the Room either. He is shaken by the end. His function system challenged.
The Stalker represents blind faith...and more than that, he represents the desire to push that faith onto other people. He complains that other people "fail" the test. That they are empty and hollow. But what of him? He doesn't dare enter the Room himself. He sacrifizes the good things he has, his wife, his child, the love they represent, and for what? To prove that other people are not "worthy". He is wretched and miserable, basing his whole life and defining himself by a set of beliefs that he is unable to follow himself. Only at the very end is he reunited with his family and able to see that true happiness lies in loving yourself, loving the people around you, and loving mankind and the planet it resides on.
They all have a belief system, but none of them has any faith. Faith isn't necessarily beliving in a particular God, or a certain way of life, or following a certain philosophy. All of those things can be done without true faith. Faith is the ability to surrender yourself to something without empirical proof or a fear of the unknown. Belief often springs from fearing death or fearing a life without meaning. Fearing the unknown, and fearing to be alone. Faith comes from having the capacity to give yourself freely and without fear to something without expecting something in return.
The Stalker's wife has devotion. She is devoted to a man, who has never given her any reason to. Hers is a kind of faith as well. She has the capacity for true, unconditional love, and is the gateway to the Stalker's redemption path.
However, it is the Stalker's daughter who represents the key point. Like 2001's The Star Child, she represents the next step in the evolution of mankind. Although without the use of her legs, she has paranormal/psychic abilities, triggered by her father's prolonged exposure to the Zone. She represents the next rung in the ladder of human capicity. One who is able to truly believe, have faith, and subsequently change the world.
Now summer is gone
And might never have been
In the sunshine it's warm.
But there has to be more.
It all came to pass
All fell into my hands
Like a five-petalled leaf.
But there has to be more.
Nothing evil is lost
Nothing good was in vain
All ablaze with clear light.
But there has to be more.
Life gathered me up
Safe under its wing
My luck always held.
But there has to be more.
Not a leaf was burnt up
Not a twig ever snapped
Clean as glass is the day.
But there has to be more.
Extraordinary film, deep, meaningful and transcendent.
Nominally, a science fiction film, nevetheless it doesn't have any of the usual sci-fi trappings you associate with the genre. No car chases with futuristic vehicles, Schwarzenegger doesn't get cloned and loses his identity, and Ben Affleck doesn't reverse engineer a time travel device with John Woo doves flying about.
No, it's something more fundamental than that. Something dealing with the humanistic values and belief systems we use to get through life.
The Writer, full of self-loathing, wants to reach the Zone for inspiration. He wants people to read what he writes for a 100 years. Not because he thinks he has something brilliant to offer the world. No, because otherwise he feels that he has wasted his life. It's about him, and not them. However, when push comes to shove, he's afraid to enter the Room. He doesn't know what his inner-most desire is. More than that, he's afraid of what it might be. Does he really want what he wants the most? As he says himself, "how do I know that what I want is what I want?" Is his inner-most desire to be remembered and read?...or is it something more sinister. He is too afraid to find out.
The Scientist wants to objectify. He sees the world from what can be proven empirically. What can be measured. What can be quantified. In the end, we discover that brought along a destructive device to blow up the Room. Why?...because anything that cannot be measured and understood with scientific principles is too dangerous to have in the world. In the end, he doesn't have the will to enter the Room either. He is shaken by the end. His function system challenged.
The Stalker represents blind faith...and more than that, he represents the desire to push that faith onto other people. He complains that other people "fail" the test. That they are empty and hollow. But what of him? He doesn't dare enter the Room himself. He sacrifizes the good things he has, his wife, his child, the love they represent, and for what? To prove that other people are not "worthy". He is wretched and miserable, basing his whole life and defining himself by a set of beliefs that he is unable to follow himself. Only at the very end is he reunited with his family and able to see that true happiness lies in loving yourself, loving the people around you, and loving mankind and the planet it resides on.
They all have a belief system, but none of them has any faith. Faith isn't necessarily beliving in a particular God, or a certain way of life, or following a certain philosophy. All of those things can be done without true faith. Faith is the ability to surrender yourself to something without empirical proof or a fear of the unknown. Belief often springs from fearing death or fearing a life without meaning. Fearing the unknown, and fearing to be alone. Faith comes from having the capacity to give yourself freely and without fear to something without expecting something in return.
The Stalker's wife has devotion. She is devoted to a man, who has never given her any reason to. Hers is a kind of faith as well. She has the capacity for true, unconditional love, and is the gateway to the Stalker's redemption path.
However, it is the Stalker's daughter who represents the key point. Like 2001's The Star Child, she represents the next step in the evolution of mankind. Although without the use of her legs, she has paranormal/psychic abilities, triggered by her father's prolonged exposure to the Zone. She represents the next rung in the ladder of human capicity. One who is able to truly believe, have faith, and subsequently change the world.
Now summer is gone
And might never have been
In the sunshine it's warm.
But there has to be more.
It all came to pass
All fell into my hands
Like a five-petalled leaf.
But there has to be more.
Nothing evil is lost
Nothing good was in vain
All ablaze with clear light.
But there has to be more.
Life gathered me up
Safe under its wing
My luck always held.
But there has to be more.
Not a leaf was burnt up
Not a twig ever snapped
Clean as glass is the day.
But there has to be more.
posted by Völundur at 6:29 am
1 comments
