The Sacrifice - 1986

 Tarkovsky's last film and one that is basically about martyrdom again, I revisited The Sacrifice.

This is the film of his I have always remembered the most clearly besides Solaris.  I would say in a filmography of iconic images, somehow this film has some of the most standout.  

We begin with a image of incongruity: a tree that is not supposed to live on the Swedish shoreline and has been planted there by main character Alexander and his son Little Man.  From there we eventually wander back to their home on the marshes where a TV signal announces the oncoming nuclear apocalypse and end of the world.  Everyone handles is slightly differently, the key being Alexander promising if this apocalypse does not happen he will make various sacrifices.

The film is chalk full of some of the, now, I notice, repetitive thematic imagery of Tarkovsky:  everyday objects in pools of water, fleeting dreamlike imagery, phantom people appearing in shifting timelines, elemental power, and God-focused dialogue.  There is I believe only one poem early on in The Sacrifice and maybe a bit less of the wandering camera with non-related dialogue.

The themes here are really interesting, and there is much conjecture over how much Tarkovsky knew of his imminent death.  He'd wanted to use the actor from Stalker again, but the man was already dead from the same cancer Tarkovsky had.  Each film feels somewhat doom-saying and apocalyptic however and this one doesn't stand out as more than or less than any other.

Instead I gleaned something else from this, which I also thought of for Nostalghia.  These movies are like single lines from the Bible extrapolated into an entire film.  Some random one off sentence like "And his son was tasked to make a sacrifice and thus earned salvation" I'm paraphrasing here but there are so many weird one off vague notions the Bible and indeed legends and lore and fable put forward that you never think to wonder about but have an entire story unto themselves.  This movie is like taking one of those and imagining to completion.

Another thing that this movie is like is taking the notion of "God told me to" or "God spoke to me" and showing how that might feel or look.  Is this a movie about God coming to a man, is it a movie about a mental breakdown, is it a movie about insanity itself, is it about the value we place on our own lives, is it about how we justify our actions and our crimes and our transgressions against God, or is about all of these or none of them?

Rewatching these movies I was surprised that this one felt somehow the most A to B with the least diversions, it is very very different from Stalker, Mirror and Nostalghia in that way.  I haven't decided if I'm going to rewatch Andrei Rublev, I will certainly rewatch and review Solaris.  I'm thoroughly enjoying these and this one I feel like is a TAD under what those others are, but I find it hard to define why.  Maybe because it's so linear, maybe because if feels less hermitic and mesmerizing.  But I'll give it 4 stars and say it is absolutely amazing.