![]() | This article is rated C-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
From the article: "The film is loosely based on the novel Roadside Picnic by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky who later wrote a novel Stalker, loosely based on the movie."
It is not quite true. The novel "Stalker" never existed (but it could be another title for the "Roadside Picnic"). Strugatskys wrote the screenplay "Stalker" based (although very loosely) on their novel "Roadside Picnic". Tarkovsky made this screenplay into a film. Strugatskys never wrote novels based on any films. Dart evader 19:19, 28 December 2005 (UTC)
Yes, (in Swedish under the title "Picknick vid vägkanten"). They are two very different novels. It's not difficult to tell them apart just by holding them. "Picknick vid vägkanten" is 176 pages long and was published in 1978, also translated by Kjell Rehnström, but without Sam Lundwall. ISBN 91-7228-181-2 Oh, and the original title for the Stalker novel is stated as Masina zelanij. I googled for it and all I found was [1] ISBN 5-87106-065-x Parameter error in {{ ISBN}}: invalid character 380 pages, printed in 1993. // Liftarn
It is said, that Bjork sings a poem from Stalker in her last album. I think, you should mention, that the author of poem is Fyodor Tyutchev —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.44.18.71 ( talk) 19:17, 8 June 2008 (UTC)
Done. Not by me, I should add. Just mentioning it so no one else, like me, has to go look to see if it was done. Anarchangel ( talk) 13:20, 26 May 2009 (UTC)
The article says:
I changed 'translation' to 'transliteration' as nothing is being translated. Is it a Russian word as well as being the name of the character? - Moogsi 19:45, 22 April 2006 (UTC)
Just a note: the current article says that the word "should not be understood in the contemporary, sinister sense, but rather in the older sense of a tracker of game." According to OED, the oldest sense is "one who stalks game illegally, a poacher", so the sinister sense is there all along. Matthew Miller ( talk) 20:07, 14 March 2008 (UTC)
Regarding this paragraph of the introduction:
I won't edit this myself as I may simply be reading it incorrectly but I feel as though this paragraph is claiming that the word stalk has one of or a mix of these sources to thank for its definition, that the word had no meaning/definition before these. This notion is then foiled by the final sentence which has Tarkovsky stating "Stalker is from the word stalk - to creep". As a result it's a rather befuddling paragraph. If it was the intent to say "In the novel 'stalking' is the name given to the illegal enterprise of prospecting for and smuggling alien artifacts out of the "Zone"" then it can be done just so which then contrasts with the prior paragraph's definition of what the film's definition of what a 'Stalker' is. Grundfuttockk ( talk) 15:26, 19 September 2018 (UTC)
Most film articles have a length section about what happens in the movie. Stalker could do with one of these too. Unconscious 12:55, 4 May 2007 (UTC)
IMDb claims that the Chernobyl power plant is shown in the film (I presume they mean the power plant seen in the last shot, in the background) but this is certainly not so? Judging from photos, the Chernobyl plant looks rather different from the one seen in the last shot of the film. 82.181.17.213 15:13, 21 May 2006 (UTC)
The plant dominating that frame is not nuclear but it is a thermal power plant, likely coal-fired. Edited accordingly. XavierAP ( talk) 22:19, 12 July 2021 (UTC)
What is the copyright status of this movie? I understand that it is different when dealing with things from the Soviet Union.
Anyone wanna add anything about the STALKER game that just came out? It is loosely based on this movie.
Would it be worth creating a sub-section dealing with the concept of "The Zone"? 87.112.89.74 19:10, 26 April 2007 (UTC)
Lost features the exact same concept of the room that contains what you wish for, is a hommage to Stalker? -unknown
89.204.228.127 ( talk) 14:06, 7 December 2011 (UTC)
I have moved the statements lacking inline citations here until sources can be found. -- Nehrams2020 ( talk) 04:30, 19 October 2008 (UTC)
We were shooting near Tallinn in the area around the small river Pirita with a half-functioning hydroelectric station. Up the river was a chemical plant and it poured out poisonous liquids downstream. There is even this shot in Stalker: snow falling in the summer and white foam floating down the river. In fact it was some horrible poison. Many women in our crew got allergic reactions on their faces. Tarkovsky died from cancer of the right bronchial tube. And Tolya Solonitsyn too. That it was all connected to the location shooting for Stalker became clear to me when Larisa Tarkovskaya died from the same illness in Paris.
