In the "ZONE" - A review of Andrei Tarkovsky's "STALKER" (1979)

There are Films and there are Films. Some Films move you,some evoke extreme emotions,some make you smile,some make you laugh out loud,some are just feel good and some provoke outrage through their content. A few even manage to make you think without taking the mickey out of you.

Rarely (If ever) does a Film make you remember the day you watched it for the first time. That happened to me but curiously enough, it did not end there. Long after the credits rolled, it lingered on....Indelible and breathtakingly spectacular images flashed fleetingly before my eyes ....Immaculate in their conception,startling in their beauty. I dismissed 'em away as the workings of an unusually romantic mind which was bizarre as I was (still am) anything but a romantic. I am an uncompromising realist. My curiosity was thus piqued but I was still grappling for reasons for me "coming back to the Film" time and again.

And then I dreamt of the "Zone"......

A long time ago, it was speculated that a meteorite fell on the Earth thereby sparking a mini holocaust. People passing through that area mysteriously disappeared.

Sounds like the start of a conventionally "exciting" but run o' the mill Sci-Fi, innit? But what follows is something inexplicable and thus best left experienced.

A provocative and spiritually rewarding odyssey, "Stalker" is the kind of Film that talks through its images. Images of matchless, ethereal charm that somehow manage to evoke an indescribable,almost incredible sadness and nostalgia. The eerie,haunting Soundtrack bores its way into your soul evoking feelings of a long,weary journey of a Man on the lane to nowhere. The plot is best left unrevealed (Nothing much to "reveal" anyway).

There are some stupefying,jaw dropping sequences. Tarkovsky dared to go where no one even dared to go before/after. He held shots - long enough to seem like an eternity to the uninitiated but those who were willing to share his journey and vision were/are/will be rewarded beyond belief.

No matter how many times you see this Film, it will provoke different feelings every single time. For in the absence of a "plot", Tarkovsky urges you to "feel" and understand that in a seemingly meaningless existence, the "journey" provides the meaning and is its own reward.

Dark,dank and forbidding landscapes in the Film perfectly mirror the minds of the 3 "seekers" who search for the "Room" that will ostensibly make all their wishes come true.

I have watched this Film a few times and each time, I drew a different conclusion.

Tarkovsky made other Films - deeply personal ones, spiritually moving ones, metaphysical ones, speculative ones. Kubrick made the uncompromising, devastatingly cynical "2001: A Space Odyssey" which is justifiably hailed as a Masterpiece and one of the greatest Sci-Fi Films of all time.

They all pale in comparison to the experience that is "Stalker." A Film that made me wonder...

A Film that drew me into a World where time stood still.....into a world where I took in everything,blinked and questioned the reason for existence.

Time for me to go back to the "Zone".......

The Wild Bunch (Director's Cut) [1969]

1969. The "Western" genre had just been given a new lease of life by the irascibly eccentric Sergio Leone and the landscape had changed forever. Extreme close ups, the archetypal loner who looked out primarily for himself and wasn't too fussy about how he went about his business,twanging Soundtracks accentuating the grim mood and the uncompromising atmosphere that pervades the "Spaghetti Western"....These were to add a new dimension to the structure of the Western Film. Leone and Morricone brought the European flavour into the equation and Clint Eastwood was in the right place at the right time.

However, American Cinema (especially Westerns) was still trying to escape from the stereotypical limitations plaguing Hollywood at that point in time. While they made some excellent Films, the Violence was still muted and very rarely was the "feel good" factor transcended. The Studios were unwilling to compromise and this was the scenario in the late 60's before Leone's "Dollars trilogy" began to break down barriers.

The time was ripe for an uncompromising Auteur who wanted to make his point and make it his way. And in came such a man. A man,adorned in faded jeans and bandanna. A man who looked at the world through tinted glasses to hide the wild glint in his eyes. A man who drank hard and pulled no punches. A man who was unafraid to lay bare his soul in front of the world. A man with supreme movie making skill. That man was Sam "Bloody" Peckinpah and "The Wild Bunch" is his most provocative and enduring Masterpiece.

Right from the unrelenting OST and the first scene where a group of children gleefully watch a scorpion eaten alive by a group of ants, Peckinpah tells a timeless and haunting tale of a bunch of Outlaws who desperately try to do things their way without compromising on their time tested ideals and complex codes of honour.

Set during the Mexican revolution, the "Bunch" go about doing what they do best but realise that the times are changing and the old order is rapidly giving way to the new. There are countless memorable scenes of almost "beautiful" violence (A Peckinpah trademark) and stunning cinematography but it is the quiet moments that stun you as a Cinephile. No once portrayed male bonding more poignantly than Bloody Sam and scenes of the Bunch having a quiet chuckle and laugh amidst the unrelenting violence hits right on the spot.

Ironically, for a "difficult" Director; Peckinpah had an unbelievable amount of talent to work with in this Film. Bill Holden and Ernest Borgnine (Oscar winners both - Not that it matters) are in top flight here and this Film is easily the high water mark of their illustrious careers. Ben Johnson with a perpetual grin pasted on his face and the seedy Warren Oates add grit,depth and a lot of heart to this classic. Add Robert Ryan and the dusty,weather beaten Peckinpah regulars L.Q.Jones and Strother Martin and you have a cast to die for.

Nothing needs to be said much about how "influential" this Film actually was and still is. The special edition DVD contains some remarkable documentaries which gives us a sneak peek into the making of this great,great Film.

But if for nothing else, this Film has to be watched simply because it has the greatest Film climax of all time IMO. Pike (Holden) looks at his comrades and the "look" makes any speech obsolete. As Pike growls "let's go" under his breath much to the delight of the rest of the Bunch, we know something is going to happen. What follows is the best of what Cinema can offer as a medium.

The "Bunch" start the walk, grinning but knowing fully well that this was the bloody finish, eyes staring ahead with burning intensity,shoulders thrust forward and their self dignity on the line. The infamous "ballet of death" scenes are stupefyingly beautiful in their execution and symmetry and the guns rattle,growl and thunder before dust settles down on the bloodied earth. This wasn't gratuitous violence nor was it condoning it. This was Peckinpah making his observation on a Bunch who wanted to go out in their own way,justifying the kind of lives that they lived and the choices that they made. They were willing to pay the price and in a strange way, the violence that was spewed was just and appropriate (If that's possible). That's what makes this Film, a pure one-off. The Bunch went away (as they had to) but not before going out in a blaze of glory.

On screen violence will never ever be the same again.

A blood and guts Film that accentuates all the qualities of its enigmatic Director, "The Wild Bunch" is a "tone poem written in adrenaline" as one reviewer puts it. Watch it and be grateful for the experience. Watch it for the man they called "Bloody Sam" and to know what the fuss is all about. The special edition DVD is also, one of my most treasured possessions.

They don't make 'em like 'im anymore.