Pliancy and Weakness (Character Examinations)

This chapter is an in-depth analysis on each of the individual characters in the film Stalker and their relations with one another and the plot. This includes an elongated comparison to Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot, as well as comparisons with some western films, Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Matrix, as well as a look at some of Tarkovsky’s other films, including, notably, Solaris, his other Science-fiction film, made a couple of years previously to Stalker. The chapter also takes a look at Tarkovsky’s tendency to underwrite female characters in his films, through the lens of an uncomfortable interview he gave in 1984, on the subject.