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Summary: Yes, this is Art in Cinema
Review: Taking all other superlatives out, this is perhaps the best Russian-language film ever created. Nostalgia may be the rival. It is a piece of Art and it will probably stay in Annals of world cinema together with masterpieces by other artists like Visconti, Pasolini, etc. A must see for any serious viewer; mass production lovers beware - you'll call it boring.
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Summary: Interesting, different, thought-provoking...
Review: The Mirror is an interesting and different movie. Billed as an intensely personal tale of growing up in Russia in WWII -- it is this -- but this is not what makes the movie unique. A collage of memories beautifully shot, some in grainy black-and-white footage, some in slow motion, some newsreels, and poetry combine in a way that I have not seen before in a movie. Be forewarned, my first reaction was that this movie had no plot and wandered -- and this true too -- but it becomes engaging in an odd way. It is like watching someone else's 8mm home movies, and one can't help but think of one's own home movies of their own childhood. And in this way the movie becomes thought provoking and indeed...becomes a mirror.
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Summary: Have a good look....
Review: The Mirror is one of the most accessible Tarkovsky's films. I can recommend viewers to start with this film before progressing to other Tarkovsky's oeuvre. Many critics consider Mirror Tarkovsky's autobiography, but it is unquestionably more than that. The film has visual beauty, social pathos, thoughts on the role of Russia in the Western civilization, existential questions and a place for magic in everyday life. I would not like to give detailed examples here: viewing will be less interesting, and part of the wonder of the film is to find these and many other clues on one's own. If the viewer goes on to other Tarkovsky's output, he will be rewarded by many shots and purvasive themes that "travel" from one film to the next and thus constitute undeniable signature of this director. One very important point I would like to discuss is Tarkovsky's views on Russia. Perhaps, these can be the least understood by Western viewer who enjoy the film while still loosing historical and philosiphical context of Tarkovsky's thinking. Tarkovsky followed Pushkin's contention that Russia played a historical role in the destiny of Western Civilization by stopping Tatar-Mongol aggression from reaching the Western Europe. While havindg stopped the aggression, Russia was broken under its force and had to develop its own unique way of life. In Tarkovsky's opinion, this unique role did not stop with and did not depend on the communist ideology prevailing in Russia at the time. This is a clue for a documentary part in the film where Russian soldiers try to hold a crowd of Maoist Chinese from crossing the Russian border. By the way, documentaries were used by Tarkovsky not as a modernist tool, but as an opportunity to express himself where other means would be disallowed by the USSR regime (this is a response to Mr. Tashiro comment on these documentaries). For example, there is another documentary episode that serves to express a nostalgic feeling for the foreign land (Spain in that case) by Spanish communist refugees to the USSR. Feelings like that were not allowed to be publicly expressed at the time, so documentary was a special tool. Having said all this, the film transcends its own idelology (if you find this ideology unpalatable). I have certain sympathy with those viewers who would criticise Tarkovsky for somewhat didactic quality of his art. Tarkovsky's films are pushing its spiritual content as well as his view of good and wrong on the viewer directly and without subtlety. One thing to remember though is that his films (and Mirror is no exception) are a lot greater than the sum of ideological / philosophical parts. Have a good look then...
Rating: 
Summary: The Mirror VHS version
Review: The quality of the VHS tape itself was not very good. I had to put the contrast and brightness on the highest setting to be able to see it OK. The first time through is quite confusing. As one person in the reviews pointed out, it is a reflection of a man's life but not chronologically. It does refect the life in the USSR from 1930's into 1970's as bittersweet-a few joys and much suffering. Recommend a second viewing before making a judgement on the film. Much is cleared up in the second viewing.
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Summary: Stunning Evidence that Cinema can be Art
Review: The ultimate Tarkovsky film in many ways, but the one that may prove most challenging and difficult without the proper background information. I highly recommend the Johnson & Petrie book, "The Films of Andrei Tarkovsky: A Visual Fugue," it is very enlightening and makes clear the fact that "Mirror" is not a confusing film but indeed Tarkovsky's tightest and most sincere work. Incidentally, the actual title doesn't contain "The", it's just "Mirror." Truly one of cinema's greatest masterpieces, a landmark in subjectivity and the dream/natural world duality. The greatest attribute of this film rests in its unflinching gaze on the depths of human experience, a fluid odyssey into the heart-straining eyeglass of a brilliant man's soul. Considered by many Russian cinephiles as Tarkovsky's greatest film and the personal favorite of many of their finest directors. Of course, the picture quality of the DVD is much better than the VHS, but no widescreen. The mother/wife and young narrator/son are played respectively by the same actors and the subtitles don't include the names, so do not confuse the characters.
