WARNING: Defense of "Stalker" In Progress

[MantaRay at aol.com]

Tom O' Bedlam(e):

>MantaRay wrote: 
>
>Stalker took longer for me than anyone else I know. I'm not lying
>when I say I watched the last half on fast forward.
>
>Everyone: I'm a little concerned over the Tarkovsky bashing I seem to be
>noticing in recent days. Come on: SOLARIS, STALKER, ANDREI
>RUBLEV--these are amazing films.


We've been bashing Tarkovsky for four or five days now and this is the best
you have to offer? What's a "little concern?" Are you trying to tell us
you're maybe possibly thinking about giving us bashers some good reasons not
to bash? Are you notifying us of possible developments? WELL DO IT! I'm
trying to remember the last time "This is an amazing _______" was good enough
explanation for anything. STALKER sucked, STALKER sucked, STALKER sucked. 

It was close to the worst movie I have ever seen (the worst was named,
ironically "Something Special"). At my bookstore, I checked out a couple of
books on Tarkovsky and Russian Cinema. None could give me a satisfactory
reason for thinking that movie was anything else other than an exercise in
pretentiousness.

MantaRay