Support NeoGAF

[entremet]

I saw this in the theaters with my cousin and thought it was rather amazing at the time. I need to rewatch and this article made me hungry to do so.

http://io9.gizmodo.com/contact-is-more-than-a-movie-about-science-vs-religion-1796775188

When Contact first opened, 20 years ago today, I thought it was a masterpiece. For a soon-to-be high school senior, Robert Zemeckis’ adaptation of Carl Sagan’s novel was the perfect Hollywood mix of thought-provoking ideas and spectacle. It wasn’t until years later I realized how divided fellow films fans were on the film. So I decided to look back and see what Contact has to offer in 2017.

Back in 1997, one of the biggest reasons Contact made such an impact on me was its captivating depiction of the eternal struggle between science and religion. The argument is the core of the film and, frankly, not subtle in the least, but it fascinated me. Contact takes the two equally compelling sides of the argument and personifies them with Jodie Foster’s scientist Ellie Arroway and Matthew McConaughey’s religious scholar Palmer Joss. Science demands proof, but religion makes it okay to believe without proof. Watching the film again, when Palmer asks Ellie if she loves her father and then asks her to prove it, I can’t imagine a simpler, more understandable breakdown of the great debate.

However, watching it two decades later, what stands out to me in Contact is Zemeckis’ depiction of media and technology.

 

[King Tubby]

One of my favorite science fiction movies and Jodie Foster roles. The first half in particular is really great.

 

[Netherscourge]

I still think it's funny that Matthew McConaughey is a sex-driven religious scholar in this movie.

"I'm a man of the cloth, without the cloth."

BEST PICKUP LINE EVER

 

[Tagyhag]

Hah, coincidentally I randomly watched it for the first time yesterday.

I liked it, it definitely went places.

I assumed the whole "listen for signals, romantic conflicts between Matthew/Jodie" was going to be the whole movie. Nooooope.

 

[Trouble]

I love it so much I don't even care that the

Spoiler

second machine

was a big ol' Deus Ex Machina.

 

[SatoAilDarko]

I watched the second half of Contact as an 8 year old.

My mom wanted to order Men in Black off Pay-Per-View for us. Because the movies and the numbers to call would alternate on screen my Mom saw the Contact number and thought you could use one number to order any movie even though we tried to tell her know. So then she ordered it and we got Contact. Then she ordered Men in Black.

Since they would play all day and loop after Men in Black was over my father and I watched the second half of Contact. Surprisingly that ending stayed with me for many years.

It's funny considering how much I now love Sci-Fi that also have religious elements.

 

[Rayis]

I will totally Jodie Foster this type of behavior


Katya Zamolodchikova's favorite movie

 

[sphinx]

goosebumps when she

Spoiler

goes on the trip,

I remember watching it with my family on tv, we were all speechless watching the sphere turn faster and faster.

 

[dakun]

to this day it tops any movie that deals with the topics it touches on. It's a masterpiece.

 

[TyrantII]

Included with Amazon Prime right now. Great movie, even if they all right all righted a love story into it, but that's Hollywood.

 

[Oxn]

goosebumps when she

Spoiler

goes on the trip,

I remember watching it with my family on tv, we were all speechless watching the sphere turn faster and faster.

Yep, what a scene. Felt like i was there.

 

[Randolph Freelander]

I enjoyed this movie. Despite that, this is like the one movie I ever talked through (more like, obnoxiously joked through) because many parts were so quiet. I retroactively started to feel guilty about it a few years ago. I've forgiven myself, moved on.

 

[Trey]

The point the movie was driving toward didn't sway me either way (not to mention that the real ending destroys the analogy entirely, robbing it of any practical impact), but I found the actual moment moment progression of the movie entertaining.

 

[Sevenfold]

OK to go.

Incredible film.

 

[Raven117]

Effing great movie....It tackles themes head on but with respect...and the movie actually goes somewhere....As in the whole ending sequence with worm holes.

They don't make them like that any more.

 

[Epcott]

Wonderful film... so many levels to it. But yeah, that second machine 😏 womp!

 

[PuppetMaster]

The movie is just ok. But the book is amazing and changed my life quite honestly. I was 18 when I first read it.


The movie does not even have one of the biggest plot twists from the book. Which I thought was hugely meaningful and added extra depth. Spoiler:

Spoiler

In the end she learns her father she loves so much is not her biological father. And the step father she is so resentful to is her actual father, because her mom had an affair or something.

 

[v1lla21]

Like the movie a lot. Saw it for the first time last year.

 

[gimmmick]

https://youtu.be/xvJrNDeogc8

 

[JettDash]

The movie, as usual, sucks compared to the book.

 

[Turbo Killer]

The movie made me cry like a baby, still does.

 

[Netherscourge]

And James Woods is a douchebag in the movie, which is fitting because he plays one in real life too.

 

[Hale-XF11]

It's the perfect movie experience. Still watch it at least once a year. Still makes me cry.

