Popular reviews

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  Review by Eli Hayes ★★★★★ 37

  "I see it as my duty to stimulate reflection on what is essentially human and eternal in each individual soul, and which all too often a person will pass by, even though his fate lies in his hands. He is too busy chasing after phantoms and bowing down to idols.

  In the end everything can be reduced to the one simple element which is all a person can count upon in his existence:

  The Capacity to Love.

  That element can grow within the soul to become the supreme factor which determines the meaning of a person's life.

  My function is to make whoever sees my films
  aware of his need to love and to give his love,
  and aware that…

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  Review by Sally Jane Black 4

  Like John Huston's The Dead, Tarkovsky's final film addresses regret. Having spent his days crafting ideas, speaking his mind, and ultimately sacrificing his life for art, Tarkovsky bows out with a film that, among other things, demands to know why no one takes action. At the same time, it feels like an apologia of his leaving behind his family and pursuing his filmmaking in Italy and Sweden, and it is an expression of deep, profound faith. It staggers me to see so much put into a film, so ably made.

  What stands out is the use of mirrors. Tarkovsky at this point seemed to be devoted to the long take, the sacred tool of filmmakers seeking to maintain continuity, suspension…

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  Review by Eli Hayes ★★★★★

  “In the beginning was the
  Word. Why is that, Papa?"

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  Review by cuckoochanel ★★★★ 31

  My entry into the films of Andrei Tarkovsky is his final effort, The Sacrifice, completed just months before his death in 1986. I know very little of the director, but if I were to try to sketch him given only The Sacrifice as a guide, I would have to imagine he was a man with deep spiritual conviction. The film centers around a senescent philosopher, Alexander (Erland Josephson), who learns that a nuclear war is imminent at his birthday celebration and the action he takes to prevent its occurrence.

  The painterly compositions and pristine mise en scène exhibit that Alexander’s world is ordered and polished—despite his connection with nature he’s still a victim of worldly desires, thus having a spiritual…

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  Review by Darren Carver-Balsiger ★★★★★ 23

  Spoilers from second paragraph onwards

  The Sacrifice is almost an oddity amongst Tarkovsky's seven features. It isn't historical or overtly science-fiction or brazenly experimental. Instead it's mostly a Bergman-esque chamber piece with philosophical musings. Of course The Sacrifice is still so distinctive that only Tarkovsky could have made it, but it just feels different somehow in a way I can't explain. Like all of Tarkovsky's movies, it is slow and methodical, and yet still naturalistic and poetic. Through many fantastic long takes, Tarkovsky builds and destroys his world, his faith, and his characters and shows us something profound and spiritual.

  In The Sacrifice, beauty comes from nature and the natural, not the violent interference of man. This is a world where…

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  Review by Wesley R. Ball ★★★★★ 2

  This is not a film that's meant to be enjoyed. This is not a popcorn flick that you can just sit down and view with your friends any day of the week. If anything, I would probably lose my friends if I showed them this. Andrei Tarkovsky's final masterpiece, The Sacrifice is a haunting anti-war film that makes a deep and lasting impression on its viewers.

  Tarkovsky's extensive use of long shots, and varying saturations of color (ringing of his earlier mysterious masterwork The Mirror) beautifully depict a ravaged apocalyptic Swedish landscape and one man's wish to have it all return to normal. As he delves further into his insane delusion, we can see how it affects his family as…

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  Review by Richard Chandler ★★★★ 8

  "Don't be afraid. There's no such thing as death. No, there's the fear of death, and that is an awful fear."

  Add to the list of things I never thought I'd see a spiritual allegory about nuclear holocaust by Andrei Tarkovsky whose denouement features a hilarious slapstick chase sequence, but that's just what his final film The Sacrifice is. The occasion for the film is the birthday gathering to honor Alexander (Ingmar Bergman regular Erland Josephson), a former actor and distinguished journalist now entering his twilight years. Alexander is mired in a difficult marriage; his younger English wife Adelaide (Susan Fleetwood) is resentful of having to give up the stage in order to live remotely and consoles herself through an…

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  Review by nick ★★★½ 10

  The Sacrifice is a decent closer of Tarkovsky's glorious cinema career, but not decent enough to stand on its own as one of his most inspiring entries.

  With an intriguing premise that fits the prevalent phobia of global disasters and end of the world during the 80s, The Sacrifice takes advantage of a rather muted story, creating a secluded ecosystem where the protagonist's already troubled psyche is further complicated by an upcoming nuclear war. The first half demonstrates Tarkovsky's masterful command of visual, sound and character building, even in an unfamiliar Swedish world occupied by and obviously influenced by Bergman. The Swedish cast, led by the amazing Erland Josephson and Allan Edwall, was simply mesmerizing, demonstrating the delicate group dynamics…

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  Review by Andre de Nervaux ★★★★½ 5

  Andrei Tarkovsky and Terrence malick have literally made me a better human, and for that I'll be endlessly grateful.

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  Review by Rod Sedgwick ★★★★½ 5

  "In the beginning was the Word. Why is that, Papa?"

  Offret was Tarkovsky's final gift to the world. Edited from his deathbead at age 54 where he was dying of cancer, filmed even further from his motherland Russia in Sweden with many of Ingmar Bergman's staple cast and crew, and with no less weighty or fascinating material than he had provided in his previous six masterworks. A film that feels like a tribute to an Auteur he admired and respected, but also a film that whilst it may not be his very best work, it soars higher than most would dare to fly.

  Opening the film with the single longest take of his career and a heavy focus on dialogue,…

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  Review by Justin Peterson ★★★½ 7

  The Sacrifice serves as an excellent companion piece to Andrei Tarkovsky's 'The Mirror' which I view as his mid life reflection piece ... and this film serves as his final message exploring themes of death, regret, and nurturing.

  I think Roger Ebert said it best, 'Tarkovsky's movies are always long, and one of the things I think he is trying to do is to make his films so long that we loose touch with the person we were when we started the movie, and come entirely into his universe and he completely absorbs us with these images including the down time ... so by the end he has reduced us to the point where he can give use the message…

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  Review by braden ★★★★★

  “All those who are filled with dread, who feel the End coming closer, who fear, not for themselves, but for their loved ones.”
  
  The Sacrifice was the first Tarkovsky film I saw, well over a year ago now, and had left such an impression on me for varying reasons that I’ve thought about it at least once or twice a week ever since. The late director’s final film is so perfect for so many reasons; philosophically and spiritually rich and created with such refinement and patience, but the moment that effected me the most that I remember so often is where the characters sit dejectedly in front of the television to learn that a world war has begun, followed by an aching sequence…