Contact, 1997

Dr. Eleanor Arroway has spent her life searching for truth in the study of radio astronomy. Palmer Joss has spent his searching for truth through faith in God. When Ellie discovers a fantastic & unbelievable message from an extraterrestrial intelligence, they and everyone on Earth will be forced to challenge their own believes In the inevitable first contact, will the people of Earth be able to find a compromise between science and faith? Based on a Novel by Carl Sagan. Jodie Foster carries this film, it is her intensity that makes a good film into a very good film. It is a 5 STAR film in my humble opinion.

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Here's why Contact is so good: it does not come with an agenda. It is not for Science or Religion. It is simply asking questions. Foster is the scientist, and McConaghey is the priest.The premise of the film is that Foster's scientist discovers a transmission from an alien race. The content of this transmission is a blueprint for a spaceship that can somehow travel faster than light and will take them to meet the alien race.Of course, proof positive of an alien race would challenge the fundamental tenets of just about every religion on Earth. And in the film, that's just what it does.There are so many scenes of brilliant filmmaking that it is difficult to choose examples to illustrate my points. But take this one for example:McConaghey's priest character is on Larry King Live talking about God, aliens and technology. He speaks mainly about how our technological world has distanced spiritual people from their God…or kept people from ever finding God in the first place. As we watch the scene between McConaghey and King, the camera cuts to a shot of the earth from outer space. We continue to hear the interview, but we hear it as it might sound bouncing from satellite to satellite, as the transmission is beamed around the world. The filmmaker's (director Robert Zemeckis and screenwriter Carl Sagan) do not come out and tell us anything with dialogue; they allow the close viewer to see their point: the very technology that McConoghey is damning is the very means that is allowing people to hear his words! And there are tons of scenes like that...both sides keep making astoundingly valuable points, and sometimes make the same points and around and around we go until we come to a startling realization: science and religion are different, but they are close to the same. Watch the film for the reasons why...

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