 

[sphinx]

The movie made me cry like a baby, still does.

It's the perfect movie experience. Still watch it at least once a year. Still makes me cry.

what part or what exactly makes you cry? I am curious

 

[Cipherr]

"First rule of government spending. Why have 1, when you can have 2 at twice the price!"

"They should have sent a poet"


Damn I love this movie. The end where the government officials talk about how her recorder

Spoiler

picked up 18 hours of static

was crazy to me. They knew, the assholes... lol

 

[SpecX]

"First rule of government spending. Why have 1, when you can have 2 at twice the price!"

"They should have sent a poet"


Damn I love this movie. The end where the government officials talk about how her recorder

Spoiler

picked up 18 hours of static

was crazy to me. They knew, the assholes... lol

Loved this movie and can still watch it to this day. That's one of the parts that stuck with me is the ending.

 

[Fancyarcher]

Good film, at least until the ending, and it becomes way too much of a "religion vs. science" thing. The ending's a real cop-out as well.

what part or what exactly makes you cry? I am curious

I imagine the scene where the dad dies, or when Jake Busey bombs the area, or the ending possibly. There are some emotional parts in that film.

 

[jiggle]

Amazing movie
The GOAT really
Foster was poifect
The drumlin part was such a good addition

The movie does not even have one of the biggest plot twists from the book. Which I thought was hugely meaningful and added extra depth. Spoiler:

Spoiler

In the end she learns her father she loves so much is not her biological father. And the step father she is so resentful to is her actual father, because her mom had an affair or something.

For me it was

Spoiler

pi

 

[Seductivpancakes]

One of my favorite sci fi movies. The ending as satisfying

Spoiler

after they realize she recorded all those hours of static in a few seconds.

 

[Turbo Killer]

what part or what exactly makes you cry? I am curious

When her dad dies makes me tear up, but when she meets the aliens and what they tell her just hits me because the movie shows her entire journey and how is she personally vindicated (not publicly).

 

[HStallion]

It was worth just so Stewie could fail at telling off Matthew McConaughey

 

[SeanC]

I feel this movie has aged like fine wine - not really appreciated at the time but I hear a lot more love for the past few years. I'm in that same boat, TBH. Liked it fine then, but really like if not outright love it now.

 

[DavidDesu]

Absolutely one of my favourite films. Carl Sagan, Robert Zemeckis, and Alan Silverstris wonderful score, and broaching subject areas I have pretty strong views on. Wow. Also pretty fantastic effects work in this film.

The scale of it blew me away when I got to see this on tv a few years after it came out. Didn't expect it to be so epic and with the twists and turns it takes. Loved the use of tv clips and splicing in Clintons press conference, made it feel so much better than "random fantasy President" you get in every other such film.


It's beautiful.

 

[mantidor]

I will totally Jodie Foster this type of behavior


Katya Zamolodchikova's favorite movie

My only problem with Katya loving this movie is that some people take it as proof in a way that the movie is bad because Katya is "random" and "weird", when there is nothing farther from the truth, Katya is a smart drag queen, so I die a little inside when she says that the movie is not that good because it feels like she caved in. Her reaction specially changed after the "everything wrong with" video on the movie ( which you can see here: https://www.google.com.br/url?q=htt...IIDTAA&usg=AFQjCNHzZR2i6O_6i8nbqxovjoslKZpbSQ).

The biggest flaw of the movie is really how much "zemeckis-ian" is, if that is a word, is cookie cutter Hollywood in places, simplyfing the complexity of science vs religion with some really cringey dialog, but the fact that Carl Sagan was helping production behind the scenes will always make this movie have a place in my heart. ( And even the EWW guys couldn't stop admiring two amazing scenes,

Spoiler

the long shot without cuts when Ellie's dad died and the moment Ellie goes on the trip

).

 

[Bob White]

Absolutely one of my favourite films. Carl Sagan, Robert Zemeckis, and Alan Silverstris wonderful score, and broaching subject areas I have pretty strong views on. Wow. Also pretty fantastic effects work in this film.

The scale of it blew me away when I got to see this on tv a few years after it came out. Didn't expect it to be so epic and with the twists and turns it takes. Loved the use of tv clips and splicing in Clintons press conference, made it feel so much better than "random fantasy President" you get in every other such film.


It's beautiful.

This move legit changed my life when I saw in as a kid. Couldn't agree more.

 

[AuthenticM]

I have yet to see this movie. I only caught the ending one time it played on TV.

 

[Vimes]

I assumed the whole "listen for signals, romantic conflicts between Matthew/Jodie" was going to be the whole movie. Nooooope.

I saw this movie in a high school science class and went in thinking it was a biopic of a real woman scientist.

Obviously I caught on eventually, but the first hour was an absolute fuckin head trip.

