Contact - 1997 Film Distributed by Warner Bros.
Contact, a film by Robert Zemeckis is an amazing Science Fiction / Drama. It is a movie that talks about Religion and Spirituality, and Science. The reason why I think it is one of the best movies of our generation is because it poses multiple questions that are important to us. The first question is, “Are we alone in the Universe?” The movie centers around a signal that a scientist listens to that comes from deep space. Inside that signal are blueprints and instructions for creating a massive machine that can send a single human in a futuristic transport. I’m not going to give any more away about the story because I don’t want to spoil it. But the way that the story is presented is extremely cool and well done. They use footage of Bill Clinton when he was President and make it look like he is talking about the discovery. The film also uses CNN and other realistic looking broadcasts to give the movie a very believable feel. There is great pacing in this long movie and you stay interested in the main character who is played by an excellent actress, Jodie Foster. The acting by all the people in the film is top notch. One of the antagonists, played by James Woods is very funny and believable. The comments that he makes are perfectly timed and carry a lot of weight. There is a scene where James Woods sees an image decoded from the signal and he says, “…ok” in such a way that is totally hilarious. He basically takes the words right out of your mouth.
Contact is such a great movie because you care so much about the film. You care deeply about the main character, you care about her friends, you care about their mission, you worry for the main character’s safety. The film gets you emotionally involved in the story and never lets you go. The storytelling is top tier and for a movie that isn’t an action movie with gunshots and blood, it is amazingly entertaining and fun. I have seen Contact several times and I am debating watching it again because of this review. It is that good. If you are a religious person or a scientific person, or both, you will probably like this movie because it covers several key arguments in those fields.
The energy buildup and excitement in this movie is fantastic. There are scenes where it looks like tons of people are celebrating the news of alien contact.