![[Contact]](/contact/1332ba5/contact.gif)
Your Comments:
Al <contact@turning-pages.com>
Saturday, October 17, 1998 at 09:27:40 (PDT)
Dan, aren't you confusing the movie with the book?
Dan The Burke <Burke@NocturnalE.com>
Friday, October 09, 1998 at 06:13:15 (PDT)
Just watched the video. What happened to the pendulum
scene where Dr. Arroway demonstrates the Pendulum
non-increasing amplitude principle???
Am I crazy or was it in the original?
Thanks.
Dan
William Kitz <nightshift1@msn.com>
Monday, August 03, 1998 at 14:12:46 (PDT)
I'm researching the surname "KITZ". Where did the
name "KITZ" come from used in the movie. Did the
auther know someone named Kitz?
Ken <freeken@usa.net>
Thursday, July 02, 1998 at 16:32:14 (PDT)
Is there a God? Is there not a God? I've heard
it all before. What is God, is the question I want
answered. Most sci-fi fans are familiar with E.
VonDaniken and his off-the-wall theories of the
ancient astronauts. I read Cosmos for the first
time, when I was 8. It has been a major influence
on my life. I have not read Contact, but I will
ASAP. Sagans idea's are the most valid I have seen
concerning the possibility of interstellar travel.
I would greatly appreciate specific information
concerning the physical princepals of "the machine".
I have my own theories and will discuss them with a
qualified person. I will not respond to theological
discussions. Thank you.
Gloria Santos <al590564@mail.cegs.itesm.mx>
Sunday, June 28, 1998 at 15:17:17 (PDT)
A Proof that god exists?
Let's just look around us. There is all these
beautiful things that men didn't create... I
don't believe they were created at random.
I perceive my very own life as a proof that
God exists. You cannot ask god to prove that
he exists because he's constantly "existing".
There is a difference, I think, in "believing"
in God and "understanding" God. I think Ellie
and all of us belive in a God "as we understand him."
If our perception is different from what others
"know" about God, then we are said to be less
spiritual.
How do I prove my own existance? I live. I
don't know exactly if my life is real or imaginary.
We have this: "LIFE IS ______" And we are all
trying to fill in the blank.
What is there's nothing to fill in that blank. What
if the sentence is supposed to be "LIFE IS."?
You don't need any proof. All we need is to believe in ourselves.
All you need is Love.
Al <contact@turning-pages.com>
Thursday, April 30, 1998 at 18:19:47 (PDT)
Bruce: "How do I prove to you that I even exist?
How do you prove to me that you exist?"
The "proof" is self-evident, because we are
interacting.
Sure, you can go into existentialism
or semantics and play
around, but the point here
is that "proving" the existence
of things
like God or love is a lot trickier. We can't
see
them. We can't touch them. We can't measure them.
Bruce Bierman <BruceBierman@webtv.net>
Tuesday, March 24, 1998 at 12:10:19 (PST)
For some reason, my comment did not go throgh
except for the first few words, so I'll try
again.The movie explores the ideas of trying
to "prove" God and "prove" you love somebody,
and finally "prove" something really happened.
How about this for a topic of discussion: How
do I prove to you that I even exist? How do you
prove to me that you exist? You could just be
some kind of conscious entintity somewhere,
dreaming your entire perception of your physical
body, the world and universe and everything in
it, and your lifetime of interaction there with
and how it all works, including reading this
comment.
From my point of view, I could be
dreaming my physical "reality" including the
keyboard I'm typing on, the screen I'm looking
at, and the notion that another conscious physical
being (of the same species that I imagine myself
to be) will soon read it.
Anything I could do
to you could be part of your dream, or anything
you could do to me could be part of my dream.
I'm not saying I ACTUALLY believe I could be the
only conscious entity in the universe, I'm just
saying I haven't figured out a way to absolutely
PROVE to myself (or for you to PROVE to yourself)
that the reality we're experiencing and believing,
and the uneverse we believe we're sharing, is, in
fact, REALITY. And, no, by the way, I don't do
drugs or alcohol or even nicotine or caffein or
aspirin.
