I Believe...

Rating: 10/10 (23 April 2002)

Over a lifetime of viewing, we are variously amused, bemused, insulted and less frequently overwhelmed by films. It has been 5 years since I first saw Contact and here I am at some ungodly hour moved to express the real love I have for this film.
Not since Kubrick has a film struck a chord so deep within me and engaged me in so much self-debate about those larger questions ... are we alone? ... do you (should you) believe? ... is faith a characteristic that ultimately brings religion and science closer together? ... are we all seeking the same answers?
Carl Sagan was the prototypical pragmatist. In his work as an astronomer and through his various commentaries, he came to be seen as a great respecter of fact and enthusiastic seeker of truth, a realist who saw SETI as a valid scientific extension of that hypothesis-based approach. Yet, in the end, the 'science' of Contact proves not to be enough and we are left to believe or to doubt, to have faith in the protagonist and her assertions despite a lack of any conclusive evidence or to chuckle along with the Hirt character.
We know the fundamental importance of faith in all things religious but has any vehicle other than this film ever made a more literate argument for the importance of faith in things scientific?
"Did your father love you?" Prove it!