An anon added a bit about Cherry 2000. Is there a source that says that this film is a response to Stalker? I agree the plot seems somewhat similar, but it could be a coincidence. Staecker ( talk) 18:23, 22 October 2008 (UTC)
Not a "response" - a Hollywood bastardization ! - anon — Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.190.230.56 ( talk) 19:01, 15 August 2011 (UTC)
I wonder what the rationale for deleting the images of Tarkovsky was? 4 of them, it seems, File:stalker2.jpg to File:stalker5.jpg., all photos of Tarkovsky and the other actors during the production. Anarchangel ( talk) 07:44, 1 September 2009 (UTC)
I remember there was quite a controversy in the GDR whether or not to show the film. This was based on picturing this dangerous and barren land in color while showing the soviet everyday life in monochrome, and also about the perceived exaggeration of how desperate rural soviet life really was. As a result it was shown only in repertory cinema. Anyone who has sources on that? -- Pgallert ( talk) 11:27, 28 June 2010 (UTC)
There is a line that I find troubling in the plot summary;"film switches to color—symbolic of the freedom the Stalker experiences in the Zone—what compels him to return despite the pleas of his wife" First of all there is nothing cited to say that this is any kind of offical reading of the film, infact it also is contary to what Tarkovsky him self says "I am an enemy of symbols. Symbol is too narrow a concept for me in the sense that symbols exist in order to be deciphered". I'm going to change it, if anyone disagrees please let me know. FSAB ( talk) 13:18, 3 September 2010 (UTC)
The all-terrain car they drive to the Zone looked to me as some Land Rover. Was it a Soviet vehicle? -- Error ( talk) 23:19, 10 September 2012 (UTC)
I read something about the action being located in Canada (maybe in the novel?). Hence the use of English stalker and Professor Wallace. Are there visible marks of Sovietness? As I said before, the car looked to me as a Land Rover, and I didn't recognize the police uniforms. I couldn't find any Cyrillic and the license plates were too far to see. -- Error ( talk) 23:48, 10 September 2012 (UTC)
No Soviet, definitely. Russian article about the movie says that it is set in imaginary time and location. Russian article about the novel Roadside Picnic the movie is based on quotes B. Strugatsky who says ↑ OFF-LINE интервью с Борисом Стругацким. Октябрь 2003: «По замыслу авторов это, скорее всего, Канада. Или какая-нибудь Австралия. Словом — британская в прошлом колония». Shortly: some english-speaking country, maybe Canada or some Australia; smth what used to be British colony. Letters UN where seen on wall entering the Zone in movie, I think. (And for long time after shooting the scenes in the location in Tallinn.) As the movie is not very tightly based on the novel, I think, we might leave it as is? No need to add location from the novel to plot of the movie. - ? Or do you think it would be nice; as nothing in the movie really contradicts location given in the novel, or, rather, by Strugatsky? BirgittaMTh ( talk) 14:50, 22 August 2014 (UTC)
How is this science fiction? -- spiralofhope 11:24, 20 September 2012 (UTC)
In the Plot Summary, the vehicle the Stalker and his clients use to travel into the Zone is called a " railway work car". Later in the article, it's called a " draisine".
Why the inconsistency? Chukhung ( talk) 18:24, 8 April 2014 (UTC)
It may be relevant that the film's rights holder Mosfilm has released a recent HD telecine of the film on YouTube: [2]. For a few years, it was also available as both a stream and download for free on Mosfilm's official website, and I distantly remember when Mosfilm originally uploaded the film to their website, they officially released it into the public domain with an explicit statement to that effect. -- 2003:71:4E33:E588:71AF:E80F:8714:23DD ( talk) 23:35, 16 March 2017 (UTC)
According to IMDB [3], the film was made both on Eastmancolor and Sovcolor. Now, we know that the original version was pretty much destroyed in the Soviet lab because it was Eastmancolor so one could assume that IMDB is referring to the destroyed and the finished version respectively, but IMDB usually lists the stocks for released versions. Could it be that they're referring to the camera negatives as shot on Eastman (provided the Soviet labs did get it right on the second try) and the release prints made on Sovcolor? It could explain the utterly abysmal quality the film had on VHS versions (as VHS tapes were usually taken from release prints, this VHS version had severe color and brightness flicker in the CMYK colorspace of chemical film; it's the version still found on the German ICESTORM DVD), and the fair quality in the recent HD telecine (which are usually taken from camera negatives). In any case, the article would certainly benefit from an authoritatively sourced statement on the matter. -- 2003:71:4E33:E570:1CFB:45E4:FB81:73D4 ( talk) 18:23, 17 March 2017 (UTC)
Stalker's daughter in the film is called Martiška, not Monkey. Why and according to whom, or source, was used "Monkey"?-- 89.172.157.61 ( talk) 21:25, 27 December 2017 (UTC)
I removed this: In the book, stalker alluded to Rudyard Kipling's character "Stalky" in his Stalky & Co. stories. citation needed I found no reference to stalky or kipling in the (English translation of the) book by a Ctrl-F search. @ Beardo: you seem to know more about this, so i pinged you. PizzaMan ♨♨♨ 10:52, 11 November 2018 (UTC)
Paragraph three mentions the film has now acquired "near cult" status. Surely, the adjective 'near' is redundant as the film obviously does have cult status, as for example evidenced in the 240 page book Zona by Geoff Dyer. What do people think?
