Movie: 'Blade Runner'
Go to the 2019: Off-World for more.
Most memorable quote: (actually, of any movie I know of)
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Terrhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die."
Movie: 'Contact'
An absolutely stunning movie, wonderfully, masterfully acted by Jodie Foster. A movie not about shoot'em up Aliens or technology, but about people, ideas, large philosophical questions, human courage, perseverance, love, God, faith, the search for truth, and our possibilities as a species. Please visit the SETI site to learn about the science behind the movie. You might also visit the 'Contact' homepage for more movie information.
Kudos to Jodie Foster!!! I can't imagine a better and more poignant portrayal. If I have one quibble with the movie it is at the end where the only evidence of Dr. Arroway's journey offered is 18 hours of static on tape. In the book, the 'punch line' is the startling original concept that the creators of the universe may have hidden evidence of their existence in the far-flung, nether reaches of the number sequences of the fundamental constants of nature -- perhaps a tell-tale sequence beginning in the 3 trillionth digit of 'Pi' for instance.
You should not miss the brilliant first two minutes of the film where the camera zooms from near earth orbit, outward, overtaking man's radio and T.V. transmissions (furnishing a reverse history of human broadcasting) and then on past the Oort cloud, into near stellar space, through the Eagle Nebula, closing to the center of the galaxy and twisting out of the Galactic plane to give a stunning view of the Milky Way, and then on into near galactic space, streaming faster and faster, with countless galaxies rushing by, in the end to emerge from of the human eye of the 8 year old future Dr. Arroway, 'Sparks' as her devoted father nicknames her, as she haltingly, but hopefully searches with her Ham radio for a 'contact' on the night air -- "CQ, this is W9GFO. CQ, this is W9GFO here, come back. CQ, this is W9GFO here, come back. CQ, CQ, this is W9GFO, is anybody out there?" -- and wonders if she might need a bigger antenna.
Great Literature: 'Walden' by Henry David Thoreau
Make sure you visit The Thoreau Reader Most memorable quote:
"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation."
