Dilapidated houses, mottled walls, humid air, and dim light are still Tarkovsky's unique interior and exterior landscape. Familiar panning shots of wife, daughter, husband (Stalker) in bed. The passing train, the cup that was displaced by the vibration on the table, echoed from end to end. The stalker intends to act as a guide again to lead the writer and the scientist to a place called "Zone" where wishes can be fulfilled, dangerous but full of temptations, and a large army guards this place because they are afraid that humans will make evil wishes. The restless wife breaks down, blames, fears, and it's a journey full of unknowns and death, but the stalker has his own desires that drive him to leave his wife and daughter in search of self-worth.
The writer showed off his knowledge in front of a beautiful and elegant lady. He said that with scientific laws and symbolic concepts such as the so-called triangle ABC, God would not exist. He thinks this is a boring age, an age of extreme lack of spirit, and life in the Middle Ages is far more interesting than it is now, when there was a god in every house, there was a god in the church, people were young, and now there are old people everywhere . Such a viewpoint can not help but remind me of Husserl's discussion on the scientific world (thematic, symbolic, rational) and the life world (non-thematic, pre-scientific world, sensibility, passion).
The stalker, the writer, and the scientist hid in a dilapidated and abandoned room while avoiding the guards' inspection. The scientist said, "What do I want? How do I know that I don't actually want what I want? Or Saying, I don’t actually want what I don’t want? It’s something incomprehensible, and the meaning disappears when you say it. My conscience wants vegetarianism to rule the world, but my subconscious wants to eat meat.” This Floyd The German-style philosophical monologue also explains the later satirical story about a man named "Porcupine" (the Stalker's former teacher) who came to the "district" and made a wish to bring his brother back to life, only to end up with a sum of money . The "porcupine" was punished by becoming rich, and he eventually hanged himself, because when he saw the true desires of his heart, he could not face himself, and even the whole human being.
Outside the "district" is a green grassland and mountain forest, which is completely different from the previous black and white images. In such a dangerous place, but with such rich colors, this is the back garden of the human spirit, a place where human beings hang all their modifications and face people's hearts, so the next thing will be color, and the next will be emotions. Human corpses and abandoned military tanks remain on the green ground. The vitality of nature and the ruins made by humans merge into one. They rested outside the entrance, the writer and the scientist berating each other and lifting themselves up. They sneered at each other's work, especially the chatter writer, who saw art as the highest truth and writing as the crystallization of wisdom, while science was just a bunch of triangle ABCs. Only the stalker lay on the side alone, away from the argument. Tarkovsky's signature panning shot slowly sweeps across the water, which is full of discarded tools left behind by humans, traces of human existence, ashes from the earth's skin.
The "District" is a magical place. When they trembled through the damp and dark circular passage called "Meat Grinder" and came to the famous "Dune Room", the arrogant and arrogant writers began to face them. My own heart: "Experiments, facts, supreme truths, there is no such thing as "facts" at all, it's just some stupid invention. Some assholes criticize me and I get hurt; others flatter me and I get hurt again; I give Heart and soul, they eat it all; I drain the filth of my soul, and they eat it too. They're all so learned and so numb. They're always in droves, reporters, editors, critics, countless women, they Keep asking: still! still! What the hell am I a writer if I hate writing, if it's a hemorrhoid-like torture and shameful torture for me. I thought my book would make people feel better, but no one needs me. I've only been dead for two days and they're going to eat other people. They haven't changed, it's me who's changed! Be like them! Before, the future was a continuation of the present, and change was looming on the horizon. Now, the future is Now. They don't want to understand anything, they just want to eat!" These are the saddest words a writer can say. He is controlled and changed by everyone. He wants to use the highest truth to change everyone, but he has to cater to everyone. In the end, it became a crowd and was buried in the vast sea of people.
In the end, the three of them reached the destination of the trip, the "room" where their wishes could come true. Here the sewage is flowing, the garbage is everywhere, the walls are mottled, and it is cold and damp. This is the place where the inner wishes of human beings are realized, and it is also the external projection of human hearts. As the writer said, he didn't want to make a wish here, he didn't want to step into the "room", because he didn't dare to face his true heart, and he had a premonition that he would have the same fate as the "porcupine". He accused the stalker of being too naive and believing too much in human nature, which was as filthy as a "room". The stalker constantly confessed that he only wanted to help others and to help people who were as painful as him to realize their wishes, which made him feel happy, which made his self-worth come true. This is the only belief that human beings who have nothing can acquire. Scientists are trying to blow up the "room" to eliminate this potential hidden danger and eliminate this place that will inspire human evil thoughts. After some quarrel, the three sat on the ground and fell into dead silence, ending this "metaphysical" human nature exploration journey.
The stalker who returned home vented his dissatisfaction in front of his wife, accusing no one who would believe him or the help the "room" offered to humans in pain. But when his wife offered to go to the "room" to make a wish, the stalker refused, he was shaken, he was afraid that his wife's wish would not be fulfilled, she complained that no one believed him, but he didn't even believe himself. What is the inside that is revealed after tearing up all the decoration and disguise? Nobody knows. The wife told the camera about her past with her husband. They were opposed by the wife's mother and ridiculed by others, but she married her husband without hesitation, and married this dumb-looking man. This is an extremely ordinary family, a family living in poverty, but at the end of the film, their daughter staged a superpower that uses her mind to move objects in the air. The cups on the table slowly moved to the edge of the table, and one of them fell to the ground, followed by the vibration brought by the passing train. The daughter put her face on the table and felt the frequency of the vibration. She showed the miracle without saying a word, reminding the audience that in this world, it is not a scientist or a writer who can give the truth wisely.
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