Rating  - Attention: this film requires you to think
There is no simple answer, no simple review or "reading" of this film which can be proven to be correct. Indeed, this film requires you to think and provide your own answers. All great works of art are like this, I think.
Background information is very important in this case: Tarkovsky was dying of cancer while he shot this film. He completed the shooting, but did not live to see the final copy.
Be prepared to devote some time and energy in order to appreciate was this film has to offer.
Rating  - A very good film, though not a great one....
I do love Tarkovsky (as many who know me will attest), and I do like The Sacrifice very, very much. It has some astounding, memorable sequences in it. It has evocative use of Ebarme Dich, Mein Gott from Bach's St. Matthew Passion (one of Tarkovsky's favorite composers and one of his favorite musicial pieces), excellent performances (even more remarkable when you take into account he shot the film in Swedish, not his native tongue), and beautiful cinematography (by the late Sven Nykist, Ingmar Bergman's cinematographer for many years). However, I can't help but feel that there's something missing, something incomplete about it. I want to say it's an undisputed masterpiece, but I cannot honestly say that. Even though I believe the film is meant to be ambiguous, sometimes it's just confusing. Perhaps this is because the original script was simply about Alexander going off with Maria, giving up everything he had for her, to live a simple life. This script was called The Witch, and was written in 1981. Then Tarkovsky incorporated other things (like nuclear war), and the film became something else, though not necessarily better. The confusion leaves me with a feeling of "almost a masterpiece".
There are many great shots in this film, such as the 9 1/2 minute opening take (Tarkovsky's longest shot), the scene when the nuclear bombs fly overhead, the scene where Alexander prays, the opening credits scene, and the legendary house burning scene near the end of the film. It is not the last scene of the film, as some critics have said, and it's not the longest take Tarkovsky ever shot. It runs 6 1/2 minutes, and it was eclipsed by the opening shot, which is the longest take Tarkovsky ever shot. In the house burning scene, it seems comical at times, all the running in and out, but it's still amazing to behold, at least techinically. The first time they shot this, the camera jammed and the house continued to burn. There was only one camera on tracks, and the camera failed. Tarkovsky was devastated. But the crew somehow managed to rebuild the house in two weeks, and the scene was reshot, this time with TWO cameras on tracks, running parallel to each other.
There is a wonderful documentary shot by the editor of The Sacrifice entitled Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. It's one of many documentaries about Tarkovsky, but it's the only one where he was actually present during the shooting (discounting Voyage in Time, a TV film he did for Italian TV which he co-wrote and co-directed with Tonio Guerra, the great Italian screenwriter), and it's fascinating to watch. It's nice that Kino included this on the DVD, because their transfer of The Sacrifice is way too bright, so the inclusion of the documentary makes up for the poor transfer. Many of the scenes were supposed to be shot in the dark, so to speak. The DVD is still worth buying, but the transfer is not correct at all.
Overall, a great film, but not Andrei's best. The Sacrifice is not an awful film, it's not even close, but it's disappointing when compared to Tarkovsky's magnificent track record previous to this film.
Rating - A TRANSCENDENT HYPNOTIC MASTEREPIECE
In decades of movie going and collecting, only a few films keep coming to mind at unexpected moments. For me, this is what great art does; that is, it becomes a part of one's experience and not just a momentary diversion.
THE SACRIFICE is such a film. It touches on the most fundamental questions of being a human in our post-modern world. And it does it with extraordinary grace and a sublime, haunting, beauty. For me, it is a transcendent and hypnotic masterpiece. What cinema aspires to but seldom achieves.
To miss the point of this film, as some reviewers have, or to call it sophomoric, as others do, is to admit one's own inability to consider that life itself may hold a greater meaning and that we are more than an accidental fluke in a cold, uncaring universe.
This film dares to use its considerable art to challenge us like a zen koan and a prayer. It is a meditation on what it means to be fully human and mortal and moral. It asks us to wonder at the unknown and it weeps that we are prisoners of our humanity -- and that we hold the fate of our planet in our hands.
All this sounds kind of pretentious, I know, but this magnificent yet simple film works on a higher level than most movies. It's not easily categorized. But on a big screen, I was mesmerized by the extraordinary cinematography and equally transported by the subtle ideas. It was a profound and provoactive movie going experience that I didn't expect and one that has remained vivid as the years pass.
Rating - The Demiurge Spake
To all of those captious parties whistling in the dark: damnant quod non intellegunt
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