Review of The Sacrifice (1986) by Ed Fucking H — 28 Oct 2011

First Andrei Tarkovsky movie I've seen, and his final feature. Will definently be looking forward to seeing more of his movies in the near future.This one concerns a theatre critics birthday party amongst close family and friends.

When a news broadcast announces that WWIII has begun and nuclear holocaust is imminent. the attendees at the part react in various ways. Most extreme is Alexander who offers to sacrifice his family, his house and his son for this to reverse itself.

So much of why this film works is based on its extreme minimalist approach and the mood it evokes, making a plot synopsis that is much more descriptive of what this movie is irrelevent. Apparently there are only 115 shots in this movies 2.

5 hour run time, with shots that go on from 6-8 minutes commonplace. The opening shot lasting 9+minutes. So if you don't want to watch a movie that moves really slowly you might want to avoid this one.

The cinematography is perfect though, and the minimalist approach I found really emotive. Definently a must see for more adventurous film fans.