Conclusion Summary and Analysis

Tarkovsky ends by stating his perceptions are not about art or cinema, but the world at large. He sees that mankind is on the precipice of disaster. Mankind is at the end of a historical cycle, in which individual responsibility has been de-emphasized. Individuals increasingly rely on the state or other apparatuses for sustenance. Simultaneously, individuals have been more isolated, and more selfish. Modern man is only interested in increasing their own personal wealth or stature, and they have no regard for their neighbor, no conception of being a part of a larger community. Similarly, spirituality is on the decline. Individuals are becoming nameless cogs in a great societal machine.

People in the West, with their ingrained capitalism and democracies, are the most impoverished spiritually. They are slaves to possessions and to material comforts.

In this worldview, art is a weapon...