Class notes on the movie, "Contact."

OVERVIEW

"Contact"—Rated PG
Based on a novel by Carl Sagan
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
Jodi Foster as Dr. Eleanor (Ellie) Arroway
Matthew McConaughey as Palmer Joss
David Morse as the father

One reason I like to discuss "Contact" with young people is because it is about love, death, and God. That’s something most sci-fi films don’t do. The other reason is because this movie seems to be about spiritual quests in a postmodern world. Ellie doesn’t believe in God; her friend, Palmer Joss, does. Hollywood allows this unusual discussion to go on throughout the movie.

To do justice to any discussion of this movie, find some "Contact" buff. There are quite a few around. If you don’t know any, use the Internet. I don’t know enough about this sci-fi and this particular film to help you adequately here.

I like to begin a discussion of this film with the "X-Files", the TV series and film. I do so, first of all, because the "X-Files" has been popular around the world with young people. And secondly, because of its theme: "The truth is out there." Post-modernism tends to reject authority, science, any logical thought system, and a self-revealing or specific God. Feelings are important and relationships are crucial. There is a cosmic, worldly optimism among post-moderns that distinguishes them from cynical moderns. The two characters in the X-Files do not share a common style or faith, but they are looking for truth out there.

Throughout "Contact", Ellie is looking for a relationship, for extra-terrestrial truth, and for contact with her father, who died when she was young. She struggles with authority, bureaucracy, and doctrinaire beliefs. It is difficult to determine whether Ellie’s persistent quest in this movie is spiritual or scientific. Is it a quest for transcendence one almost has to feel in such a vast universe? Is it a replacement for faith in God?

Many millennial young people, or Generation Y as they are called, do not want to be denied truth. For them the discussion of this film may open up aspects of their spiritual needs they have not fully recognized.

What questions about love, death, and God would you raise with young people from this film? What clips from this film or other media might you use? Could you use this as part of a talk to young people? In a smaller discussion group, how would you get the discussion going? Would you allow the discussion to go in directions you had not planned? What would lead you to evaluate the discussion as highly successful, and how would you follow it up?

Dean Borgman cCYS