CONTACT 1997
A film review by Timothy Voon
Copyright 1997 Timothy Voon
4 :-) :-) :-) :-) for the most thought provoking movie I've seen this
year
Making contact with an alien race doesn't come as easily as "E.T. phone home" anymore. This reflective movie directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey, prods the human skull with a radar dish full of science and religion. Ever looked up at the night sky and wondered to yourself, quote "What a great waste of space"? Well it is, and this movie attempts to give some meaning to those pondering whether man is truly alone in the universe.
Behind every motive lies an underlying reason, which drives a heroine to become great. In the case of the Scientist (Foster), the search for the meaning of her existence is the same as her quest to find her dead parents. The orphan, whose fascination with the universe begins with a low frequency radio and telescope, sets out to reach the furthest stars, in the furthest galaxies, to confirm what man has always feared or fantasised. She listens and watches from dusk till dawn, for a sign, a message that carries with it the same vain hope of a child wishing her parents would return from the grave. Patience is a product of time, not relativity, and the patient Scientist is rewarded with a signal from Vega.
To every action there must be an equal and opposite reaction - not so. For every agnostic scientist there lies in wait a thousand religious gnostics. Representing the unbalanced proportion of this equation of beliefs, is the Reverend (McConaughey). Can God and Science coexist? Does placing faith in one necessarily rule out the existence of the other? There are two sides to this search for the truth, but enough room for both sides to come out smiling. After all, the universe is a big, big place.
E=MC2. Extra-terrestrial = making contact twice. If you receive a message from an alien, it is only polite to reply. Close to a trillion dollars is spent on an amusing looking gadget reminiscent of the nucleus of an atom. Drop a small pod in the centre of revolving twirling rings, and leave the rest to speculation and imagination. I had a good laugh when I first saw the contraption. "That thing is not taking anyone anywhere", I said aloud, but perhaps to a hospital bed with a fracture or two.
The Quest to make first contact, gets as political as politicians on heat. The Scientist stands by her belief that there is no God, in front of an international selection committee. Her application to be earth's messenger to the stars is rejected. However, the right hand of religion which strikes her cheek, also carries a fanatical left, which ironically allows her to journey where no man has gone before.
The Scientist returns without an incredulous story of space and time travel. She has only a sense of wonder, and feelings of a glorious encounter of the millennium kind to share with others. An international enquiry is assembled to judge her story, but brushes aside the truth as a mere figment of her imagination. At this moment, the Scientist realises that she is asking others to believe her words on faith alone, a concept which is as foreign as believing in God; and those who have no qualms about believing in a supreme being, are unable to believe the tale of her miraculous journey.
So in this meeting place, Science asks Religion to Believe, but ironically Religion turns her face. So my longwinded after thought is that perhaps if the Science had more faith in God, and Religion had more faith in Science, there may be harmony on the third rock from the Sun.
Exceptionally thought-provoking material, splendidly directed, and visually sensational. Well done.
Timothy Voon e-mail: stirling@netlink.com.au
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