CONTACT by reginaroadie

OTHER SCIENCE FICTION SERIES

CONTACT

POSTED BY: REGINAROADIE
UPDATED: Sunday, August 7, 2005 07:35
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VIEWED: 2132
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Friday, August 5, 2005 2:04 PM

I was just re-watching the trailer for this movie online, and I got curious. Are there any Browncoats here who've seen the movie and love it?

Personally, I think it's one of the best "serious" sci-fi movies ever. I think it's like the first sci-fi movie since THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL that really took the idea of "what would it be like if we were contacted by aliens" and ran with it as serious as possible without it degenerating into another alien invasion flick. I saw this movie when I was 12, and even though it came out the same summer as MEN IN BLACK, it really captured my imagination.

I loved the opening shot where it starts out in space looking on Earth as you hear the almost deafening chatter of the radio signals being broadcast and how the further it went back, the more old and dated the signals became until like you hit Pluto and it's silence and you just keep going until you see the whole galaxy. I love the story of Jodie Foster's character and how through her, the movie is really about faith and belief in the unexplainable. And the whole build-up to when the capsule is dropped and she goes on the biggest ride in the 'verse. I know I'd be shitting my pants while screaming "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I could never understand why the South Park guys hated this movie. Not many sci-fi flicks can successfully pull of blending sci-fi with religion with real logisitcal science and none of that made up stuff.

So who here likes the flick?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

And wow! Hey! What's this thing suddenly coming towards me very fast? Very very fast. So big and flat and round, it needs a big wide sounding name like ... ow ... ound ... round ... ground! That's it! That's a good name - ground! I wonder if it will be friends with me?

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Saturday, August 6, 2005 1:10 PM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!

Got the book, got the movie, absolutely love them. The opening scene is, imo, the most powerful in all of cinimatic history. I'm a huge fan of Sagan's work. Like this movie? Hell, I love it.

Southpark guys? What the hell do they know ? Being class clowns is all well and good, but there's not much there in their skulls beyond fart jokes and a jr. high mentality. Such things like CONTACT are well beyond them, so they deal w/ it the only way their immature minds can.

And as for life 'out there', I'm in total agreement to what Sagan and the folks at SETI propose. Even IF there's a race of super intelligent aliens out there, they died long ago or won't find out about us until long after we're gone and our star is dead. Cheerful, huh?

" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "

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Saturday, August 6, 2005 4:35 PM

SGTGUMP

I love that movie. The only thing I couldn't figure out is why they didn't try the thing again. They have the machine and they still have the capsule. I wonder why they didn't send someone else, at least to see if Ellie was telling the truth.

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Saturday, August 6, 2005 5:38 PM

THIEFJEHAT

I'm in my late 20's. My father is a high school astronomy teacher. When I was very young, Sagan's opus "Cosmos" aired on PBS and my father taped every episode to use in his classroom activities with students. Back then (1980) VHS was really the only way you could capture anything.

I recall growing up and being utterly enthralled with Cosmos. When Sagan wrote Contact I of course read it and loved it. The film is wonderful, though it leaves out many important themes and scenes the book explores totally.

And to clarify, the radio signals in the opening do not stop at pluto. Pluto is about 9 light hours from Earth so a person recieving radio signals on Pluto would be hearing transmissions from 9 hours prior. The film starts with you hearing modern brodcasts as you leave the solar system. As you accelerate faster and start to pass the nearest stars like Barnards Star and Alpha Centuri you're hearing broadcasts about 3 years old. Then at 25 light years you begin passing more and more "Local neighborhood" stars and the brodcasts are of 60's quality. As you get much further out...at around 90 light years the radio casts are now the earilest ones from the turn of the century..and then silence.

But in this silence you keep going and going....faster and faster until you finally pass through the veil of the Orion spiral arm of the milky way. It totally hammers home how HUGE everything is. It is simply one of the finest openings to a film I have ever seen.

Do not fear me. Ours is a peaceful race, and we must live in harmony.

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Saturday, August 6, 2005 10:00 PM

BEATLE

I just watched this again, it has been playing on cable lately. Great movie.
I also just read the book for the first time recently (the book explains why they don't use the machine again)and I was stunned by the twist at the end.

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Sunday, August 7, 2005 4:33 AM

CHRONICTHEHEDGEHOG

Quote:

Southpark guys? What the hell do they know ? Being class clowns is all well and good, but there's not much there in their skulls beyond fart jokes and a jr. high mentality. Such things like CONTACT are well beyond them, so they deal w/ it the only way their immature minds can.

Gotta say you're seriously underestimating the creators of South Park, they really are incredibly smart and deal with a lot of serious issues. They just make them fun and easy to understand, half of South Park is actually trying to get you to form an opinion on something they feel is important.
Don't write them off because they like fart jokes. I love fart jokes. I love contact. They're not mutually exclusive

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Sunday, August 7, 2005 5:46 AM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!

How am I underestimating them? I just don't think that it's necessary to bring every gorram thing down to the lowest common denominator in order to make a point. They're brilliant? Yeah, ok..I'll admit, they've done some great stuff. But that doesn't mean I have to bow down and worship their spin on every topic. IMO, when folks like the S.P. guys or Howard Stern cross the line for the sake of crossing the line, it becomes beyond tedious.

" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "

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Sunday, August 7, 2005 5:51 AM

CHRONICTHEHEDGEHOG

Quote:
Originally posted by AURaptor:
How am I underestimating them? I just don't think that it's necessary to bring every gorram thing down to the lowest common denominator in order to make a point. They're brilliant? Yeah, ok..I'll admit, they've done some great stuff. But that doesn't mean I have to bow down and worship their spin on every topic. IMO, when folks like the S.P. guys or Howard Stern cross the line for the sake of crossing the line, it becomes beyond tedious.

" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "

You're right in that it's not necessary to bring everything down to the lowest common denominator, but I was just trying to say they understand things well enough to bring it down, I wasn't trying to get you to "bow down and worship their spin on every topic"

Personally, I don't think they've ever done anything that crosses a line that didn't need crossing to make their point. Can't comment on Howard Stern, never seen him.

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Sunday, August 7, 2005 7:35 AM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!

Quote:
Personally, I don't think they've ever done anything that crosses a line that didn't need crossing to make their point.

Guess that's why people tend to have different opinions.

" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "

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