‘Let everything that’s been planned come true. Let them believe. And let them have a laugh at their passions. Because what they call passion actually is not some emotional energy, but just the friction between their souls and the outside world. And most important, let them believe in themselves. Let them be helpless like children, because weakness is a great thing, and strength is nothing. When a man is just born, he is weak and flexible. When he dies, he is hard and insensitive. When a tree is growing, it’s tender and pliant. But when it’s dry and hard, it dies. Hardness and strength are death’s companions. Pliancy and weakness are expressions of the freshness of being. Because what has hardened will never win.” ~ The Stalker

I don’t know, really. It seems to me that weakness and strength are equal. They are relative constructs, like gods and time. They are products of ego. What we think is one in on instance is the other in another. The truth is we are vulnerable. We are slaves to circumstances and to random things. We prepare endlessly for one set of outcomes and often get another and even the exact opposite outcome.

I am tired of being strong. I am weary of trying to be strong. Yet being weak serves nothing. Like The Zone in Tarkovsky’s Stalker, what was a path one day is a deadly trap the next. Be malleable. Stay pliable. Remain adaptable. None of them will save you and the passions that drive you could very well be your undoing. Respect The Zone.

“What has hardened will never win.”

I couldn’t even begin to tell you what this film is about except in a general sense. It’s about Man and God. It’s about Nature and God. It’s about the impermanence of everything. It’s about being wary of what we worship. It’s about the meaning or the lack of meaning. Tarkovsky himself might have told you that it’s really just about the film itself and in this case that might really be more than enough. It’s visually the most incredible and strange thing I’ve ever seen and heard. The dialogue and monologues may not even be all that important. It’s all the other sights and sounds. Nothing I could say about it would be a spoiler. It’s just a trip. There is nothing else like it.

I do wonder about The Stalker himself. There is a writer/artist. There is a scientist. It’s easy enough to see what they represent. Who is The Stalker though? He brings people into The Zone but he has never entered The Room where all the dreams and passions are supposed to be fulfilled. He won’t go in. What’s his game? Is it fear or knowledge that all he believes in is trash? I don’t really know. Does he represent the segment of humans who are ultimately afraid of pursuing passions, or is he some kind of a religious figure like a saint?