Contact (Snap Case)
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Movie Reviews of Contact (Snap Case)
Movie Review: Intelligent, Believable, Insightful, RE: How 1st Contact Might Really Occur
Summary: 5 Stars
This is not your typical sci-fi movie, simply because the book on which this was based was written by the late Dr. Carl Sagan, Ph.D., a world-renowned professor of astronomy.
Don't expect green women seducing the captain of a starship, nor fist-fights with aliens (which is a bit ridiculous when you really think about it), nor aliens that are simply 'human in every way' except (for example): a) they have pointy ears and suppress their emotions, or b) they have a violent streak and have interesting foreheads, or c) they are short, have large ears, and are incredibly greedy. Remove the ears, the unusual foreheads and the big ears and what do you have? Just a variety of human beings -- those seeking emotional self-control and spiritual development, violent warrior-types and unethical, money-grubbing businessmen.
As much as I truly TRULY love other sci-fi series, virtually all the above aliens are bi-peds (two-legged) and are about as technologically advanced as humans are at that point in the future.
If another race of aliens were only a couple hundred years ahead of us militarily and technologically, they could blow humans out of the water if they chose to do so. Why? Because scientific knowledge increases exponentially and therefore with an ever-increasing increasing speed. (Just look at what we human beings have learned in the last 50 years.)
Several people that I know that saw Contact did not understand beforehand that Carl Sagan was trying to depict how First Contact might REALLY happen with a far more advanced, non-violent species that wished to communicate with us, with as little trauma as possible. Some of my acquaintances were disappointed that there were very little special effects.
The bottom line: This is an absolutely wonderful movie for those who have the patience and intelligence to appreciate a believable, insightful film which: a) thoughtfully depicts the individual characters who make the discovery, and b) also explores how different groups of people throughout the world might react to a First Contact that the entire planet suddenly becomes aware of.
Expect outstanding, "slower-paced-yet-fascinating!", subtle, insightful writing and first-class acting. Expect realism, not computer-generated aliens, nor an excessive reliance on special effects, nor a predictable, canned Hollywood script, nor a predictable Hollywood ending.
Human reality is rarely predictable and is often both 'tumultous and disappointing' on the one hand, but also 'amazing and beautiful beyond words' on the other. Definitely 5 stars!!!
Movie Review: Wonder and Elegantness, Awe and Loneliness, Fear and Hope
Summary: 5 Stars
Anyone remotely familiar with Carl Sagan must know that getting away from the lights of a city, and looking up, leaves one to feel a flurry of emotions about it all when viewing the heavens at night. How can we be intelligent enough to build all of these tools to use, and still have room for doubt about the why? What if humans on an insignificant planet in the Cosmos actually did pick up a signal or make 'Contact' from outer space? How brave would you actually be? The movie 'Contact' presents this loneliness with a gentle and loving manner. The movie presents the greatest challenge -- do we survive, despite ourselves here on this insignificant speck like a grain of sand in all the grains of sand in all the beaches of the planet we live on? It really is not thought that humans would end it all, being even made to feel smaller than previously before by receiving advanced technology from aliens meant to meet this 'Contact', or is it a weapon?
But then again, they are extremely more intelligent, and give us hope, and fear, about the why and the what and the who and the how, but where are we, as humans, really at within the Grand Scheme of It All? The movie shows that the answer these questions give leave all even smaller and less advanced then we previously thought and still leaves the possibility open with all the awe and wonder Carl Sagan sought to show when talking about the Cosmos. The movie presents all of this with all the technological wonder it can muster at this Time and in this Space called SpaceTime. But then again, perhaps Carl Sagan should be remembered most for his love of life, and his thoughtfullness on why we as humans ought to survive and not create a Nuclear Winter Scenario by having a Nuclear War, a Holocaust due to hate and stupidity on this Planet Earth, in the Sol System, in the Persus Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy, one of the local group of 50 galaxies traveling together through SpaceTime at around 33 miles/ second traveling towards the SuperCluster Cluster of Strings of Galaxies near the Virgo Constellation only reaching that part of SpaceTime in another 300-400 million years, and still will we survive or make 'Contact' in that SpaceTime while we all are traveling in this SpaceTime and still find that everything else has moved that was there before in that region of SpaceTime, but yet find the strength and courage needed to survive? Perhaps, that is religion, perhaps it may be common sense, perhaps many emotions, some of which we may not have even discovered yet. Perhaps........ we are not alone afterall!
Perhaps!
Movie Review: Carl Sagan would be proud
Summary: 5 Stars
Somebody once said that good science fiction puts an ordinary situation into a futuristic or scientific backdrop. Contact is a prime example of how to make a good drama in a setting of science and exploration. It's as true an adaptation to Carl Sagan's novel as you can get considering what you have to do to make the events of the book fit into a feature film. They certainly don't skimp on the special effects either. The opening scene alone is beautiful in it's expansiveness. 'The Machine' hey build to do the space exploration thing is awesome to behold. They do a great job portraying the massive scale of it.
