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Offret (The Sacrifice) (1986)

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Critic Reviews: 4
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 1

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Average Rating: 4.3/5
User Ratings: 5,725

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Movie Info

The Sacrifice, director Andrei Tarkovsky's final film, begins in Bergmanesque fashion on a small, remote island, where friends and family gather for drama critic Alexander's (Erland Josephson) birthday celebration. The revelry is interrupted by a radio announcement: World War III has begun, and Mankind is only hours away from utter annihilation. Each of the guests reacts differently to the news: the most dramatic response is Alexander's, who promises God that he'll give up everything he holds

PG, 2 hr. 25 min.

Art House & International, Drama

Andrei Tarkovsky

May 16, 2000

Cast

All Critics (31) | Top Critics (5) | Fresh (24) | Rotten (5) | DVD (4)

The Sacrifice is a stunningly beautiful film that holds your attention even while you feel slightly stunned, in a less welcome way, by what is actually going on.

August 30, 2004 Full Review Source: New York Times | Comment
New York Times
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Tarkovsky pulls you into a dark, foreboding nightmare and Nykvist [Bergman's former cameraman] gives that nightmare an explosive awakening.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Washington Post | Comment
Washington Post
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The Sacrifice is not the sort of movie most people will choose to see, but those with the imagination to risk it may find it rewarding.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | Comment (1)
Chicago Sun-Times
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It's a paradox: a sublime failure. For all its stunning, poetic imagery, it's almost impossible to sit through.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Washington Post | Comment
Washington Post
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At least close to being a great film. It's a film that lingers in the mind -- not in the least because it's so open to interpretation.

February 2, 2012 Full Review Source: Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) | Comment
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

The few insecurities in the filmmaking, which stick out in contrast to his Russian works, are easily overlooked by how masterful other scenes are and the impressiveness of the imagery.

August 18, 2011 Full Review Source: Paste Magazine | Comment
Paste Magazine

Visually potent ... humblingly vast ... [and yet] the movie oscillates between compelling our thunderstruck confidence and testing our patience with unfulfilled promise and highbrow clichés.

July 8, 2011 Full Review Source: Nick's Flick Picks | Comment
Nick's Flick Picks

Tarkovsky punctuates this so-called "plot" with many, many stunningly poetic images, mostly filmed in long takes with delicate tracking shots.

January 29, 2009 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | Comment
Combustible Celluloid

Tarkovsky's last film, a spiritual meditation about the end of the world and a new beginning, bears resemblance to Ingmar Bergman's work, not least beacuse of its themes and lead actor and cinematographer.

December 31, 2008 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | Comment

It's long, stately and po-faced (all reasons why Tarkovsky seems faintly unfashionable these days), but if it's extended, beautifully composed tracking shots you want, he's your man.

December 7, 2007 Full Review Source: Independent | Comment
Independent

Invaluable pointers on narrative patience, spiritual yearning and technical finesse.

December 7, 2007 Full Review Source: Independent | Comment
Independent

Brilliant and audacious, with one of the most extraordinary final sequences in modern cinema.

December 7, 2007 Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | Comment
Guardian [UK]

A fitting epitaph for a great artist. Every frame could be hung on a wall, the script is supremely thoughtful and the performances are universally excellent.

December 7, 2007 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment

A difficult film - slow-paced, unashamedly theatrical and heavily laden with philosophy - yet a profoundly satifying one: a rewarding display of filmmaking mastery that forms a mystical and enigmatic coda to a legendary career.

December 7, 2007 Full Review Source: BBC | Comment

For all its Swedish trimmings, the long, syrup-slow takes are unmistakably Tarkovsky's, and it's these that provide this arthouse disaster movie with its mesmerising power.

December 7, 2007 Full Review Source: Total Film | Comment
Total Film

Tarkovsky's film will be forever confined to a dark cul-de-sac in the arthouse ghetto because of its sheer monotony.

December 7, 2007 Full Review Source: Sky Movies | Comment (1)
Sky Movies

As involving and intellectually rich as all Tarkovsky's work.

December 30, 2006 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | Comment
Empire Magazine

heavy-going but brilliantly realized masterpiece.

July 29, 2006 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | Comment
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

For those willing to acccept the tenets of Tarkovsky's cinema of spiritual quest, his esoteric notions of Christian iconography and his obscure approach to cinematic meaning, the film can seem nothing less than miraculous.

June 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Offret (The Sacrifice)

"The Sacrifice" starts out with a famous journalist, Alexander(Erland Josephson), celebrating his birthday with friends and family. Interrupting the celebrations, is a catastrophe which may signal the end of the world. "The Sacrifice" has some very interesting things to say about faith but it takes a wrong turn about

July 20, 2005
Harlequin68
Walter M.

Super Reviewer

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.

October 29, 2011
shitfaced8
Ed Fucking Harris

Super Reviewer

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Foreign Titles

  • Opfer (DE)
  • The Sacrifice (Offret) (UK)
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