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Contact (1997)
Front Cover Actor Back Cover
Jena Malone Young Ellie
David Morse Ted Arroway
Jodie Foster Eleanor Ann Arroway
Geoffrey Blake Fisher
William Fichtner Kent Clark
Sami Chester Vernon
Timothy McNeil Davio
Laura Elena Surillo
Matthew McConaughey Palmer Joss
Tom Skerritt David Drumlin
Thomas Garner Ian Broderick
Movie Details
Genre Science Fiction; Romance; Mystery
Director Robert Zemeckis
Producer Robert Zemeckis; Steve Starkey
Writer James V. Hart; Carl Sagan
Studio Warner Bros.
Language English
Audience Rating PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Running Time 150
Country USA
Color Color
Plot
The opening and closing moments of Robert (Forrest Gump) Zemeckis's Contact astonish viewers with the sort of breathtaking conceptual imagery one hardly ever sees in movies these day--each is an expression of the heroine's lifelong quest (both spiritual and scientific) to explore the meaning of human existence through contact with extraterrestrial life. The movie begins by soaring far out into space, then returns dizzyingly to earth until all the stars in the heavens condense into the sparkle in one little girl's eye. It ends with that same girl as an adult (Jodie Foster)--her search having taken her to places beyond her imagination--turning her gaze inward and seeing the universe in a handful of sand. Contact traces the journey between those two visual epiphanies. Based on Carl Sagan's novel, Contact is exceptionally thoughtful and provocative for a big-budget Hollywood science fiction picture, with elements that recall everything from 2001 to The Right Stuff. Foster's solid performance (and some really incredible alien hardware) keep viewers interested, even when the story skips and meanders, or when the halo around the golden locks of rising-star-of-a-different-kind Matthew McConaughey (as the pure-Hollywood-hokum love interest) reaches Milky Way-level wattage. Ambitious, ambiguous, pretentious, unpredictable--Contact is all of these things and more. Much of it remains open to speculation and interpretation, but whatever conclusions one eventually draws, Contact deserves recognition as a rare piece of big-budget studio filmmaking on a personal scale. --Jim Emerson
Personal Details
Seen It Yes
Collection Status In Collection
Purchase Price $14.98
Links Amazon US
Contact at Movie Collector Connect
Amazon US
Edition Details
Edition Special Edition
Format DVD
Region Region 1
Screen Ratio 2.35:1
Layers Single Side, Dual Layer
Barcode 085391504122
Release Date 12/30/1997
Subtitles English; French; Spanish
Packaging Snap Case
Audio Tracks English Dolby Digital 5.1
French Dolby Digital 2.0
No. of Disks/Tapes 1
Extra Features
Commentary Making Of... Movie Trailer Production Notes Scene Access Computer Animation Concepts, Special Effects Designs