What really makes Contact a good drama is... well... the drama. You have Dr. Arroway (Jodie Foster) dealing with conflict from several fronts in not only the persecution of her profession, but also her own issues with religion and relationships. If you read between the lines you see reasons why she seems to be in denial about God and her relationship with Palmer (Matthew McConaughey). Add a boss stealing her credit, government spooks scrutinizing her, and a life long ambition so close she can taste it and you have a veritable melting pot of reasons for a breakdown. If you take out the alien transmissions and space transports you would still have a good drama.
Contact takes a whole different approach in space exploration and alien contact. Contact is not an action film. It's a movie that delves into not only exploration of outer space but also the exploration of human emotions and faith in the unknown. If you're into SETI you're going to love this film. The attention to detail and consistency are really nice. It's about as accurate as you can get to that kind of research.
The DVD is not exactly feature-rich. However back when it was made it was considered pretty nice. You get background information on the actors as well as a fair amount of technical notes on the production of the movie as well as the movie's evolution from book to film. There is also a really nice commentary track by the director and producer that is very informative without being boring or distracting. There is a commentary track by Jodie Foster, but I haven't listened to it yet.
Contact might not be for everyone. But for those who dream about close encounters with extraterrestrials this movie delivers.
Movie Review: Amazingly Well Done
Summary: 5 Stars
Another masterpiece by Jodie Foster. Foster can make the worst movie tolerable--e.g., Nell--or make a good movie into a great one--e.g., Silence of the Lambs. Here, the movie starts out with a great plot and Foster does not disappoint. Foster plays a scientist obsessed by the search for extra-territorial intelligence, the SETI project, at a time when government cutbacks are shutting the project down. Foster portrays the scientist obsessed by her field but unable to make others understand how important her interest is very well. The scene in which Foster first hears an alien message is particularly powerful and the subsequent search to understand the alien message is very interesting. Although I am not a scientist, the task of decoding the message was easy to follow but, at the same time was somehow complex and even suspenseful. The scenes of contact are low key and, in many ways similar to the analogous scenes in 2001. I believe this was intentional given the other similarities of this movie to 2001. Most obviously, the search for extraterrestrial life in both movies results in a story more about the human condition than about our interaction with other life forms.
A note of further interest: there is a surprising, although understated, scene at the end which seems to explain everything but on further reflection, still leaves almost everything unresolved.
Finally, several reviewers have complained about the Matthew McConaughey character, the modern man of faith. McConaughey plays a man struggling to keep science within the bounds of morality, religious or otherwise. Jodie Foster's character and he clash since she is not only a scientist who believes in knowledge without moral limits and does not believe in G-d. Rather than take sides on this debate, the movie, instead, presents both sides fairly and then proposes that the two views can co-exist peacefully without either banishing G-d from our lives or putting irrational limits on science.
I applaud Hollywood for dealing with this issue, even superficially, since it is controversial and yields no easy solutions. The McConaughey character changes my review from a four star review (very good, but not special) to a five star review for a rare movie which is both entertaining and intelligent.
Movie Review: Six stars, if only I could.
Summary: 5 Stars
This is more of a personal response to this movie, since many other reviewers have detailed the plot, the actors, the strengths and (though few, in my opinion) the weakenesses.
To the dismay of my family, especially of my 14-year-old daughter, this is still one of my favorite movies, if not my most favorite. (To be fair to said daughter, a few weeks ago she picked this one from a list of three, sat through the entire movie, and then wanted to discuss it afterward. Yessss!)
I have dealt through my entire adult life with the issues of "science vs. religion." No other Hollywood movie I'm familiar with addresses this nexus so well. I grew up in a conservative religious environment, in which the short chronology of Earth was a given. And by short I mean about 6,000 years, per the genealogical chronologies of the Hebrew Old Testament. (As you may know, the Greek Septuagint OT chronologies run a tad longer, say about 7,000.)
Graduate study in ancient Near Eastern history/achaeology and excursions into geology (including a three-week stint in the fossil forests of the Yellowstone) forced me to reconsider the "given-ness" of the short age of Earth, and to look more objectively at the nature of "truth," of perception and epistmelogy, of "myth" (as an organizing stucture). Without saying more, let me just say that this personal journey has left me closer to Ellie Arroway than to Joss Palmer.
I used to say that religion and science were two valid ways of looking at the universe. Now I'm not even sure what such an assertion means. I no longer think of myself as a two-part witness to reality (whatever that is). Split epistemology like this no longer works for me.
Ellie and Joss wrestle with "Ocham's Razor." In terms that would be entirely at home in the Evolution vs. Intelligent Design "debate," this movie asks the hard question that few on the religious Right today seen to care for: "What is the evidence."
Other reviewers have made the point, correctly, that this movie is appropriately ambiguous on the answers to the largest questions. That said, good science still has the best approach to deriving trustworthy answers about the universe. I will leave for others the question of the place of religion in this mix.