Stalker (1979) a.k.a Picknick at the Roadside

[Fat Mike]

Hi all!

I've recently seen a classic movie from 1979, called Stalker. It's based on a Sci-fi novel, Picknick at the Roadside written by two russian brothers, Arkadij and Boris Strugatskij. It was a very deep, intelectual and an interesting movie. I got the feeling though, that they didn't really managed to capture the real point from the book.

So I was wondering if anyone read Picknick at the Roadside by A. and B. Strugatskij and if it's a recommended book? Please share your thoughts!

Thanks!

[Mark F.]

I haven't read the book but the movie is excellent, the first twenty minutes are so beautiful. I've only seen one other Tarkovsky film, The Mirror which is very different but just as deep. You might want to watch the original Solaris as he also directed that.

[Fat Mike]

Alright, maybe I give it a shot. But I prefer the original stories, the book in this case. So anyone who read it?

[Taliesin]

Roadside Picnic and Stalker -well, actually, Stalker is more inspired than based on the book. They share the motive of stalkers, Zone, wish-filling and Strugatskys as scenarists and basically that's it.
Usually it is not recommended to compare to a book to a movie and here it is doubly true, since you shouldn't think about the movie as the scenarizing of the book since they are quite independent (and both stunningly good masterpieces) works. Their aims and plots and main ideas are different. Stalker didn't even try to capture the main point of the book, Tarkovsky used the motives of filling your innermost wish, stalkers and Zone and used them for expressing his own ideas - which didn't make it a bad movie, au contraire, it is an excellent movie.
And the book is also an excellent book and we recommend them both.