Carl Sagan: Contact

[TheTerminator]

First, book vs. film.
I think the problem with the movie is the same as with 'The Da Vinci Code' movie. Simply too much info thrown in to explain anything fully or to go into detail in 2 hours or less. "Contact" the movie had too many changes from the book; many more than "The Da Vinci Code" had as Ron Howard tried to stay close to the book. More than the movie versions of 2001 and 'Planet of the Apes'. The books were better; though I am not saying 'The Da Vinci Code' is a good book, after I thought about it for a while and considered all the factual errors.

"Contact"'s aliens were unseen, just as in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The door that the scientists go thru in 'Contact' seems a rip-off of the monolith in 2001 (which Dave Bowman finally goes thru at the end when he dies). Was the whole trip a hallucination or a hoax seems a rip-off of the white room sequence in 2001 as well, where neither the viewer nor poor Dave knows whats happening.

Aha! So a hidden message in pi shows a circle. and this proves what? that a super-natural being created the universe? That's like saying that 'The Bible Code' is legit, and proves God hid messages in the Bible/Torah, because a computer program saw patterns in letters.
Someone pointed out that hidden messages could be read in 'Moby Dick' using the same method.

Eli's step-dad is her real dad; who cares and what does it have to do with the story? What's the deal with that rich guy who creates an ad blocking machine and then flyes off into space? The story seemed muddled and going off course at this point.

'Contact' the book had many more characters, more detail, and was better than the movie.
However, it is way too outdated with all the references to the Soviet Union, old technologies from the 1980's such as teletype(what the ~!@#$% is that?!), no mention or use of email, the Internet, or cellphones. I think that is something that might confuse or turn off younger readers. If "Contact" were to be updated, I think it would be just as popular now as it was when it was first released.

 

[direstraits]

This is an interesting post. I had recently written a review of the movie, and in there I stated that if this was a sampler of Sagan, I'm a fan.

The movie impressed me on a lot of levels, and if reading the book improves that, I will definitely get it.

ds

 

[Ell]

However, it is way too outdated with all the references to the Soviet Union, old technologies from the 1980's such as teletype(what the ~!@#$% is that?!), no mention or use of email, the Internet, or cellphones. I think that is something that might confuse or turn off younger readers. If "Contact" were to be updated, I think it would be just as popular now as it was when it was first released.

I'm not sure if you're still around, Terminator, but for the sake of discussion, I must say I completely disagree with this comment.

Contact is a novel, a work of fiction; written in and of a certain time and place. It is not a non-fiction book or textbook that needs to be updated or annotated for the sake of accuracy and clarity. Updating a work of fiction just because the use of old terminology might turn off young readers is "dumbing down" to the lowest common denominator. If everyone followed your reasoning, a lot of books would need "updating".

p.s. Besides, think of the logistics. About every five to ten years, it would need new updating to keep up with current technologies and changes in nation boundaries and names.