Contact | | Cast : | Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey | | Director : | Robert Zemeckis | | Studio : | Warner Studios | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Dolby, Widescreen | | Released Date : | July 11, 1997 | | DVD Released Date : | February 03, 2004 | | Language : | French (Subtitled), English (Dubbed), English (Subtitled), English (Original Language), French (Original Language), Spanish (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 03, 2005 | | Summary | Small Steps Sparks | Content
 | This film adaptation of Carl Sagan's novel "Contact" emphasizes the very few things wrong with the story, while skipping or bastardizing the elements that made it great. In order to fully understand the poverty of this film adaptation, one needs to know more than a little bit about Carl Sagan. Dr. Sagan was an astronomer with a well thought out and unwavering view of what NASA should be about. He lobbied for the terra-forming of Mars as early as 1972. Four 02 machines, and 25 years, would produce a noticeable atmosphere on the Red planet. Another quarter century would produce an environment still very hostile to humankind, but sophisticated "space suits" would enable the few colonists (Engineers, Scientists) working there, to prepare Mars for permanent inhabitants. Mars is rich in gympsum, and thus few tools would be needed to erect permanent structures from the strong yet malleable rock. By the year 2042 - a mere 75 years after the start date - Mars would be able to support human life fairly easily. No special gear or out-fitting would be needed. People could tolerate the atmosphere wearing nothing but "street clothes" for several hours a day. People would probably carry a small 02 unit to combat any shortness of breath. Mars would be Earth-like and able to support human life by 2070. Perhaps man will learn from our mistakes on Earth and not rape the planet, or make war.
Carl Sagan was also a politician. Genuine and enthusiastic, but not very effective. The scientific community tapped him to argue Evolution vs. Creationism with a team of debaters who trained in San Diego at the Creationism Institute. These debaters rehearsed with an IF-THEN approach to counter anything Sagan said. Sagan tried to bridge the gap between science and religion in a manner respectful to all points of view. He had underestimated the religous zealots, and thus, walked away from these public debates having appeared to be weak, ill-prepared, slow, confusing, and unconvincing. He made the same errors when testifying in front of Congress for additional funds for space exploration. His battles with NASA were highly publicized, and NASA looked as weak as him. He had a love/hate relationship with NASA in that he disagreed with their plans, but understood tha NASA was the only game in town. He died a slow agonizing death shortly before the film came out, and gave it a very tacid thumbs up. For all his love, all his work, he passed having realized none of his funding attempts and was ultimately one of the saddist people of the 20th c.
THE FILM: Ellie Arroway ("Sparks") brought to life by Jodie Foster, never met her mother as she had died at Ellie's birth. Her father died when she was 9. Ellie raced through High School, College, and Graduate school, and turned down Fellowship after Fellowship to devote her life to SETI. There is a lot of poetry here: Ellie's mother dying from childbirth is visualized by the tunnel-like Black Holes she travels through during her personal space odyssey. Her fathers caution that she'll need to take small steps to realize her frontier. And small steps she took during her quest.
Ellie and her Research Assistants - one of whom is blind and thus able to hear nuances sighted people may miss - eventually receive radio signals that are sophistcated and repetitive. Not products of randomness. She had resorted to begging Billionaires for funds to continue her effort, and now it was paying off. They had made Contact. A message millions of pages long comes to NASA's computers in the form of unfinished diagrams, symbols of apparent mathematics, and endless blogs of HTML-like instructions. Nothing seems to fit together. A reclusive Billionarre tells Ellie to "think like a Vegan." She puts the pages together in a three dimensional format and finds the primer that enables her and the other scientists to read a message, get instructions, from another world.
Palmer Joss: this unnecessary token religous character seems to have been inserted itno the film only to provide gratuitous nudity. Played by handsome Matthew Mc Coughnehy, this man of the cloth character serves only to interrupt the seamlessness of the film while spouting profound revelations, and presenting Ellie with a dichotomous love interest. This character sucks.
After Congressional inquests during which Ellie is villified for being atheist; after a horrific act of terror by a religous zealot that kills the character nicely played by Tom Skerrit, Ellie becomes the traveler. Propelled through the universe by entering the fore-mentioned tunnels, Ellie meets a person who appears to be her father. The alien admits he has taken the appearence and persona of her father to make it easier on her.
"Small steps Sparks. Small steps." "This is how its been done for billions of years". Ellie returns with a story no one believes. A very lo-tech device aboard the capsule confirms her story, but remains a secret. A secret to everyone but Ellie. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 29, 2005 | | Summary | A collect call from outer space | Content
| CONTACT tackles the question of life beyond the stars. A question asked by most thinking beings on the planet. The story capitalizes on that interest but unfortunately pulls the rug out from underneath. The story concepts are at times rewarding, but the film is brought down by a ridiculous romance and a first alien contact payoff that leaves you feeling ripped off.
