Contact (Special Edition) [1997] | ![Contact (Special Edition) [1997]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51HZNSJSJYL._SL160_.jpg)
 enlarge | Director: Robert Zemeckis
Actors: Jodie Foster, Matthew Mcconaughey, Jena Malone, David Morse, Geoffrey Blake
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: £12.99
Buy New: £4.53
You Save: £8.46 (65%)
New (9) Used (7) from £2.87
Rating:  48 reviews
Sales Rank: 2751
Format: Digital Sound, Dolby, Pal, Subtitled, Widescreen
Languages: English (Subtitled), Arabic (Subtitled), English (Original Language)
Rating: Parental Guidance
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 144
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 5024165765678
ASIN: B00004CX8A
Theatrical Release Date: July 11, 1997
Release Date: September 25, 1998
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new. Dispatched within 2 working days from UK by first class post (airmail if shipping outside UK)- ensures speedy delivery.
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Amazon.co.uk Review
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, Contactdeserves recognition as a rare piece of big-budget studio film making on a personal scale. --Jim Emerson
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| Customer Reviews: Read 43 more reviews...
 Left feeling cheated. July 30, 2008
0 out of 8 found this review helpful
My brother warned me not to watch this film, so to annoy him I watched it with him. Overall it's well made with good acting and enjoyable. Theres a point in all films like this, that you start trying to guess whats going on. I started throwing suggestions at my brother with everyone came the reply "no it's not as good as that". This carried on untill the end when I could not believe what I saw. This film builds and builds only to ultimately dissapoint. I've warned you about the ending. If your at all cynical stay away, if pap is what your after lap some of this up.
 An open up your life type of film July 1, 2008
I saw this in the cinema once, and thought it was ok. Then a second time and thought it quite good. Then on DVD and thought , yes, this is the one. Its a type of movie where if you already have either a sci fi and/or astronomy interest, it draws you in, and makes you believe your own life can be better. Many clever scenes attach themselves to you and with a mixture of excellent actors and direction, it becomes totally believable that should this occurrence ever actually happen, it might just play out like this movie. With the present human exsisitance depending on "profit margins", its nice to think some people out there do think on a wider universal scale to save mankind from its greed and pathetic nature. Give it a chance. One of those films ahead of its time and thanks to Carl Sagan, a future classic.
Good film marred by juvenile argument March 23, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I had fond memories of seeing this film years ago when it first came out, but I guess I have matured a lot in the intervening time. My most recent viewing left me with a slightly bad taste in my mouth.
Taken as a whole, the film isn't too bad. It might be slow going in parts, but it progresses at an acceptable pace, and is especially interesting from the point of the machines construction. The special effects are pretty good given that it is 10 years old now, and I thought the alien contact scene was fairly well done. It alluded to advanced beings, yet the brief dialogue and nature of the meeting left a lot of possibilities open.
My main problem with this film is how it structured the conflict between religion and science. While the main protagonists play their parts to a fairly high standard; for seemingly intelligent people, their arguments were juvenile to say the least. A first year university student would be able to spot and name the fallacies which make an appearance as 'legitimate' argument in the scenes between Palmer Joss and Ellie Arroway. This has the effect of lowering the intelligence of the film.
So while I enjoyed the film, I feel the poor thought and weak argument given to the central theme pulled the film down as a whole, although even this area of weakness couldn't take away from the final 10-20 minutes.
Profound September 7, 2007
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
It's pleasing to see so many people with such great affection for this film. It has, after all, everything a mainstream move should have: brains, beauty, and a little bit of stardust.
The transcendentally brilliant Jodie Foster puts in a great performance as Ellie Arroway, a wide-eyed little girl in a woman's body. After the death of her father (David Morse), Ellie becomes a star-gazer, convinced there can be no God. It's a simple, convincing, and rather moving set up, always propelling the story, even when the big themes rear their head. In, say, Spielberg's hands, this emotional core might have become cloying. But director Robert Zemeckis and screenwriters James V Hart and Michael Goldenberg tell the story almost entirely from the point of view of a heroine who is essentially an innocent in a world of cynical agendas. So when Ellie takes her voyage, those downplayed final scenes feel true, not mawkish.
There are subtleties here which enrich the experience. Ellie is eventually blessed with her opportunity by the benign, paternal Hadden (John Hurt), who - unlike her own father - is able to cheat death. Also, why does Ellie not share Palmer's (Matthew McConaughey) fear of death? She purports to hold no fear of God; and yet, deep down, doesn't she truly wish to join her father, wherever he might be... in Heaven, perhaps? Like all good science fiction, Contact reinforces our belief in a power beyond science, rather than denying it.
Something Very Different and Unique July 12, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Contact is something completely different. It's belongs to the the ever diminishing group of sci-fi with brains. Because of this. It's very understandable that it gets negative feedback from the friends of no-brainer sci-fi. Actually i find it quite funny how many people have criticized the ending of Contact, saying that they were disappointed when they didn't see how the aliens looked like. I think that was one of the least important things in this movie. Still, i would've been disappointed if there had been some green alien with tentacles or one of those little grey Roswell aliens. Instead, they made an excellent choice and didn't show us the aliens at all. Really good and brave decision. In my opinion, if you were disappointed when you didn't see aliens, you didn't really understand this movie.
The religion vs. science setting is really interesting and realistic. It's fits extremely well to modern day life and i have never seen it done better in any film. The best thing about it is that the film doesn't take sides. It just portrays both of them and leaves the decision to the viewer.
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