Most of my dreams (sleeping dreams, as
contrasted with "daydreams," wishes, goals, or
deliberate conscious fantasies) are regular old,
run-of-the-mill dreams, where I'm interacting with
the events of the dream and never questioning the
reality of them. Then, after I wake up, I realize
I was dreaming.
Once in a while, though, I'll
have a dream during which I suddenly think, "Wait
a minute, something's not right here, maybe I'm
dreaming." Then I perform some kind of mental
"tests" to "prove" one way or the other. Most
often, upon concluding that I'm dreaming, I'll
involuntarily wake up. Once in a while, the dream
will be unpleasant and I'll fight to wake up by
trying to move a finger or something.
The ones
I like best, however, are the dreams in which I
realize I'm dreaming, but don't involuntarily wake
up, so I think, "Oh, I'm dreaming. Cool! Now I can
do anything (like be Superman, etc.)" and I play
with that for a while before waking up. (For some
reason I always involuntarily wake up from erotic
dreams before they progress far enough to be
satisfying.)
What is weird and a little scary is
that one time I had a dream where I thought I was
dreaming, did the mental "test" to "prove" one way
or the other, and decided I was NOT dreaming.
Shortly thereafter, I woke up.
Bruce Bierman <BruceBierman@webtv.net >
San Diego, CA USATuesday, March 24, 1998 at 10:25:56 (PST)
The questions of
Timothy Campbell <psoftinfo@aol.com>
Saturday, March 14, 1998 at 01:57:19 (PST)
For some reason, I didn't expect much from
Contact -- eventhough I'd enjoyed the book. I
just figured that Hollywoodwould mess it up. I
was delighted to find that they did avery good
job indeed. As a life-long atheist, I often
have trouble explaing "God"to my fellow
atheists. Most of them (it seems), seem to
disbelieve in a particular kind of God -- usually
the onethey were taught about in their youth. They
steadfastly refuse to see that the God concept is
helpful to somepeople and indispensable to others.
I liked the observation about "proving" the existence
of love -- I've used that example for many years.My
favourite camera work in the movie was the part where
young Ellie is running upstairs to get the pills, and
thescene ends up being a reflection from a mirror,
even thoughthe camera never broke away as she ran
up stairs and downhallways. I rewound twice to be
sure that I'd seen itright. That bit of camera (and
postproduction) work mademe think that they have some
Escher fans in the crew.I think people on both sides
of the theology debate shouldsee Contact. Maybe --
just maybe -- it will help them tosee the other side
a bit more clearly.
David Burgess <D.J.Burgess1@comp.brad.ac.uk>
Monday, March 09, 1998 at 13:24:44 (PST)
I just had a thought - having watched the film (yet)
again...Has anyone thought of the possibility that
maybe the 'being(s)'that built the machine were/was
God? Maybe I'm missing somethingand thats what its
meant to mean, and everyone knows thisalready, but
perhaps this was a part of God's plan for all of
us - to bring us all together; anyone have any thoughts on
this? I mean, it would make sense if you think about
it,We, despite our devout beliefs, still have no idea
really who or what God is, like the Vegans.Or perhaps
the Vegans were God. Hmmmm. Comments, anyone?
Dinos Mavridis <dinosm@usa.net>
Friday, February 27, 1998 at 07:16:15 (PST)
I don't mean to interrupt the ongoing discussion about the deeper
meaning of the film (I'll write some things about this as well, but
not right now, not till I get to see it again), but I want to ask
something... I had heard that Contact would go out on tape on Dec.16th,
in the US... When is it going to get to England? I mean, I see other
movies coming, like Spawn, Lost World, Liar Liar, which are by far
newer than the Contact, but no sight of the latter...! Does anyone
know anything about it?Thanx anyway...
