Contact

I don’t remember when I first saw “Contact” in its entirety but these days, I find the film powerful and realistic to an extent. Robert Zemeckis was a good director for this film because I find that whenever he uses special effects, many of them are seamless such as on “Forrest Gump” and “Cast Away”. The use of real TV and political personalities add to the realism but I can also understand how controversial that can be. “Contact” is a successful drama because of conflict, characters and acting. One can liken its story unto "2001: A Space Odyssey". There are many character conflicts in “Contact” that make the story well written. We sympathize with Ellie as the lead character and that is important for a story to succeed. The casting was well done also.

Jodie Foster’s acting was fine in this movie. She performed well a great leading character. Despite her intelligence and success, Ellie’s life is not easy in the least. She loses her parents and feels guilt for her father’s death. She tries to search for extraterrestrial life only to have her funding cut by Drumlin. It takes a long time to find other funding and upon discovering the Vegan signal, Drumlin takes a lot of the credit from Ellie. After her journey, the scientific and political world will not accept her testimony. Ellie has gone through so many trials in her life that the audience empathizes her. This is paramount for a lead character in a drama. Another reason we can relate to her is that the motivation of her work is to find out why we are here and this is a major question for so many people in the world today. Underlying that is her desire to see her father again as shown when she tries to talk to him through the radio. My favorite moment in Jodie Foster’s acting is when she sees the terrorist and her headset mic drops a little. Drumlin is always there to halt Ellie or interrupt her and this makes him a very good antagonist in the film. We don’t like him at all. Another performance in the film that is noteworthy is that of John Hurt as Hadden. He is almost unrecognizable because of his appearance and acting. He creates an intelligent, powerful but intimidating man. His ability to disappear behind his costume and performance is something I have noticed from “Harry Potter” and “Indiana Jones”. I wonder if there is a reason why William Fichtner’s character is named Kent Clark. His hearing is superhuman. James Woods did a good job in his role also. His reaction to the Hitler footage makes me laugh every time.

There are other reasons why the film is good. The opening shot is a reference to the short film “Powers of Ten” but because Zemeckis is a master of the long shot, he knows how to tell a story with the shot. The loud music cut contrasts the silence during the opening credits and slowly as we move away from the earth, the sound becomes quieter. This sequence helps illustrate to the audience that the first message an alien might receive from earth would be from a time in our history when we weren’t concerned with contacting another world. Zemeckis uses special effects creatively for editing and during a shot such as when the camera moves through a window or the shot when Ellie runs to get the medicine. The moments that we see Clinton in the film appear flawless. The Vegan sound is quite powerful and unique. I love the scene when they are trying to understand why a star so young has intelligent life. It is so funny. The film does address the subject of science vs. God. Without delving into it too much, the film seems to say that both science and religion can co-exist. That is what I believe. Not only do I believe that God has created other people on other planets but I also believe that scientific discoveries can teach us about the universe that God has created for us. Science proves that God is real. The “journey” is well done. You see amazing things but I like the contrast. At one point, Ellie has to use her flashlight to see and you can only hear the sounds she is making. A few moments earlier, she was visually and audibly overloaded as were we.

While the film is much better the first time you see it, I still like it. “Contact” feels more like a drama than a science fiction film and that is because of the acting, characters and story conflict. The realism created by Zemeckis adds to my case. I feel that this film could only have been made by one of the better directors in Hollywood and Zemeckis is one of them for sure. “Contact” makes you think and feel. You need that in a good movie.

3.5 Stars