Also, I think the description of the stalker's daughter as 'deformed' in the final paragraph of the plot section is entirely inappropriate - can I change it to something less offensive? ("the couple's deformed daughter, sits alone in the kitchen reading as a love poem by Fyodor Tyutchev is recited.") -- Invulgo ( talk) 06:13, 12 August 2020 (UTC)
I think this article definitely needs a themes section as a lot has been written about different themes and interpretations of the film. Nothing about interpretations or themes is mentioned in the reception section. I am not sure where to start with the themes section though. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Pineapple4321 ( talk • contribs) 21:56, 1 January 2021 (UTC)
While the "Sound design" section has a lot of good information, I feel that it is too detailed and overly reliant on a single source. Any objections if I trim it a bit? (for posterity: a permalink to the section as it is now) Rublov ( talk) 05:18, 6 February 2021 (UTC)
Please re-instate the reference to Rudyard Kipling's Stalky & Co. as the origin of the meaning of the word in both the book and film. It was removed back in 2018 (see a few sections above this one here on the talkpage) when people complained that there was no source attached to it. External print sources:
![]() | This article is rated C-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
From the article: "The film is loosely based on the novel Roadside Picnic by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky who later wrote a novel Stalker, loosely based on the movie."
It is not quite true. The novel "Stalker" never existed (but it could be another title for the "Roadside Picnic"). Strugatskys wrote the screenplay "Stalker" based (although very loosely) on their novel "Roadside Picnic". Tarkovsky made this screenplay into a film. Strugatskys never wrote novels based on any films. Dart evader 19:19, 28 December 2005 (UTC)
Yes, (in Swedish under the title "Picknick vid vägkanten"). They are two very different novels. It's not difficult to tell them apart just by holding them. "Picknick vid vägkanten" is 176 pages long and was published in 1978, also translated by Kjell Rehnström, but without Sam Lundwall. ISBN 91-7228-181-2 Oh, and the original title for the Stalker novel is stated as Masina zelanij. I googled for it and all I found was [1] ISBN 5-87106-065-x Parameter error in {{ ISBN}}: invalid character 380 pages, printed in 1993. // Liftarn
It is said, that Bjork sings a poem from Stalker in her last album. I think, you should mention, that the author of poem is Fyodor Tyutchev —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.44.18.71 ( talk) 19:17, 8 June 2008 (UTC)
Done. Not by me, I should add. Just mentioning it so no one else, like me, has to go look to see if it was done. Anarchangel ( talk) 13:20, 26 May 2009 (UTC)
The article says:
I changed 'translation' to 'transliteration' as nothing is being translated. Is it a Russian word as well as being the name of the character? - Moogsi 19:45, 22 April 2006 (UTC)
Just a note: the current article says that the word "should not be understood in the contemporary, sinister sense, but rather in the older sense of a tracker of game." According to OED, the oldest sense is "one who stalks game illegally, a poacher", so the sinister sense is there all along. Matthew Miller ( talk) 20:07, 14 March 2008 (UTC)
Regarding this paragraph of the introduction:
I won't edit this myself as I may simply be reading it incorrectly but I feel as though this paragraph is claiming that the word stalk has one of or a mix of these sources to thank for its definition, that the word had no meaning/definition before these. This notion is then foiled by the final sentence which has Tarkovsky stating "Stalker is from the word stalk - to creep". As a result it's a rather befuddling paragraph. If it was the intent to say "In the novel 'stalking' is the name given to the illegal enterprise of prospecting for and smuggling alien artifacts out of the "Zone"" then it can be done just so which then contrasts with the prior paragraph's definition of what the film's definition of what a 'Stalker' is. Grundfuttockk ( talk) 15:26, 19 September 2018 (UTC)
Most film articles have a length section about what happens in the movie. Stalker could do with one of these too. Unconscious 12:55, 4 May 2007 (UTC)
IMDb claims that the Chernobyl power plant is shown in the film (I presume they mean the power plant seen in the last shot, in the background) but this is certainly not so? Judging from photos, the Chernobyl plant looks rather different from the one seen in the last shot of the film. 82.181.17.213 15:13, 21 May 2006 (UTC)
The plant dominating that frame is not nuclear but it is a thermal power plant, likely coal-fired. Edited accordingly. XavierAP ( talk) 22:19, 12 July 2021 (UTC)
What is the copyright status of this movie? I understand that it is different when dealing with things from the Soviet Union.
