MOVIE REVIEW: Contact

RELEASE DATE:  July 11th 1997

DIRECTOR: Robert Zemeckis

MAIN CAST: Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey,  Tom Skeritt

IMDB Story Line

Astronomer Dr. Ellie Arroway has long been interested in contact to faraway lands, a love fostered in her childhood by her father, Ted Arroway, who passed away when she was nine years old leaving her then orphaned. Her current work in monitoring for extraterrestrial life is based on that love and is in part an homage to her father. Ever since funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) was pulled on her work, which is referred to some, including her NSF superior David Drumlin, as more science fiction than science, Ellie, with a few of her rogue scientist colleagues, have looked for funding from where ever they could get it to continue their work. When Ellie and her colleagues hear chatter originating from the vicinity of the star Vega, Ellie feels vindicated. But that vindication is short lived when others, including politicians, the military, religious leaders and other scientists such as Drumlin, try to take over her work. When the messages received from space are decoded, ... Written by Huggo

WHAT I LIKED

I like the whole debate in the movie that asked the question are we the only species in the universe. Whether it would be aliens or God. The way Dr Ellie was so dedicated to think outside of the box. Her interaction of people that worked so hard to disprove her. But her determination touched the heart of a super rich person that believed in her and funded the building of the ship after the first one was destroyed. It was as if the movie was telling us this is the way you get things done with out government involvement. This is the way you beat bureaucracy and get the job done. This is the way you shut up everyone and your critics and go beyond normal thinking, this is the way you push the envelope and achieve greatness.

WHAT I DID NOT LIKE  

Is that she could not brought back some proof of her experience. But then again, small steps and that would have killed everything I loved about the movie

Movie was rated PG, excellent rating, this is a family movie

I gave this movie a 10 on IMDB because it was that good, and it should have got a Oscar nomination 

I did see this on the big screen, and just upgraded my DVD to Blue Ray. it's that good

 

Before Interstellar a Movie Called Contact

One of my favorite movies for 2014 was Interstellar staring Matthew McConaughey. It was a movie that opened my imagination and made me ask the what if question. How would I feel being my age and know that my child is going to die of old age because I went to another dimension and came back to my normal time line? You may have a better description of what happen in the movie but that is just one of many questions and how I understood the movie.

But before Interstellar there was a 1997 movie called called Contact staring Jodie Foster as Dr Ellie Arroway who takes a interstellar trip of her own. To her the trip seemed like hours but it was only minutes according to the authorities. Matthew McConaughey played Rev Palmer Joss and for the most part he was like the reluctant moral conscience to Ellie who did not believe in God.

After Ellie returns from her trip there are hearings on Capitol Hill to ask the question: Did indeed Ellie leave the planet? There is a statement she makes to the Senate hearing panel.

 "I was given something wonderful. Something that changed me. A vision of the universe that made it overwhelmingly clear just how tiny and insignificant -- and at the same time how rare and precious we all are. A vision... that tells us we belong to something greater than ourselves... that we're not -- that none of us -- is alone."

Think about that just for a moment.

As a society we have micro managed ourselves into a corner to a point that it is all most impossible to think outside of the box, and if we think outside the box to much we can get medication for it. Even modern day Christians have done the same. Let me be clear, I believe in God and the words written in the Bible exactly as they where written because of faith. People say it is a old book but it survived world wars and the tortured history of mankind. I do not believe that happen by chance.

I also believe that dinosaurs roamed the earth, but there is no mention of them in the Bible. What else is not in the Bible? Aliens? I don't know, it's just a question. For me God and the Bible is my foundation. But I do have a imagination and I do allow myself to ask what if?

I find it strange how the movies are almost at the opposite end of the question. Interstellar does not find aliens but more questions about love and the human condition while Contact test our faith and ask can we believe in something bigger then ourselves.

There was also another big statement in the movie Contact.

"So If it's just us ......Seems like a awful waste of space"