One of the very best science fiction movies of the 90's

Rating: Null/10 (14 June 2000)

When I first saw Contact, I breathed a breath and thought that finally did they make a very interresting sci-fi movie with real people and with a story that makes so much more sense than all those other stupid sci-fi movies out there nowadays, like Independance Day.
An alien civilization contacts earth and instructs us how to build an interstellar transport device, so that we can come to them. It is a very original idea. We meet Ellie (Jodie Foster) who dreams of reaching the stars all her life, motivated by the loss of her mother and later her father. We see how her obsession almost destroys her when all her wishes and dreams become real. There is life out there.
Then the film take a dramatic turn and all the world is presented. We see the American government trying to make it a matter that is better to be classified for national security (I almost laughed when I heard that). There are the religious fanatics that say that Jesus has returned and other religious fanatics saying that the Devil is tempting us with this. There is even a group of new nazis that's screaming that Hitler is alive, because of the signal containing the plans to the transport device was transmitted with the television transmission from the 1936 olympic games when was Hitler making his speech.
The movie so expertly realizes the social hysteria created by contact other than us. Both from the scientists, who say that we should examine the unknown, and other people, who say that we should leave the unknown alone.
And finally there is the ultra rich person (John Hurt) who can have transmitted and made all this happen just for his personal amusement.
There is so much going on in this movie. The special effect are so subtly inserted into it that we hardly notice them until at the end. I especially love the effect when young Ellie runs for the medicine cabinet after her father has collapsed. We hardly notice it, because it so subtle and we are so involved in the story and the character. That is what special effects is supposed to do, in my opinion. Not have a bunch of stuff that are obviously effects and have a thin story around it. The effects are supposed to help and assist the story and character, not the other way around.
When the movie ended I was left thinking of how magnificent this movie was. It had almost the same effect as 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' and 'Metropolis' (although very different films).