Topic: Contact (1997)

[lyonsden5]

OK Jon. I get your point. Using the analogy of the people and the bunnies puts it in a different perspective.

perhaps the passion of her character is coming more from seeing her comfort zone crumbling and responding more of in a panic than anything else. When her funding was cut, she panicked, jumped in the jeep and tracked down Tom Skerritt. When she once again got turned down for new funding she panicked and "went off" at the people sitting there. I can buy that.

I agree with your  comment as well. Just goes to show how we look at Men and Women differently when it comes to relationships. He would have simply been labeled a dog had he treated her like that.

So.... what's up with the compass

[Najemikon]

I do think that Hadden enjoys being in that position. I may be making too much of it, but I felt like Ellie was making him a God-like substitute. Minimal contact, lives in the air, can provide everything she needs, knows everything about her. Maybe ...  

I thought after my last post, about how Ellie's most constant and trusted relationship is with a blind man. Does she feel an affinity with him because she trusts what she can hear more than what she can see? Faith sometimes has to be blind because there is no proof.

So.... what's up with the compass

Good question. I know it took on massive significance at the end because it drew her away from her death trap chair, but any keepsake from a lover would have done that. It did show her softer side that she kept that, but not the phone number. But why a compass in particular?

[lyonsden5]

To continue...

As I said earlier, I'm amazed by the vastness of the universe and the endless possibilities of what could be out there. This movie of course touches on that. As Andy pointed out, just the opening scene where the camera keeps pulling back farther and farther is incredible. Reminded me of another great scene that shows just how limitless the universe is, the last scene of Men In Black. Once the camera pulls all the way back it turns out the "universe" was contained inside a marble.  I mean C'mon! How great was that. Blows my mind still. Ellie's obsession with what is out there has to be shared by many people such as myself (of course not to the same extent). I know that is one reason I love a lot of Science Fiction, a lot of it deals with space travel, aliens, etc. Don't even get me going on time travel. Love that one. 


As far as the 1st contact with another race, I can't see that as being in the form of "directions on how to build a device that would allow one person to contact them". This was explained in the movie though, which helped make it more believable. I believe when Ellie asked why just one person and why just a short trip her father said (paraphrasing) "I don't know. That's the way it's always been done." He explained his race did not build the device, just found it and keeps sharing the same message with other races. Worked for me.

Based on the after effect Ellie's trip had on the humans here on earth (when Ellie returned) it sure looked like an event such as this would create plenty questions and enthusiasm. Enough to create a ripple effect and start things in motion toward the end goal where our race would join others in space. 

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I find it interesting some of you said the movie was about faith and not religion. I do understand there is a difference. I am not sure that I agree with you though.

• When Drumlin made his farewell speech he said he was representing his God. A very religious statement.
• Palmer is a religious man who only dropped out of the seminary so he could score with the babes.
• At every decision making meeting shown (and those not shown but hinted to) a religious member was there
• The decision on who was to go had everything to do with someone who believed in God.
• They even had an ultra right-winged conservative senator (Rob Lowe) chime in at one point

There could be and would be many references toward faith in a religious movie. There does not have to be any references about God or religion in a faith based movie. You can have faith without religion but you can't have religion without faith.

Talk more later. Love to hear (read) what some of the others think

[SailorRipley]

I find it interesting some of you said the movie was about faith and not religion. I do understand there is a difference. I am not sure that I agree with you though.

The way I see it, yes, there are several allusions to religion in the film; however, the bigger issue is Ellie's quest, which you could say is based more on her own personal faith, not a religious one. Wisely, the film avoids to single out a religion in these allusions, because then it would not be universal at all and then the film would be in big trouble. Which religion to choose? When Palmer talks to Ellie he does so in terms of faith, he's not trying to push his own religion into Ellie's mind; more like it, he's trying for her to believe. More faith than religion, I'd say.

I understand your point, but I think these allusions are just sidenotes to the central plot.

