Solaris (1972) Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky
As a laserdisc collector I have learnt that often it doesn't pay to be impatient. Sometimes an out-of-print disc gets re-released and becomes readily available again. Sometimes this is worth waiting for. This has happened to me with "Dune" this past winter, and it just happened again with "Solaris". When I first tried to obtain a copy of "Solaris", it was only available from the "Collectible and Out-of-print" department of my laserdisc supplier, for $150.00. As a re-release, it may now be had, new and sealed, for much, much less.
Critic Penelope Houston said of "Solaris" that it was "Russia's answer to 2001: A Space Odessy". Completed in 1972, the film comes from an era in which it seemed that nearly everything done in the West resulted in (or, was the result of) a Russian response. Like "2001", "Solaris" explores the possibilities of Alien Contact. Unlike "2001", it does so with a deep emphasis on humanity.
The story follows a scientist, Kris Kelvin (Donatas Banionis), who is a pecialist in space psychology. He has been assigned to get to the bottom of the peculiar goings-on at the Solaris space station. Solaris is in orbit around an alien planet that is completely covered by an ocean. The space station, designed for an expedition of 80+ people is now inhabited by only three. Kelvin views the film of a deposition made by Burton (Vladislav Dvorjetzki), a pilot who flew a rescue mission near the alien ocean's surface. The pilot reported seeing strange things, including a giant, animated statue of a boy whom he recognized as the dead son of a colleague. The prevailing view of the scientific panel that heard Burton's deposition is that Burton was suffering from overwork; there is a minority view that the alien ocean may be organic, sentient, and capable of communicating telepathically.
Kelvin wraps up his terrestial affairs in a bittersweet scene with his parents, and travels to the Solaris station. There, he discovers that one of the three remaining crew members, his old buddy Gibarian (Sos Sarkisyan) has committed suicide after recording a puzzling message intended for Kelvin. The remaining two crew members Snouth (Jueri Jaervet) and Sartorius (Anatoli Solonitsyn) are secretive and shut themselves up in their labs. Kelvin becomes aware of other presences aboard the station. Snouth and Sartorius explain that the "guests" have been appearing for some time. Kelvin soon meets another guest, in the form of his dead wife Hari (Natalya Bondarchuk) who also committed suicide several years earlier.
Kelvin learns that the guests have odd physical characteristics. He tricks Hari into entering a transit capsule and blasts her into space. She reappears. He locks her in his quarters. She escapes by bashing down the door, critically lacerating herself in the process. The wounds heal before his eyes. Despite these oddities, Kelvin believes (or, wants to believe) that the soul of his dead wife inhabits the body of the "guest" that has taken on her form. Kelvin has received a rare gift: The opportunity to redress some wrongs that resulted in the loss of a loved one.
Eventually, Kelvin comes to the conclusion that the guests are forms emanating from the alien ocean. Whether the ocean is capable of materializing matter, or is merely inducing perceptions in the minds of the crew is not made clear (I prefer to believe the latter), but the guests are as real to the crew as a brick wall and just as hard to ignore. The crew rig up an experiment in which they transmit Kelvin's brain waves to the planet below. The experiment nearly kills him, but when he recovers he discovers that the "guests" are gone. And, in a final scene that is beautiful, moving, and joyous, the ocean opens up to Kelvin for First Contact on a very intimate level.
"Solaris" is based on Stanislaw Lem's novel of the same name. Like the best of speculative fiction, "Solaris" uses fantastic situations for observations on mundane human conditions. After so many years of anthropomorphic humanoid aliens in "Star Wars" and and on "Star Trek", it is startling to contemplate what alien intelligence might REALLY be like. The alien life form in "Solaris" is a single, global life form. Or, perhaps a global colony with a single intellect. Or, maybe something totally different. We see the Solaris crew grappling to understand this intelligence, we see them consider blasting the planet with lethal radiation (the standard, human knee-jerk reaction to the unknown). And we seem them finally reconcile themselves to it.
Many science-fiction films abandon the human aspect in favor of futuristic gadgetry and fantastic settings. "Solaris" presents the deepest view of Humanity of any science-fiction film I have seen. Tarkovsky purposely puts the standard sci-fi accoutrements in the background to focus on the characters' humanity. And, the interpersonal relationships between the characters are more complex, more complete, and have more depth of feeling that is standard for the science fiction genre.
And, speaking of humanity, the film is a revelation to me on another level. I had grown up with the usual Cold War propaganda about the Evil Empire behind the Iron Curtain. Now, I view this film, and I see ordinary people dealing with ordinary human issues of love, death, fear, and understanding: This drives home to me how wrong that propaganda was. Our government, our System, was preparing us for conflict with the Soviet Union using traditional techniques to dehumanize the enemy in our eyes. This film reinforces how universal the human condition is, despite political boundaries or nationalities. It's ironic that this film, from the peak of the Cold War, can be such a powerful bridge between cultures.
Andrei Tarkovsky was a brilliant, visual filmmaker. His shots are composed with layer upon layer of meaning. "Solaris" features Tarkovsky's trademark of switching between color and black-and-white. More than one critic has called him a "visual poet". The scenes of the alien ocean are breathtakingly beautiful. However, anyone expecting a science-fiction adventure will be disappointed. This film is reflective, it is contemplative. And, the science-fiction setting is merely a backdrop for a film for which the primary emphasis is speculation on deeper human issues.
Image Entertainment's laserdisc of Solaris is letterboxed, in Russian with English subtitles. (This is one foreign-language film I wish had been dubbed. I know enough French and German to pick up dialogue in these languages with the help of subtitles, and I enjoyed listening to the musical, tonal Vietnamese language in "Scent of Green Papaya". But, the Russian language is inscrutable to me and not all that pretty to listen to. Subtitles miss nuances of dialogue and distract from Tarkovsky's wonderful images.) Image has re-relased the disc in their "Lasers for Less" category: Collectors should be advised to get it while they can.
Review copyright (C) 1998 David M. Arnold. All rights reserved. --
David M. Arnold darnold@Xexecpc.com
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