Anyone wanna add anything about the STALKER game that just came out? It is loosely based on this movie.
Would it be worth creating a sub-section dealing with the concept of "The Zone"? 87.112.89.74 19:10, 26 April 2007 (UTC)
Lost features the exact same concept of the room that contains what you wish for, is a hommage to Stalker? -unknown
89.204.228.127 ( talk) 14:06, 7 December 2011 (UTC)
I have moved the statements lacking inline citations here until sources can be found. -- Nehrams2020 ( talk) 04:30, 19 October 2008 (UTC)
We were shooting near Tallinn in the area around the small river Pirita with a half-functioning hydroelectric station. Up the river was a chemical plant and it poured out poisonous liquids downstream. There is even this shot in Stalker: snow falling in the summer and white foam floating down the river. In fact it was some horrible poison. Many women in our crew got allergic reactions on their faces. Tarkovsky died from cancer of the right bronchial tube. And Tolya Solonitsyn too. That it was all connected to the location shooting for Stalker became clear to me when Larisa Tarkovskaya died from the same illness in Paris.
An anon added a bit about Cherry 2000. Is there a source that says that this film is a response to Stalker? I agree the plot seems somewhat similar, but it could be a coincidence. Staecker ( talk) 18:23, 22 October 2008 (UTC)
Not a "response" - a Hollywood bastardization ! - anon — Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.190.230.56 ( talk) 19:01, 15 August 2011 (UTC)
I wonder what the rationale for deleting the images of Tarkovsky was? 4 of them, it seems, File:stalker2.jpg to File:stalker5.jpg., all photos of Tarkovsky and the other actors during the production. Anarchangel ( talk) 07:44, 1 September 2009 (UTC)
I remember there was quite a controversy in the GDR whether or not to show the film. This was based on picturing this dangerous and barren land in color while showing the soviet everyday life in monochrome, and also about the perceived exaggeration of how desperate rural soviet life really was. As a result it was shown only in repertory cinema. Anyone who has sources on that? -- Pgallert ( talk) 11:27, 28 June 2010 (UTC)
There is a line that I find troubling in the plot summary;"film switches to color—symbolic of the freedom the Stalker experiences in the Zone—what compels him to return despite the pleas of his wife" First of all there is nothing cited to say that this is any kind of offical reading of the film, infact it also is contary to what Tarkovsky him self says "I am an enemy of symbols. Symbol is too narrow a concept for me in the sense that symbols exist in order to be deciphered". I'm going to change it, if anyone disagrees please let me know. FSAB ( talk) 13:18, 3 September 2010 (UTC)
The all-terrain car they drive to the Zone looked to me as some Land Rover. Was it a Soviet vehicle? -- Error ( talk) 23:19, 10 September 2012 (UTC)
I read something about the action being located in Canada (maybe in the novel?). Hence the use of English stalker and Professor Wallace. Are there visible marks of Sovietness? As I said before, the car looked to me as a Land Rover, and I didn't recognize the police uniforms. I couldn't find any Cyrillic and the license plates were too far to see. -- Error ( talk) 23:48, 10 September 2012 (UTC)
No Soviet, definitely. Russian article about the movie says that it is set in imaginary time and location. Russian article about the novel Roadside Picnic the movie is based on quotes B. Strugatsky who says ↑ OFF-LINE интервью с Борисом Стругацким. Октябрь 2003: «По замыслу авторов это, скорее всего, Канада. Или какая-нибудь Австралия. Словом — британская в прошлом колония». Shortly: some english-speaking country, maybe Canada or some Australia; smth what used to be British colony. Letters UN where seen on wall entering the Zone in movie, I think. (And for long time after shooting the scenes in the location in Tallinn.) As the movie is not very tightly based on the novel, I think, we might leave it as is? No need to add location from the novel to plot of the movie. - ? Or do you think it would be nice; as nothing in the movie really contradicts location given in the novel, or, rather, by Strugatsky? BirgittaMTh ( talk) 14:50, 22 August 2014 (UTC)
How is this science fiction? -- spiralofhope 11:24, 20 September 2012 (UTC)
In the Plot Summary, the vehicle the Stalker and his clients use to travel into the Zone is called a " railway work car". Later in the article, it's called a " draisine".
