For some reason I watched this the other day. Can't remember where it was recommended to me, but thankfull it was. I had no idea what it was about or anything and just sat down and watched it. It was a bit overblown at points but I think that might have been made better/worse by the subtitles, not sure.
Still, lots of fun and I recommend it to people who don't mind a bit of poetic/philosophic wankery with their simple SF.
If you like four hour Russian science fiction, you'll love Stalker. Beautiful cinematography, extended sequences of great tension, extremely limited special effects and a lot of psychological and narrative food for thought. I enjoyed it, parts of it immensely, but I've never felt comfortable recommending it to anybody. Not until they've seen and enjoyed Solaris.
Stalker is one of those rare Russian movies prior to the Night Watch Cycle that is actually really good. Solaris as well. I've seen so much bad Russian cinema, that it's really hard to recommend anything, but yea, this is one of those rarities.
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