# Contact (1997)



## stripe (Dec 28, 2000)

Now this one I have seen and I didnt much like it too long and drawn out but thats just my personal opinion ...

Let me know what you think? Did you like it?.....

Talk to me ...LOL!!!

SYNOPSIS:
She's known it since she was a young girl, when she would magically connect with distant voices on her father's shortwave radio. She's known it since college, when she chose the search for intelligent extraterrestrial messages as her discipline. She's known it since she bargained for just hours a week of satellite time to sweep the heavens for evidence. And she knows it every time she stares at the countless stars dappling the infinite night sky... Something is out there.



REVIEW:
This self-consciously "adult" science-fiction movie, based on a script by the late Carl Sagan, represents an admirable attempt to examine the moral, political, social and religious implications of mankind's first contact with alien intelligence. Ellie Arraway (Jodie Foster) has been fascinated by radio contact with faraway places since she was a child, using a ham radio set under the watchful eye of her devoted father (David Morse). Orphaned at the age of nine, she grows up devoted to science and embraces the SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) project, listening to the skies with giant satellite dishes and waiting for a sign that we are not alone. It comes in the form of a series of numbers--mathematics, Ellie explains to the dolts who wonder why the aliens don't just speak English, being the only true universal language--followed by a set of blueprints for the construction of a mysterious machine. Ellie's discovery sends the world into a frenzy: World leaders make empty speeches in public and furiously try to negotiate their countries the best deals in private; religious leaders squabble, scientists argue and cult leaders foment fear. The area around Ellie's research facility becomes a mecca for UFO nuts, apocalyptic preachers, new age flakes and curiosity seekers, and her discovery fuels public debate over the relationship between science and faith. Foster's fierce performance as the remote, abrasive Ellie is uncompromising; you have to admire Ellie--and Foster--but she's not an engaging hook on which to hang such an ideology-heavy story. Her coldness might be mitigated by interesting supporting characters, but she's surrounded by types: arrogant military advisor (James Woods); self-righteous Christian leader (Rob Lowe); mysterious magnate (John Hurt, whose resemblance to Gate of Heaven leader Marshall Applewhite is actually unsettling); opportunistic careerist (Tom Skeritt), and so on.

--Written by Elliott Stern 

STARRING:  Jodie Foster - Dr. Eleanor 'Ellie' ArrowayMatthew McConaughey - Palmer Joss 
DIRECTOR: Robert Zemeckis

U.S. DISTRIBUTOR: Warner Bros

RUNNING TIME: 142 mins.

MPAA RATING: PG
Copyright 1998 by Hollywood.com, Inc. All rights reserved.


----------



## padders (Dec 28, 2000)

Oh i liked this one, it is about the only science fiction film i know that dosen't try to be an action film as well to appeal to the general audience. This one actually sticks to what it is doing and dosen't care if some people won't like it - slow perhaps a bit but good. I also especially liked the links between religion and science and how they are perhaps not that different where you lay your trust/belief.

Recommended to watch


----------



## peachy (Dec 28, 2000)

i liked this film too. i particularly
liked the bit on the beach, when the alien
had become her father, so he could put her at 
ease and speak to her, i thought it was very
moving...peachy


----------



## stripe (Dec 30, 2000)

*OK*

So thats two who liked it ....maybe I need to go rent the movie and watch it again...


----------



## padders (Dec 30, 2000)

what is bizarre is that one of my friends who hates sci-fi liked this film.. bizarre because i would call it "pretty sci-fi" as it goes...


----------



## markpud (Jan 11, 2001)

Not a bad film, starts out well, but gets a bit silly toward the end. If they don't believe her, why not let someone else drop thru the spinny thing????


----------



## padders (Jan 11, 2001)

good question, never thought of that... would have been a pretty easy thing to do really.


----------



## little star (Mar 12, 2001)

I found this movie to be okay, but slow-moving in parts, and maybe a little anticlimactic.  Perhaps the fact that it was hyped so much made me expect more.

little star


----------



## markpud (Mar 12, 2001)

I think i mentioned this in another thread, but if they didnt believe her story about the device, then why not send someone else through it???


----------



## Selene (Apr 12, 2001)

Well, just think about what they had to go through just to send one person through the device ( selecting the person, spending A LOT of money, dealing with public opinion - remember the crazy blond guy? ) And that was when they actually belived the device would work. Why go through all that again just to prove Ellie is nuts? Noone would risk his career and waste all that money just to be sure that she is telling the truth.
Besides, are you sure they didn't belive her? I think that was just the "official version" . Remember what that woman said in the end? The fact that the camera recorded  "nothing"  did not bother her, what bothered her was the fact that it recorded 18 hours of it!


----------



## markpud (Apr 23, 2001)

they have the thing built, in a secret location, so they could use it again quite easily, and the evidence of the 18? hours of static prooves something happened, so locically some one should go thru again. Whats the worst that could happen? Nothing again??