Why the inconsistency? Chukhung ( talk) 18:24, 8 April 2014 (UTC)
It may be relevant that the film's rights holder Mosfilm has released a recent HD telecine of the film on YouTube: [2]. For a few years, it was also available as both a stream and download for free on Mosfilm's official website, and I distantly remember when Mosfilm originally uploaded the film to their website, they officially released it into the public domain with an explicit statement to that effect. -- 2003:71:4E33:E588:71AF:E80F:8714:23DD ( talk) 23:35, 16 March 2017 (UTC)
According to IMDB [3], the film was made both on Eastmancolor and Sovcolor. Now, we know that the original version was pretty much destroyed in the Soviet lab because it was Eastmancolor so one could assume that IMDB is referring to the destroyed and the finished version respectively, but IMDB usually lists the stocks for released versions. Could it be that they're referring to the camera negatives as shot on Eastman (provided the Soviet labs did get it right on the second try) and the release prints made on Sovcolor? It could explain the utterly abysmal quality the film had on VHS versions (as VHS tapes were usually taken from release prints, this VHS version had severe color and brightness flicker in the CMYK colorspace of chemical film; it's the version still found on the German ICESTORM DVD), and the fair quality in the recent HD telecine (which are usually taken from camera negatives). In any case, the article would certainly benefit from an authoritatively sourced statement on the matter. -- 2003:71:4E33:E570:1CFB:45E4:FB81:73D4 ( talk) 18:23, 17 March 2017 (UTC)
Stalker's daughter in the film is called Martiška, not Monkey. Why and according to whom, or source, was used "Monkey"?-- 89.172.157.61 ( talk) 21:25, 27 December 2017 (UTC)
I removed this: In the book, stalker alluded to Rudyard Kipling's character "Stalky" in his Stalky & Co. stories. citation needed I found no reference to stalky or kipling in the (English translation of the) book by a Ctrl-F search. @ Beardo: you seem to know more about this, so i pinged you. PizzaMan ♨♨♨ 10:52, 11 November 2018 (UTC)
Paragraph three mentions the film has now acquired "near cult" status. Surely, the adjective 'near' is redundant as the film obviously does have cult status, as for example evidenced in the 240 page book Zona by Geoff Dyer. What do people think?
Also, I think the description of the stalker's daughter as 'deformed' in the final paragraph of the plot section is entirely inappropriate - can I change it to something less offensive? ("the couple's deformed daughter, sits alone in the kitchen reading as a love poem by Fyodor Tyutchev is recited.") -- Invulgo ( talk) 06:13, 12 August 2020 (UTC)
I think this article definitely needs a themes section as a lot has been written about different themes and interpretations of the film. Nothing about interpretations or themes is mentioned in the reception section. I am not sure where to start with the themes section though. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Pineapple4321 ( talk • contribs) 21:56, 1 January 2021 (UTC)
While the "Sound design" section has a lot of good information, I feel that it is too detailed and overly reliant on a single source. Any objections if I trim it a bit? (for posterity: a permalink to the section as it is now) Rublov ( talk) 05:18, 6 February 2021 (UTC)
Please re-instate the reference to Rudyard Kipling's Stalky & Co. as the origin of the meaning of the word in both the book and film. It was removed back in 2018 (see a few sections above this one here on the talkpage) when people complained that there was no source attached to it. External print sources: