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Since John Hamilton brought up the subject of CONTACT, I'm sending my
views on it. What is great about the movie is that it does make
people think about these issues (religion and science), altho of
course everyone sees the movie differently.
And didn't Madden look just like Do (Bo, Applewhite)?!
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Message-ID: <33C91437.1084@twcw.com>
Date: Sun, 13 Jul 1997 10:45:27 -0700
From: Julie Fisher <fisher@twcw.com>
Reply-To: fisher@twcw.com
Organization: HOME
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To: ex-tian@infidels.org
Subject: CONTACT
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Saw the movie yesterday, enjoyed it alot, and recommend it to
everyone. I'd like to see it do well at the theatres, for Carl and
to show that people do have an interest in something besides action
movies, comedies, and sex.
I didn't finish the book so I don't know if the movie is true to the
book. I will be checking that out.
Here are some of the problems I had with the story:
The Cheap Shot (as Dwayne called it): I interpreted it a little
differently than Dwayne but the essence is the same. Jodie is saying
she needs proof to believe in God, he says did you love your father,
she says yes, and he says "prove it" and the movie leaves it at that as
if to say that she can't prove that she loved her father but she did,
and so even tho nobody can prove it, its also true
that God exists. There just isn't always evidence of the truth. Of
course she probably could prove she loved her father, but anyway the
existence of God is something that is a lot more "out there" than a
daughter's love for her father and requires some pretty good proof and
there certainly seems like there should be some for such a major fact!
So it is frustrating that this scene in the movie just ends like
this guy has made his point. And then it turns out that this is the
point of the movie! which is the next problem:
THE TRUTH WITH NO EVIDENCE: Jodie's experience with the aliens is
handled in such a way that she cannot give any evidence that it really
happened. That leaves her, the scientist, trying to say that she knows
something is real even tho she has no evidence. The other people (all
religious) don't believe her because THERE IS NO EVIDENCE! Haha.
BUT:
This is so contrived: No one even mentions repeating the experiment to
verify results. After all the time and trouble and hope that has gone
into this effort to meet aliens, they just drop the subject without any
effort to see if another person could confirm her results or other
measurements could be taken (like measuring the growth of hair) to show
that more time had passed during the experiment.
AND IT IS RIDICULOUS that the aliens (whose purpose in bring others
to Vega is show them that they are not alone) would do it in such a
way that their message will only be believed by the one person who
actually experiences it! ALL THIS IS JUST A CONTRIVANCE.
But, like I said it was fun, had a good pace, and you can dance to it.
Julie
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