Here we have our first film from Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky. I’ve been interested in seeing more of his work ever since I saw his first film, Ivan’s Childhood, a few years ago (before I even started this blog). Compared to that film, Solaris definitely comes across like a more developed version of his style, namely having a very deliberate pace and understated presentation. However, as I found out the hard way, this sort of style is not the best thing to watch when you’re already tired. It’s not to say that it was boring, I actually think it’s a very classic sci-fi story that’s told in an interesting way, but the slow pacing demands requires more from the viewer to really get the full experience. I still understood the film, so I’ll try my best to not let my tired state get in the way of my review. So, first off, let’s talk about the story.
A Russian space station has been hovering over the mysterious planet Solaris for many years. One crew member, by the name of Burton, had made contact with the ocean surface of the planet, but what he reported back to the higher-ups didn’t reflect what the planet actually contained (e.g., lush gardens, a strange child, etc.). They chalked it up to hallucinations and took Burton off the project, ultimately leaving him with nothing, as his report discredited him entirely. However, the remaining crew seem to be having similar strange experiences recently, and now the company is sending a psychologist, Kris Kelvin, to see what’s going on up there, as well as to see if the station is even worth keeping around anymore. After paying a visit to his folks, as well as Burton, Kris travels to the station and finds it rather unkempt. Objects are strewn all over the place, parts of the wall are hanging out, and two of the scientists, Snaut and Sartorius, seem rather off and suspicious. Another scientist, Gibarian has apparently killed himself, and has left behind a video message for Kris, showing him in a very odd and despondent state, and supposedly hallucinating much like Burton did. In addition, Kris also starts seeing two other figures running around the station, one which looks like a teenage girl/young woman and another that looks like a little person. He doesn’t get much of an explanation from Snaut and Sartorius, so he heads off to bed. That night, Kris has a very turbulent sleep, and awakens to find his deceased wife, Hari, inexplicably alive and in his quarters. Obviously suspicious of this, he ejects her into space, though it doesn’t take long for another “Hari” to show up in the station again. Finally, the two scientists explain that these other people are seemingly crafted from their own minds, and Solaris might very well be the cause of it. Thought he is still skeptical of her nature (especially after seeing her fail to use a door, resulting in her crashing through it), he starts to warm up to “Hari” and maybe even fall in love with her again, or at least better understand the love he had for his own wife. You see, Kris and Hari had been in a bad place in their marriage when she died, during which Kris had apparently all but fallen out of love with her. He threatened to leave, and in response, she threatened to kill herself, which he disregarded and left anyway (figuring it was a bluff). Realizing he had left some experiments in the fridge, he came back after a few days, only to find Hari had poisoned herself. He seems feel that, while he didn’t love her then, he loves her now, in a cruel twist of fate, you could say. As they come to understand what “Hari” is, they figure out that she is not truly human, but more of a projection of Kris’s perception of who Hari was. Additionally, she’s composed of a neutrino system rather than an atomical one, which they might be able to destroy using an annihilator device. They also propose that they start projecting Kris’s brainwaves onto Solaris, in hopes that it might better understand them and stop what it’s doing to them. Will this plan work? Will Kris give too far into the fantasy of his holographic-esque wife? What exactly is the nature of Solaris? I’ll let you figure that out for yourself, provided you’re in the right mood to experience it.
As I was saying before, this is a rather slowly paced movie. Almost none of the scenes are presented in a quick manner, and there’s clearly a want to create an unsettling mood through this sort of pacing. The choice to present it this way does make sense, as not only is the film telling a story where the details are slowly learned over time (like a mystery or thriller), but also because the characters are dealing with a force or entity that they don’t understand. Solaris is a mysterious planet that seems to be able to get inside the heads of whatever beings are around it. Though, of course, is it getting in our heads or are we getting into its? That’s the interesting thing about these old speculative sci-fi stories, sometimes the entity might be more similar to us than we think it is. Solaris might just be trying to understand what these foreign lifeforms are and is just projecting their thoughts because that’s how it wraps its head around things. It could also be trying to deter the humans, maybe it’s afraid of them and it wants to prod at them until they give up and leave. Or maybe, it wants to draw them in. Maybe that’s how it sustains itself, maybe it wants to co-exist, or maybe it just wants to eat them alive. The story gives you enough information without telling you the answer, and in doing so, it allows you to think about the situation and come to your own conclusions. In addition to this more scientific speculation aspect, the film also uses Solaris’s abilities to explore our main character, and to discuss more personal ideas. Kris very much seems to be a more detached and matter-of-fact person than the passionate scientists and co-workers he has to deal with. At the beginning of the film, Kris is very dismissive of Burton’s belief in the moral restraint that should be present in the pursuit of knowledge, and instead just views knowledge as a means to an end, or something that is only there to be useful to man in whatever way man deems it necessary. He even considers the possibility of not only shutting down the station, but also bombing Solaris, if the “need for it” should arise. What’s interesting about this is that, in this scene, Burton is clearly portrayed as the more emotional underdog against Kris’s cold and clinical outlook, but when Kris gets up to the station, reunites with “Hari,” and sees how crazed the scientists have become in their reckless pursuit of passionate understanding, he demands that they think of the consequences and what this could mean for humanity. Evidently, Kris might not be as cold as he purports to be, and his experiences with the new Hari has probably unlocked these disregarded feelings. As the film goes on, he starts to think about what humanity and connection even are. He seems to feel that true connection can’t be achieved on Earth, that he can never “fully give himself to his loved ones,” as he puts it. However, this new Hari has reawakened his feelings for his wife, or maybe even created them, depending on how true his words on the matter are. This might be rather telling of his character, considering that Solaris can only create projections of his perception (as in, this new Hari is more what he believes his wife to be rather than who she actually was). It seems as though Kris might’ve been dealing with an inner turmoil regarding his person, emotions, perception, and relationships, and might just want an easy way out of the whole “human hassle.” Sadly, I’m sure that many of us could look at Kris and see a reflection of how we feel sometimes, or in some cases, all the time. It’s a rather unsettling notion to think about, and we have to wonder if we would have been just as manipulated by Solaris as Kris was. In this way, I think the film is very successful in allowing the audience to absorb and think about what it’s presenting. There are other aspects I could get into, but I don’t want to keep going on for too long (even though I have a habit of doing that, I know). For now, let’s head into the conclusion.
So, as I said, this is definitely an interesting film, and one that very much fits in with the speculative sci-fi of its contemporaries. However, while the slow nature of the film is key in crafting the otherworldly experience of it all, it is going to be tricky for those that aren’t prepared for it. Don’t make my mistake and watch it while drowsy, you need to be attentive if you’re going to get the full experience. I have heard that there was an American version of this film made many years later by Steven Soderbergh, which I have not seen myself. However, from what I understand, that one put much more focus on the romance and changed the overall idea of the film as a result, so while I can’t pass judgement on it, I would recommend that you seek the Tarkovsky version out, regardless of if you’ve seen the Soderbergh one or not. Anyway, take a trip to Solaris and experience the mystery for yourself. Just try not to get as sucked in as Kris did, that sort of delving is best left to the professionals.