Rating:
Summary: Stunning Evidence that Cinema can be Art
Review: The ultimate Tarkovsky film in many ways, but the one that may prove most challenging and difficult without the proper background information. I highly recommend the Johnson & Petrie book, "The Films of Andrei Tarkovsky: A Visual Fugue," it is very enlightening and makes clear the fact that "Mirror" is not a confusing film but indeed Tarkovsky's tightest and most sincere work. Incidentally, the actual title doesn't contain "The", it's just "Mirror." Truly one of cinema's greatest masterpieces, a landmark in subjectivity and the dream/natural world duality. The greatest attribute of this film rests in its unflinching gaze on the depths of human experience, a fluid odyssey into the heart-straining eyeglass of a brilliant man's soul. Considered by many Russian cinephiles as Tarkovsky's greatest film and the personal favorite of many of their finest directors. Of course, the picture quality of the DVD is much better than the VHS, but no widescreen. The mother/wife and young narrator/son are played respectively by the same actors and the subtitles don't include the names, so do not confuse the characters.
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Summary: The best that ever happened in cinematography
Review: There are only very few like Tarkovsky who draw movies (Paradjanov, Fellini, to name but a few). I guess the word "painter" may not only describe oil, pencil and canvas, but rather be attached to a way of thinking and portraying your ideas and thoughts. "The Mirror" is definitely among the best portraits (rather a self-portrait) combining distant childhood memories (perhaps even transformed into some subconscious images) with poetic background. Tarkovsky uses his father's verses not only throughout this movie, but also in other films he has created, "Stalker" being one of them. When watching his work you may as well see or rather feel something familiar, something that perhaps has happened to you. And that's what makes his style so different. Try to watch the film all at once without using "Fast Forward" or "Stop" button, that way it's understood much better.
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Summary: Feel the eastern soul - with eyes wide open
Review: There is a limit, a line which crisscross the border between the East and West. For sure. Tarkovsky is on the east side, very deeply - indeed. To understand his vision is to live on this side... "The MIRROR" displays the man's life in front of history and culture - eastern culture, a very one. Try to look at those beatiful pictures as icons, as pictures of thorough-minded composision telling the story of another world, different angle, other view... strange. One of the most plastical films in the history. A must see. You don't feel confortable? Try 'Solaris', you will experience a "other-view-concept", which is very similar to K.Vonnegut's 'Sirens of Titan' - WHY NOT? The MIRROR is also the one...
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Summary: Tarkovsky As Teacher
Review: This film is a work of genius and I feel it is Tarkovsky's most concentrated and clear effort in terms of the raw elements of his style (vision). Contrary to what many viewers say, it only takes a few careful viewings to grasp its basic chronological sequence which is deliberately drawn away from the surface of the film by Tarkovsky in order to focus on the deeper realities of time and memory experienced as image. There is nothing random about the flow of images in this film. If Tarkovsky had wanted the chronological sequence to be more immediately discernable, then he would have made it so. He has a different objective here. He is trying to speak to the viewer in purely cinematic, non-literary terms. One of the functions of spoken poetry in this film is precisely to create a contrast and to keep these different elements distinct from each other. In spite of the lush quality of the surface of Tarkovsky's work, his style is essentially a matter of a language that is made of a strict, tight sequence of concentrated images. What Tarkovsky is experimenting with in this great film is the degree to which a cinematic work can be purely cinematic, rather than being a derivative of literature or drama. Cinema is an art of sequenced images, and if it can not stand up on its own primarily on this fact, then it is only a derivative art form. The quest of Tarkovsky's artistic life was to bring cinema as an art form more fully into its own. He believed that it had the capacity to be the most profound of art forms in terms of conveying spiritual truth. In this, the film maker that Tarkovsky has the most in common with is Robert Bresson who seems so different from him on the surface. But consider this quote from Tarkovsky's book, Sculpting In Time:
"I have always been amazed by Bresson: his concentration is extraordinary. Nothing incidental could ever creep in to his rigidly ascetic selection of means of expression; he could never 'toss off' a picture. Serious, profound, noble, he is one of those masters whose every film becomes a fact of their spiritual existence."
Please watch this great film and from it learn about what cinema has the possibility of being, rather than wondering why it is not more like conventional films. Tarkovsky possibly has someting real to teach.
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Summary: This is NOT the film!!! This is a Documentary!!
Review: This is a documentary about the movie "The Mirror". Take note. I thought I was ordering the film. I was wrong.
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