----------



## Selene (May 1, 2001)

It's been a while since I watched this film so I was under the impression that the second device broke down, or something like that, right after she went through it. Obviously I was wrong. Sorry about that.

When Ellie told "her father" that others should come through, to see what she has seen, he went on about all being done in small steps - something like: don't call us we'll call you (again). So if they belived her storry, maybe they didn't want to send someone else through knowing that this time he/she wouldn't be welcomed. Maybe the device wouldn't even work unless it was switched on from the other side.


----------



## Ice (Jun 22, 2001)

Contact;
I really enjoyed this movie; it was moving and had great special effects!
The reason I actually watched this film was because I miss-took the lead actress for Helen Hunt (she is such a great actress, so was the lead lady). 
N E Way, I started out disappointed, but by the end of the film I was completely hypnotized.
I loved it!
~Ice~
P.s. does any1 else think that the lead lady in contact looks like Helen Hunt, or do I need to go get my eyes tested? :rolly2:


----------



## Curupira (Jul 25, 2001)

Very boring in my opinion :rain:


----------



## Mariel (Sep 23, 2001)

I loved this movie.  One of my favorite lines comes at the end of the movie.  When Ellie was showing a bunch of kids the radio telescopes and one asks if there is anyone out there and she says something like if there isn't then that an awful big waste of space.
:blpaw:


----------



## Lonewolf89 (Jan 25, 2002)

I liked this movie, although it could have been a little faster.


----------



## tokyogirl (Feb 7, 2002)

definitely.  the movie was good, but they could have cut down some scenes.


----------



## Tabitha (Feb 7, 2002)

I really liked this film.  

Good adaptation of a great book - go read it!


----------



## tokyogirl (Feb 7, 2002)

i have it, but i just haven't gotten around to reading it yet.


----------



## Lonewolf89 (Feb 8, 2002)

I'll have to get it the next time I go to a bookstore.


----------



## Tabitha (Feb 8, 2002)

This book actually inspired me to study for a degree in physics - unfortunately after two years I decided I just wasn't clever enough!  I settled for a much more enjoyable degree in History instead   :flash:


----------



## Ivanhoe (Feb 9, 2002)

This is more a story about a struggling scientist  than a classic SF, but nevertheless it displays so accurately our human nature, especially when we are about to encounter something new, like a contact with an alien civilization. Movie builds up at a slow pace to a intelligent ending which many people thought to be disappointing (especially the ones that expected to actually see the aliens) but not me, I like it the way it is.


----------



## sarahksg1 (Apr 8, 2002)

i reckon this is a real kool movie, lol, i loved the bit when she tries to go to the aliens, i thought this bit was real kool


----------



## Stryker (Nov 16, 2004)

> _Originally posted by padders _
> *Oh i liked this one, it is about the only science fiction film i know that dosen't try to be an action film as well to appeal to the general audience. This one actually sticks to what it is doing and dosen't care if some people won't like it - slow perhaps a bit but good. I also especially liked the links between religion and science and how they are perhaps not that different where you lay your trust/belief.
> 
> Recommended to watch  *




Me too!!

Always liked anything by Carl Sagan.

He was always deep

End was cool ,  they saw her drop in a few seconds but there was hours of recorded tape in her spinny thingy.


Stryker


----------



## Metryq (Apr 23, 2011)

It's been a while since I read the book, although i do remember quite a number of differences. First of all, the Machine was _much_ smaller in the book and didn't drop a passenger pod through whirling rings. If I'm remembering correctly, the Machine in the book was maybe two stories high and carried six passengers. 

I think the book also made it clear that the Machine was merely a "hook" for the stargate system to latch onto—like a telephone is part of a interchange system. Humans could run it again for as long as they wished, but no one would "answer."

(Side note: I have a collection of Voyager recordings of the synchrotron radio noise from the various planets. One of the recordings sounds almost exactly like the Machine sound in the movie. I wouldn't be surprised if Sagan had handed the sound mixer a tape and said, "It should sound like this.")

Sagan goofed in the book by having "god's signature" buried in the depths of pi, so that was "left out" of the movie. Although a variant of the idea still made it into the film. (At one point, Kent is remonstrating with Ellie about "goofy" behavior, like looking for patterns in video static, or listening to washing machines.)

I was rather irked by the likeness of science to religion as "the same thing." Religions are moral and ethical codes for humans to live by. At one time they were a branch of politics. Believers vary greatly in degree for any given system. Science is not an "it." Science is a _process_ for testing the world around us. Done properly, the end result is consistent and reliable information. Sagan's "science" often put the cart before the horse. So while his poetry inspired a lot of people, some found his "popularizing" of science counterproductive.


----------



## Rodders (Apr 23, 2011)

I've not read this book, but i very much enjoyed the movie. I thought the ending was pretty upbeat. They sort of believed her, but were happy to feed her to the wolves as they couldn't report anything.


----------

