Stalker's exacting visual details have always been muddled on home video, with previous DVDs and even a Region-B Artificial Eye Blu-ray hazily and inconsistently presenting the film's color palette. Sourced from a 2K restoration by Mosfilm, the Criterion Collection's Blu-ray marks one of the most radical home-video upgrades in years. The washed-out monochrome of the early, pre-Zone scenes is now a bold sepia—golden-hued and rich with tactile details, from the wispy hairs on Writer's head to the thick mud strewn about the Zone's blockaded perimeter. The color scenes are even more striking: the multi-shaded greens of grass practically jump off the screen; the foggy atmosphere that obscures the area's horizons finally embodies a sinister sense of gloom and displacement; and the Zone actually feels as otherworldly and hyperreal as originally intended.
Sound has been no less persistent an issue in previous DVD releases of the film, and that has also been rectified to revelatory effect. No longer plagued by hiss and other issues, the post-synchronized audio arguably does as much as the visuals to enhance the alien nature of the Zone. Footfalls in water echo loudly in the mix, as do the occasional warbles of strange noise that blow through the area like programmed wind. Eduard Artemyev's score comes in just as clearly, its Popol Vuh-esque mix of sacred and avant-garde music rendered in all its meditative power.
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