A scientist who has devoted her life to discovering extraterrestrial life forms has her breakthrough and uncovers a secret message.
Carl Sagan: “The astronomer of the people”. Astrophysicist, author, researcher, and controversial figure regarding his scientific, political, and religious views.
Robert Zemeckis: The enormously talented director of films such as the Back to the Future franchise, Forrest Gump (1994), and Cast Away (2000).
Two and a half hours of lessons about life… on this planet or the next. Carl Sagan was there from day one to ensure everyone got the science right. And that everyone got a glimpse of what he “saw”. Of what he envisioned. Unfortunately, halfway there, cancer beat him and left his last breath. He was 62.
Fortunately, his adaptation, his vision, was left in the brilliant hands of Robert Zemeckis. Zemeckis grasped Sagan’s concept of the “Encyclopaedia Galactica,” which is based on Isaac Asimov’s science fiction novel Foundation, and delivered a heartfelt drama about a girl who turned into a woman with the brightest of minds who wouldn’t stop until she discovered the truth.
The truth that science should be seeking. And not at the expense of people. The same truth that faith in something higher than ourselves should be doing. And again, not at the expense of people. Contact is a sci-fi/drama that doesn’t patronise, exploit, manipulate or try to impress with fake, non-coherent, uneducated scientific jargon. It takes time to find a middle ground between science and religion and make it not about who is right and who isn’t but about respecting fellow human beings who happen to have a different view of the “cosmos” than ourselves.
It is amazing how the real-life discovery of an arctic meteorite from Mars coincided with the film’s shooting and how Zemeckis grasped the opportunity and adopted Bill Clinton’s actual interview, which looks like it is custom-tailored to the film’s discovery. Luck and talent are beyond understanding here.
Lastly, I find it really interesting that in a film that is primarily sci-fi and has so much to offer our way of thinking, the best shot (in my opinion anyway) is a young Ellie running up the stairs after having found her dad lying on the floor to get his medicine.
Contact… One of the best political, social, and humane science fiction you will ever get to watch.
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