Jodie Foster is Ellie Arroway, a scientist with an ear for aliens spends most of her life looking for financial support for her search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Most doors are slammed until aliens return the call. Then the film becomes a "Right Stuff" quest for the individual to take the journey to meet the aliens. The film culminates in the actual eye-rolling contact. Occasionally, Ellie is joined by her love interest, an uninteresting preacher portrayed by Matthew McConaughey. Not only is the romance trite and convenient, it also rings untrue.
Director Robert Zemeckis does some creative filmmaking here, but often the scenes are overdrawn. The opening journey through space is a wildly stimulating start to the film. Also stimulating is the creation of an alien `machine'. It is an effects marvel. Capitalizing on an element he used in Forrest Gump, Zemeckis uses political celebrity appearances to ground the film into reality. Jay Leno, Robert Novak and Leon Harris are amongst the appearances. Even former President Clinton appears giving a speech that was non-specific enough when he first said it that Zemeckis could use it to address aliens in the film. These are some of the best moments in the overlong film, a sad statement in a special effects film about alien contact. Subplots could have been shortened or removed.
The CONTACT DVD is pretty loaded with several commentaries. The Video and Audio transfer are stellar and can definitely test your sound system. Like the movie or not, the stars will still beckon us so more films will explore the void. CONTACT skims the topic.
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| Rating | | | Date | July 24, 2005 | | Summary | A Beautiful Dream | Content
| This film is a thought-provoking mixture of science and spirituality from the brilliant mind of the late Carl Sagan. Even more amazing is that it remains so engaging without the typical bug-eyed monsters that populate science fiction.
The "human reaction" to the series of unfolding extraordinary events is vividly portrayed, and is so reflective of our modern world. A blitz of media here, a special committee there, a glory seeker, a powerful manipulator, and even a terrorist all appear in this picture - it has them all.
The script is very well done, and one of my favorite lines points out how humans are not only capable of beautiful dreams, but also of horrible nightmares as well.
The film mentions that the bottom line is that we do not live in a world that is fair, but for this picture the bottom line is that it - including the performance of the wonderful cast - is an extremely fine piece of work from top to bottom. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 16, 2005 | | Summary | the kids will HATE THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! | Content
| THIS IS THE ANTI INDEPENDENCE DAY/STAR WARS PREQUALS/I,ROBOT/WAR OF THE WORLDS'05....ei A THINKING PERSONS MOVIE!sorry for the caps(as if capping makes a point more valid)this is my way of venting.this is an entirely engrossing sci fi flick that doesnt rely solely on CGIs and loud noises.not to say that they are absent,just not the focal point.my one gripe(i always have one)is that an actor/tress should stay within the confines of the part.jodie foster gets a little bit too heavy handed here.its truly interesting how a little noise from a gazillion light years away can turn into this huge life altering event.my review will have nothing new to add to plot or performances,i just want to add the definitely well deserved 4 star rating.again,kids and dunce cap models,THIS ISNT FOR YOU!!!!!!!!!!!! |
| Rating | | | Date | July 09, 2005 | | Summary | Two things of note about this film | Content
| Plenty of reviews below talk about the plot details, etc, so I will omit that here.
What I like best about this film is that it addresses both sides of the Science versus Religion debate, and is equally respectful of both sides. Jodie Foster's character is a woman of Science, not of God. But by the story's end she has found her own kind of Faith, though it comes partially because she is unable to provide proof of something that her doubters know darn well does actually exist.
My only beef with the film is a minor one but it stuck out like a sore thumb to me: Late in the film's first act she is explaining what Prime Numbers are to some government men. She says that prime numbers are "numbers that are only divisible by themselves and One." Thanks for the math lesson, dear screenwriters, but in truth Prime Numbers are only EVENLY divisible by themselves and One. Yes, there is a difference. That little error in semantics wasn't the issue for me, however. The issue is that just a few years before "Contact" was made, Jodie Foster directed and starred in "Little Man Tate", a film about a young boy with above-average intelligence. In a science and math contest, the young boy and some other bright kids are asked "Which of these numbers are divisible by [some integer, like 3]?" While the other kids think it out, Little Man Tate shouts out "All of them", which was technically correct. The contest moderators were looking for the numbers EVENLY divisible by the integer, but they failed to make that distinction. Tate caught the mistake and put the quizmasters to shame. Jodie Foster, having directed that scene, SURELY should have remembered that distinction when delivering her lines in "Contact". That Prime Numbers description goof should never have made it past the rehearsal stage.
Funny the little things you pick up on, eh?
"Contact" is a great movie by the way, Angela Bassett's over-emoting notwithstanding. |
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