 

[Escape Goat]

The equivalency is crap. You could poke holes in any religion as they all copy each other, sespecially Babylonian mythology with the flood and son of a god, changes by Ronan emperors to copy the pagans, not to mention tell serious gaps in logic with the ark, Adam and eve, jess being born in the spring, etc. It all just falls apart under any reasonable examination. But for some reason this world view conveniently doesn't have to be reasonable.

"Do you love your dad? Prove it."

"Ok, we're going to need an mri and thousands of years of sociological studies which we have at the library."

 

[yanipheonu]

Man this film sticks with you.

I love that the alien's message, with all technology and knowledge, basically comes down to

Spoiler

"you're not ready, and anything we tell you won't really give you more happiness than what you already have

."

 

[Flo_Evans]

The equivalency is crap. You could poke holes in any religion as they all copy each other, sespecially Babylonian mythology with the flood and son of a god, changes by Ronan emperors to copy the pagans, not to mention tell serious gaps in logic with the ark, Adam and eve, jess being born in the spring, etc. It all just falls apart under any reasonable examination. But for some reason this world view conveniently doesn't have to be reasonable.

"Do you love your dad? Prove it."

"Ok, we're going to need an mri and thousands of years of sociological studies which we have at the library."

I pretty easy to prove a loving relationship with a real person. Imaginary friends not so much. I always took the hippie priest character as agnostic, he loves god or the idea of god but he can't prove he exsists.

I need to watch it again. Great flick. 20 years sheeeeeit. I feel old.

 

[Toa TAK]

I wonder how well the movie would be received if it came out today.

 

[Mr.Shrugglesツ]

I wonder how well the movie would be received if it came out today.

Nolan tried.

 

[TheVampire]

The end where the government officials talk about how her recorder

Spoiler

picked up 18 hours of static

was crazy to me. They knew, the assholes... lol

Yeah that annoyed me.
That was proof.

Too bad she didnt pick up on it.

 

[Kai Dracon]

The movie unapologetically demonstrates the damage that religion can do with humanity's freaked out religious crisis in response to first contact, complete with literal christian terrorists causing a terrible loss of life.

I always felt the ending (and "prove it" with relation to Eli's father) wasn't about some kind of false equivalency between faith and rationality. It more seemed like an acknowledgement that the search for meaning in life cannot be simply quantified, but it's vitally important to the human condition.

Eli was forced to admit

Spoiler

that should could have been delusional, it was logically possible. But she was also forced to admit there were aspects to her experience that were important beyond whether or not she could prove it factually happened.

If anything the message of the movie gets more into philosophy than a science vs religion debate.

 

[TAJ]

Nolan tried.

Yep. Interstellar was like they remade Contact and said "How can we make this dumb?".

 

[Servbot24]

Watched it for the first time last year and enjoyed it, but honestly its attempt at commentary on religion seemed very ham-fisted and off-puttingly oversimplified.

 

[Escape Goat]

The movie unapologetically demonstrates the damage that religion can do with humanity's freaked out religious crisis in response to first contact, complete with literal christian terrorists causing a terrible loss of life.

I always felt the ending (and "prove it" with relation to Eli's father) wasn't about some kind of false equivalency between faith and rationality. It more seemed like an acknowledgement that the search for meaning in life cannot be simply quantified, but it's vitally important to the human condition.

Eli was forced to admit

Spoiler

that should could have been delusional, it was logically possible. But she was also forced to admit there were aspects to her experience that were important beyond whether or not she could prove it factually happened.

If anything the message of the movie gets more into philosophy than a science vs religion debate.

Elie had a religious experience in the sense she communicated with something she couldn't explain or prove but knew what she experienced was real. Ellie had become the faithful and Palmer the skeptic. The fly in that ointment is that she recorded 18 minutes of static when her trip lasted mere seconds.

 

[Mr.Shrugglesツ]

Yep. Interstellar was like they remade Contact and said "How can we make this dumb?".

He also perfectly captured the emotions of watching eighteen hours of static.

 

[PlayALLtheGames]

One thing I believe is quite accurate about the movie is the notion that if we did receive signals from aliens which were a blueprint to creating a space-traveling device, some religious nutjob would try to destroy it. Not that I recall the movie going down this avenue but I'd expect it would be done citing the device was actually a trick by Satan.

That touches on another concept the movie made me think about a lot which is: if aliens themselves landed on Earth and showed us videos of the rest of the universe or perhaps planting organic material on Earth that became us, a lot of religious people would just claim they're tricks by the devil. Nothing will change the mind of those people ever which underscores just how badly your cognition is damaged by religious dogma.

 

[michaelius]

Interstellar felt like it turned into pseudo intelectual mambo-jumbo in the second half of the movie.

Elie had a religious experience in the sense she communicated with something she couldn't explain or prove but knew what she experienced was real. Ellie had become the faithful and Palmer the skeptic. The fly in that ointment is that she recorded 18 minutes of static when her trip lasted mere seconds.

I always assumed that the message in Contact was that some things can escape science because science is limited by our understanding of the world and state of knowledge.