Offret (The Sacrifice) (1986)
Average Rating: 7.4/10
Reviews Counted: 29
Fresh: 24 | Rotten: 5
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 6.1/10
Critic Reviews: 5
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 2
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 4.3/5
User Ratings: 5,935
My Rating
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
Nov 1, 1986 Limited
May 16, 2000
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Cast
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Erland Josephson
Alexander -
Susan Fleetwood
Adelaide -
Allan Edwall
Otto -
Guðrún Gísladóttir
Maria -
Valérie Mairesse
Julia -
Filippa Franzen
Marta -
Tommy Kjellqvist
Little Man -
Sven Wollter
Victor -
-
-
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All Critics (32) | Top Critics (7) | Fresh (25) | Rotten (5) | DVD (4)
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.
Top CriticThe 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.
Tarkovsky pulls you into a dark, foreboding nightmare and Nykvist [Bergman's former cameraman] gives that nightmare an explosive awakening.
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.
It's a paradox: a sublime failure. For all its stunning, poetic imagery, it's almost impossible to sit through.
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.
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.
Visually potent ... humblingly vast ... [and yet] the movie oscillates between compelling our thunderstruck confidence and testing our patience with unfulfilled promise and highbrow clichés.
Tarkovsky punctuates this so-called "plot" with many, many stunningly poetic images, mostly filmed in long takes with delicate tracking shots.
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.
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.
Invaluable pointers on narrative patience, spiritual yearning and technical finesse.
Brilliant and audacious, with one of the most extraordinary final sequences in modern cinema.
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.
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.
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.
Tarkovsky's film will be forever confined to a dark cul-de-sac in the arthouse ghetto because of its sheer monotony.
As involving and intellectually rich as all Tarkovsky's work.
heavy-going but brilliantly realized masterpiece.
Audience Reviews for Offret (The Sacrifice)
Super Reviewer
"The Sacrifice" has some very interesting things to say about faith but it takes a wrong turn about half way through and never recovers. It is also a perplexingly plodding piece of work that goes on for much too long. Andrei Tarkovsky's decision to film a good deal of the movie in long shots makes it almost impossible to identify with any of the characters. Sven Nykvist's cinematography is certainly pretty enough to look at, though.
Super Reviewer
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Foreign Titles
- Opfer (DE)
- The Sacrifice (Offret) (UK)
