My Take on the Ending, and the Film in General

Often I see people comment on the arrival of the ambulance at the end of the film. They wonder how it got there so fast, who even called it and how when no one knew that Alexander had set the fire? As soon as the question was raised I knew the answer - it seemed so obvious and yet no one else seemed to see it! - Maria called it. Let me explain:

Maria doesn't know that there's a war on. Her TV cut off around 11pm and never came back on, she doesn't seem to give this much thought until a few hours later her employer shows up at her house after having apparently suffered some sort of psychotic break (how else can she take this visit?). He's cut up, bruised. He says he arrived on a bicycle despite the fact that he has a car. He's rambling about something terrible that he never names. Finally then he begs her to love him, threatening to commit suicide when she refuses. She acquiesces, but only because she fears what he'll do otherwise. She's seriously concerned about him so what can she do but call the Men in White Coats to come and take him away? I think this is confirmed on screen when Maria appears on the scene of the fire only after the ambulance does.

Along those lines, I think it's important to discuss the film's title as well. Obviously the film is about a sacrifice but I argue that the sacrifice is not Alexander's house and all his stuff, but rather his son by visiting Maria.

The Sacrifice began life as a concept about a man visiting a witch, and sleeping with her, to save himself from a terrible disease. As the concept evolved Tarkovsky added the war. A common complaint about the end result is that the two narratives don't mesh properly. It has been pointed out that combining the original idea with the new one forces Alexander to commit an unfair, unexplained, double sacrifice - both sleeping with Maria AND burning the house. I believe that this interpretation misses the point of the film - Alexander doesn't consider burning the house to be a sacrifice at all, but rather it is something he desires but can't bring himself to do until he's given cause (the war/his pact with God).


I think, and it has been argued before, that the key to the entire film lies in Otto bringing up Nietzsche at the beginning. He speaks of Zarathustra's dwarf, but doesn't explain what the dwarf is or how it relates to eternal recurrence exactly. Zarathustra's dwarf is the physical representation of the spirit of gravity, it weighs heavy on him just as the idea of society (and the lack of spirituality weigh heavy on Alexander). This idea is represented on screen when, after concluding his monologue about the sinfulness of society, Little Man jumps on Alexander's back and knocks him down just as Otto says the dwarf does to Zarathustra. Therefore Little Man is the cause of Alexander's burden - he even tells Victor in a later scene that the entire reason for him settling down, having the things he has, is because of his son. His son is his whole reason for being.

So then what of the eternal recurrence? Otto mentions Thus Spake Zarathustra, but Nietzsche gives a more concise explanation of the recurrence in The Gay Science, in which he writes:

"What if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: “This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sight and everything unutterably small or great in your life will have to return to you, all in the same succession and sequence—even this spider and this moonlight between the trees, and even this moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is turned upside down again and again, and you with it, speck of dust!” Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: “You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine.” If this thought gained possession of you, it would change you as you are or perhaps crush you. The question in each and every thing: “Do you desire this once more and innumerable times more?” would lie upon your actions as the heaviest weight. Or how well disposed would you have to become to yourself and to life to crave nothing more fervently than this ultimate eternal confirmation and seal?"

So one can argue that in the film Otto takes on the role of Nietszche's demon. He brings the idea of the recurrence up to Alexander. With this in mind we can look at Alexander's later actions in the context of him dwelling on this idea - is he happy with his life as it is? If he had to relive it would he be satisfied, or would he change things? His Sinful Society monologue, delivered almost immediately after Otto brings up Nietszche, shows us without a doubt that Alexander is not happy with his life and his remark to Victor later on shows us that Little Man is the reason for his unhappiness. Because of his love for his son he has already committed one sacrifice - he has made himself unhappy by tying himself down to society.

During the party scene we learn that Alexander has burned his life down once before (though in a not so literal sort of way) when he gave up a career as a successful actor, ostensibly for no reason other than his disillusionment with it. He's already made one attempt then to opt out of society. With this in mind the film's climax isn't out of character for Alexander, it's just a more extreme version of him quitting acting - committed after dwelling on the sinfulness of society and the idea of Eternal Recurrence.

After the party the group receives word that a nuclear war has broken out. This prompts Alexander, who was previously an atheist, to make a pact with God. Alexander tells God that if he can make things as they were he will give up his family, his house, his son - all that ties him to life. This is important, but often overlooked. So let's break it down:

Earlier Alexander said that his son is, in fact, all that ties him to life. He says he will give up his family...but his son is his only true family. Marta is his daughter, but it's barely acknowledged. Alexander doesn't treat her as a daughter and I'm not even sure if he interacts with her in the film. She's at least ten years older than Little Man and yet he tells Victor that Little Man is his reason for being.
Then there's his wife, who obviously doesn't like Alexander very much. She says outright that she resents him for giving up acting and thinks he tricked her into living isolated in the country and later she throws herself on Victor instead of Alexander and admits outright that she loves him and not her husband. She's also shown to be an ardent materialist (asking Maria to stay long enough to perform a series of simple tasks that she can easily perform herself, focusing on the loss of the photo in Otto's story and seeming to not even notice that the subject's son died, etc). Essentially she is Alexander's opposite and possibly as symbol of all he resents about society. So giving up his family isn't a sacrifice at all, he's already lost them (except his son).

Then he says he'll give up his house...but so what? If he already desires to give up his ties to the world, and the house is his main tie, then that's not a sacrifice either.

So then he says he'll give up his son and finally hits on something he can sacrifice. He says he'll give up all that ties him to life but this last thing - Little Man - IS all that ties him to life. It's all he can sacrifice.

After that Otto appears to him in the middle of the night. Earlier I suggested that Otto had taken on the role of Nietzsche's demon by bringing up Eternal Recurrence, but let's look at another meaning of demon: the Greeks believed that demons were go betweens between the gods and man. Direct communication was impossible so the gods would send demons in their place. So if Otto is a demon then he is the answer to Alexanders prayer, he tells him what he can do to make things right, but also sets him up to make his sacrifice. It has been suggested that it is arrogant of Alexander to ask God stop a war for him and to expect God to do his part first...but in my interpretation God's response is that Alexander must demonstrate his seriousness first. He must go to Maria and he will get what he wants, but in going to her he will also cause his loss.

So Otto takes on the characteristics of a third type of demon - the type native to Christianity. He deceives Alexander. He tells him that Maria is a witch who can undo the war. But he's lying. He sends Alexander to her under false pretenses so that when he arrives Maria thinks he's gone mad. Alexander's desperation and his belief that Maria has the power to make everything okay again lead him to lose his son.

It is possibly worth nothing that during this scene with Maria Alexander tells a story about his mother's garden. This story is a direct reference to Alexander's Sinful Society monologue at the films start - the garden was only beautiful in its natural state. When he stepped in and cut back nature it became ugly, the same way as society is ugly. I think that it is during this scene that Alexander resolves to burn his house and renounce his ties to society, regardless of the outcome of this meeting.