Review of The Sacrifice (1986) by Private U — 06 Jun 2007
Initially I thought this film was really good, but seemed to be confused about what its narrative elements were meant to do. However, I reada piece online somewhere that completely flipped my perspective on the film as something that was affirming Christianity and spiritual to a Nietzschean perspective that supported living for this world.
That aside, I really liked Tarkovsky's obvious nods to Bergman. Obviously it was set in Sweden, but also used a Bergman regular (Allan Edwall) and had a lot of Bergman dialogue (long monologues waxing philosophic). The Virgin Spring, Through A Glass Darkly, and Winter Light were all referenced, as well as some others I'm sure.
Seeing this film really cemented Tarkovsky as a top 5 director of mine, it's just too bad that he had to die right after the release of the film. I will say that it was potentially the best note he could've gone out on, since I believe it was in this film that he finally was able to reject the spectres of his past that kept creeping up in all of his previous films and he finally embraced living for the present.
This review of The Sacrifice (1986) was written by Private U on 06 Jun 2007.
The Sacrifice has generally received very positive reviews.
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