[Najemikon]

Exactly what I was thinking. Also, this is why I posted my earlier comments about the bottle. I realise reading back that I posted out of context and didn't finish it off. Sorry. 

In the end it is relevant because I believe the bottle represents faith, but the pieces are the different religions. Different cultures take their piece and try to make it fit, but it never will, because like shards of glass can't fit back together, nor can the contradictions between religions. But faith is always essentially the same.

Ellie, like a lot of people, always had faith I think and didn't realise it because it's taught via a constructed religion that doesn't allow for unanswered questions.

That's perhaps unfair. The Bible does answer questions if your faith allows it to and to be honest, I do envy those who have been able to do that. Her faith was based on science though so she saw endless contradictions, based on anger (being an orphan with the only explanation being "we're not meant to always understand").

[Touti]

Jon and I think the film deals with faith but not religion and Rick believes it does deal with religion.  I think the correct word here is spirituality, not religions.  It deals with faith, God and wether Ellie believe in god or not, but it also deals with spirituality as opposed to organised religions.

The basis of all scientific research is "I do not know".  Scientists are curious in nature, they became scientists because they want to know, they want to understand, they want to check beyond what's apparant and common belief.  Religion on the other hand asks you to blindly believe ("the ways of God ar impenetrable....").  This is completely incomptable with searching because "I do not know".  It is not however incompatible to be a scientist, have a spirituality and even believe in God.  Creationism and Evolution are incompatible theories but all we have to back Creationism is man created documents, the bible was put together by the Catholics 400 years after Jesus' death.  Unfortunately, modern society still does not allow for one to believe in God without religion, there is no "place" for people like that and most will simply say that they don't believe in God.

Does Ellie believe in God ?  I don't know but she can't accept any religion, she can't accept to adhere to something that says you have to believe because you're told so.  That however doesn't prevent her from having spirituality which is revealed toward the end of the movie when she says there's no words to describe the beauty of it and that they should have sent a poet. 

That comment in itself is quite interesting because in a way it brings us back to her quest for recognition, "There's no words, no words....poetry.....they should have sent a poet".  Those words say "I won't be able to describe that, I won't know how to tell them.  I won't know how to report this".  It's interesting because she was sent as an ambassador of humanity but never in the movie does she talk about that, she never asks herself "What am I gonna tell them, how will a describe earth and humanity, where will I start ?".  She was not chosen in the first place because she wanted to go as a scientist and not as an ambassador of all beliefs and yet, when she gets to go in the end she's not at all concerned about it.  She never discusses it with Palmer who would be the best person to advise her on that.  In her mind she's not going to introduce humanity, she's going to get scientific information.

A note on her close friendship with the blind man (forgot his name).  I don't think it has anything to do with him being blind.  I think they simply developed a relationship during the years after Arecibo because they worked together and both hate Drumlin and most of the scientific community who thinks they're a bunch of clowns.  Later in the film, after the discovery of the signal, she's probably grateful to him because she discovered the signal but he's the one who found there was more than prime number in it.

[Najemikon]

Quick resurrection for Contact! I stumbled on some comments on another site about Contact and one poster raised a point he didn't like. Personally, I do like it, but I thought it was interesting.

Throughout the film, nothing is pure science-fiction. It is all presented as science fact. At the hearing, when Kitz says it could have been faked, he's right. The viewer is allowed to interpret what has happened as they wish; the plans could have been fed to Ellie as a hoax and her experience in the machine could have been generated by herself.

But for one fact and this is where the other poster had an issue. Kitz is later told by Constantine that the 18 hours of static was recorded. This seems to abandon ambiguity and settle firmly in the "it definitely happened" camp.

Personally, I hadn't realised this before, but I like it. It still isn't proof, but it's a glimmer of a reason to keep looking. Everyday, someone somewhere experiences something that cannot be explained by science. There is still no evidence to the contrary, but there's still a hint we don't know everything.