Contact....
Jodie Foster's sci-fi extravaganza connects with the DVD market
BRUCE WESTBROOK
12/19/97
Houston Chronicle
2 STAR
Page 5
(Copyright 1997)
IT'S still too early to project digital video discs - or DVD - as a major player in home video, but early signs indicate DVD could be here for the long haul.
DVD players, which cost $500-$600, are selling steadily for the year-end shopping season, and the volume of software selections is steadily increasing, with some films getting a DVD release on the same day as their VHS tape debut.
One such film is "Contact,'' which arrived Tuesday in both VHS and DVD formats.
The immediate difference is that the tape version is priced high for the rental market, while the DVD entry, like most others, costs $24.98.
It's also got a big batch of extras.
For instance, you can access a special audio track with commentary by star Jodie Foster, director Robert Zemeckis and producer Steve Starkey, who discuss the film as it plays.
There's also a 40-minute feature analyzing the film's special effects, scene by scene.
Like many DVD titles, Contact offers various language options. There's an alternate French-dubbed audio track, and you can see the film with English, French or Spanish subtitles.
The disc also features filmographies and biographies, which are accessed via a menu dubbed "Alien Encounters." That's not to mention the superior sound and picture quality you get via the digital technology of videodiscs.
All this is much more than the average tape edition of a movie, and the cost is roughly the same.
Meanwhile, 12-inch laserdiscs, which have pioneered disc-quality audio and video for two decades, are getting muscled out. Many stores that once carried laserdiscs no longer offer them - but they do offer DVD .
Of course, history has taught us that even if DVD catches on, it, too, will be eclipsed one day by another, superior technology.
No harm in that - or would you rather still be playing eight-track tapes?
By the way, all is not lost for laser. Universal Studios this week issued Dune in a spiffy new widescreen edition for laser, costing $39.98.
THE following video is available from Houston retailers. "CC" indicates closed-captioned for the hearing-impaired. Prices and rental rates vary.
How we rate videos:
Excellent - 4 stars
Good - 3 stars
Average - 2 stars
Poor - 1 star
Contact, 1997, PG, Warner, CC, VHS priced for rental; DVD $24.98
Imagine: Earth gets a transmission from another civilization, which tells us how to build a transporter for sending a human to a distant planet.
It's a mind-boggling prospect when you take it seriously, which the late astronomer and writer Carl Sagan did, as did Contact director Robert Zemeckis, whose adaptation of Sagan's novel is earnest, provocative and stimulating.
Then again, such a story has been told before, albeit in different ways.
In 1954's This Island Earth, human scientists were taught by aliens how to build an interstellar communications device as a prelude to meeting them in the flesh on their own world.
Also, in the original Outer Limits TV series of the 1960s, an episode titled The Mice had humans building a transporter device for exchanging a human for a denizen of another planet.
The difference is that Contact, besides being contemporary, stresses a more meaningful humanity through its central character, a scientist played by Jodie Foster, who's been listening for signals from the stars for years.
Her story is fully fleshed out from childhood, and her daring motivation to be the guinea pig sent to aliens is wholly believable.
But in the volatile process of achieving this goal, she must come to terms with her feelings for an evangelical man (played by Matthew McConaughey) who questions the mission and must fight the authoritarianism of a colleague (played by Tom Skeritt).
In short, Contact is as much an interpersonal story as an interstellar one, and that's why the movie works - at least until its end.
Without revealing the conclusion, we'll just say that the question arises: "Is that all there is?"
Humanity invests countless millions of dollars for one person's trip - and the viewer invests 21/2 hours to experience it - and the revelations are ambiguous with an unconvincing metaphysical side.
Even so, the prospect of such contact - of unlocking the wonders of the universe - is too tantalizing to resist, and for the most part Contact rings with dramatic impact.
Yet there are other problems, too. Although Foster is effectively glorified for her selfless passion, Skerritt and James Woods are hopeless caricatures of bureaucratic male imperiousness.
It's also a disturbing trend to see so many actual TV journalists portraying TV journalists in fiction. So much for credibility.
President Clinton certainly wasn't happy with his portrayal. He became an unwilling participant in Contact via shrewd editing of an old news conference, which make it sound as if he is responding to the alien story.
This contrivance later was decried by the White House. Perhaps some earlier "contact" should have been made between Hollywood and Washington - or is that asking too much of an arrogant film industry?
3 stars
Also due this week: A Simple Wish, How to be a Player, Cosi and The Creeps.
Due next week: The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin, Spawn, 'Til There Was You, For Roseanna, 187, Bliss, Habitat, Valley of the Dolls, Orchestra Rehearsal and Air Bud.
Photo: Jodie Foster listens for signals from outer space in the new-to-video movie drama "Contact.'' |
