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[Movie] STALKER film

Nimsky

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Nov 22, 2005
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What, they're working on a movie about S.T.A.L.K.E.R.? Nah, it already exists - I'm talking about the 1979 Tarkovsky film "Stalker". :pHas anyone seen it? For those of you who enjoyed the game, the developers drew lots of inspiration from this film.

tark1.jpg
stalker.jpg


The film itself has a slow pace to it, it's not as much about telling a story, but more about atmosphere and dialogue. The film has lots of long, cramped and stationary shots (some takes are even like two or three minutes), don't expect flashy Hollywood camerawork here. It's all very minimal, like in this scene for example.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjvW4oiIrDs
 
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Yea, its a good movie, although a bit too long-winded in places (the tunnel; omg that went on for ever it seemed!), it's quite beautiful and really captures the eerie feeling of the secluded 'zone'.

Also very typical of Soviet 70s/80s movies, slow takes and can be a challenge if used to Hollywood style movies. The Soviet directors of that time must not have cared *AT ALL* about sales popularity, and the movies reflected it you could say :p

The influence on the game is pretty obvious; for instance the stalker always talks of 'dangers' that move around, like the games 'anomalies'. He also throws a nut tied to a rope to set them off because they are invisible, also like in the game. And of course the atmosphere...

Cheronbyl accident happend in 1986...:confused:

Yes, it could seem like he predicted Chernobyl - but the fact is the Soviets already had many closed off 'zones' before that, because of military activity or radioactive accidents. In such a huge country it was not a big problem, and accidents did happen a lot...
http://www.exile.ru/articles/detail.php?ARTICLE_ID=13122&IBLOCK_ID=35&phrase_id=14206
http://www.exile.ru/articles/detail.php?ARTICLE_ID=8625&IBLOCK_ID=35&phrase_id=14206
 
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Also very typical of Soviet 70s/80s movies, slow takes and can be a challenge if used to Hollywood style movies. The Soviet directors of that time must not have cared *AT ALL* about sales popularity, and the movies reflected it you could say :p

They didn't care, not one bit, aslong as they met certain criteria, they got government funding for their project, thease movies where allready bought and paid for, so they where never really about generating a profit.

We had something similar here in Denmark back in the day, for instance old danish movies allways had the obligatory "Doctor scene", back then the Danish government was very concearned that the populace was not going to the Doctors office when they fell ill, and thus, any movie could claim a big fat fund from the gubmint if they included a scene where someone fell ill, and a doctor was promptly called to the scene.
So they all did ofcourse, and often you could tell it was just a scene tossed in there just to get the grant.

Yes, it could seem like he predicted Chernobyl - but the fact is the Soviets already had many closed off 'zones' before that, because of military activity or radioactive accidents. In such a huge country it was not a big problem, and accidents did happen a lot...
http://www.exile.ru/articles/detail.php?ARTICLE_ID=13122&IBLOCK_ID=35&phrase_id=14206
http://www.exile.ru/articles/detail.php?ARTICLE_ID=8625&IBLOCK_ID=35&phrase_id=14206

Now that one i didn't know about.. i dont know how reputable a source Exile.ru is, but if any of that is even remotely true, that is quite desturbing..
 
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Looks interesting, can you give us a synopsis of the movie?

Wikipedia]
The setting of the film is a small town on the outskirts of "The Zone", a wilderness area which has been cordoned off by the government. The film suggests that the Zone was the site of a meteor strike, or perhaps of a UFO landing. The film's main character, the Stalker, works as a guide to bring people in and out of the Zone, specifically to a room which is said to grant wishes.
The film begins with the Stalker in his home with his wife and daughter. His wife emotionally urges him not to leave her again, but he ignores her pleas. The Stalker goes to a bar, where he meets the Writer and the Professor, who will be his clients on his next trip into the Zone. Writer and Professor are not identified by name
 
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Tarkovsky believed that film was like sculpting in time and most of his still shots were almost like moving paintings. When the camera did move, it did so with as few cuts as possible so that you could see a scene realistically and the fluid panning and circling of actors allowed you to truly realize them and their surroundings as 3-dimensional objects.

The plot of the actual film is that there's a place in the zone, similar to the golden sphere in Roadside Picnic or the Monolith in the game, simply called the room, where if you enter it, your wishes will come true. A scientist professor and a writer seek the services of a stalker to safely escort them into and through the zone into the room. The problems arise not through physical violence (apart from the cordoning guards shooting at them) or from the zone's "traps", but from the conflicting philosophies. The stalker treats the zone almost as a living thing, or an extension of God and believes it has to be respected and feared and one must always be humble within its borders. The writer, seeking inspiration but in truth doesn't really know what he wants, perhaps an escape from society, perhaps death, is extremely pessimistic and tries to poke holes in everyone else. The professor as it turns out in the end, has no wish and has come to the zone only to destroy it. When they realize that the room only grants your innermost wishes, made apparent by a tale of another stalker named "Porcupine" who got only money when he wanted his brother revived, they decide to leave, gaining if nothing else, a new understanding of themselves and humanity.

I'm paraphrasing like a mother-' and you'll get a lot more out of it by seeing it. It can be boring, it can be ham-fisted, it can be even campy (the soldiers look especially retarded) but damn it, it's a good film.
 
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Looks interesting, can you give us a synopsis of the movie?

It's an Soviet Era russian 'art' film. It's pretty good though.

The story is based on 'Roadside Picnic'. Wikipedia can give you far more information with better readability then I can.. but here's the quicky short of the film:

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Somewhere in Russia is an large abandon area called 'the zone'. No one goes into the zone (gov't fenced off), but in the center of the zone is rumored to be a room where your one true wish can be granted.

To this end, there is an underground group of guides called Stalkers that take the paying into the zone.
The film follows a stalker as he takes 2 others into the center of the zone.

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The way the film is setup, you don't know if the zone is really alive as an entity (as the stalker believes) or the stalkers are just crazy gits.
 
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