David Burgess <D.J.Burgess1@comp.brad.ac.uk>
Thursday, February 26, 1998 at 03:48:31 (PST)
I loved Contact. It's one of my favourite movies of all time.I have
never seen a movie that makes me think about the fundamentals of life
more than Contact. It makes us appreciate the miracle of life and how
lucky we are to be here, to exist. I still can't get over the awe that
is inspired in me by the surrounding sky of peniscola beach at the end,
especially the galaxy cloud which is behind Ellie as she watches the
Vegan approaching. Like Ellie, I can't find words to describe it.Among
other things it helps to see how arrogant we are, or at least some of
us, to even suggest that we're the only ones here.Even though I'm a
christian myself, Ellie's argument that we created God so we wouldn't
feel so alone began to make a lot ofsense to me, now having seen the
movie many times over. Richard Rank's asserting that we don't know
whether the Vegans believed in God or not made the whole concept of
religion to seem so false and created to me - although that's not to
say there isn't a God,the film just made me consider the possiblities
along those lines.It is also good to have a 'positive' ET film; we
don't get much of those these days; what with the 'Alien' films, ID4,
and so on.It's been a very impactful film for me, and it makes me
both happy and angry; that Ellie made contact with an Alien civilization
(It was real in my opinion) but that everyone left behind could not
believe what she had seen. The congressman asks if Ellie thinks they
should take her story on faith; they spent more than half a trillion
dollars on faith - why not accept Ellie's story on the same principle?
They had no idea where the machine would take her - what did they
expect her story to be? I can't say that, but it makes me so angry
that such an important moment in a civilizatio's history is simply
passed off as a delusion - yet another excuse we make for extraordinary
events. Why did they even send her if they thought there was a risk
of her reacting too strongly emotionally? Or maybe that was the
idea-to discredit Ellie so they could keep the knowledge for
themselves-as is implied after the hearing. The discussion goes on...
Andrew <AJE_SUPERRAWK@yahoo.com>
Tuesday, February 17, 1998 at 10:53:24 (PST)
I thought that the movie was really good. But as usual, the movie
was no match for the book.In the book, Palmer Joss is just another
character, and towards the end Ellie has HIM questioning his beliefs
in his god and religion, and what he has to teach her, she seems to
already know.The book (if you've read Sagan before) is about question
the very existence of God, because, the Aliens who are supposed to be
so incredibly superior to us have no idea what god is either. Their
approach is totally different as well. They try to understand creation
and "god" through math and science, that is what the end of the book
is all about.Throught the transcendental number (Pi) Ellie disovers
the circle pattern on the computer print out. That ending was INCREDIBLE!
Now THAT is optimistic. To anyone who hasn't read the book yet, your
doing yourself a huge disservice, the focus is totally different and the
story is better. READ IT. Also read The Demon Haunted World by Sagan,
it will give you an idea of where he is coming from.
Al <contact@turning-pages.com>
Saturday, February 07, 1998 at 15:01:28 (PST)
Dinos, you can find the pattern here (320x240, 17 k).
Dinos Mavridis <dinosm@usa.net>
Friday, February 06, 1998 at 12:02:58 (PST)
Well, after a short period of inactivity, I'm back... Seems like the
discussion is going pretty well... I read all the msgs I missed, and
I was mostly attracted by the semi-circular pattern you all mention...
Well, I hope the videotape comes out fast in England (my video store
brings them directly from there), so that I may watch it several times
and come back here dynamically...
C ya all!
Al <contact@turning-pages.com>
Wednesday, January 21, 1998 at 18:19:20 (PST)
Kristy, I updated your link. Did Earthlink kill contact.earthlink.net?
Kristy Borkes <disnut@disnoids.org>
Monday, January 19, 1998 at 14:51:47 (PST)
Check out my site "Contact and its Effect on my Life" .... there's
way too much to write about the movie here. =)
silver_cat <livsh@hotmail.com>
Thursday, January 08, 1998 at 20:07:27 (PST)
I thought the movie was really interesting. I makes you think about
life and all that stuff. My favorite part was when Ellie had finally
reached her destination and saw that sparkling galaxy above her head
that was way too bueatiful for words.
Al
jm, there's another scene where we see the semi-circular pattern:
when Ellie's father dies, the first thing she sees walking down the
stairs is pop corn forming that pattern.
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