ROBERT ZEMECKIS
Bil’s rating (out of 5): BBBB.
USA, 1997. Warner Bros., South Side Amusement Company. Story by Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan, Screenplay by James V. Hart, Michael Goldenberg, based on the novel by Carl Sagan. Cinematography by Don Burgess. Produced by Steve Starkey, Robert Zemeckis. Music by Alan Silvestri. Production Design by Ed Verreaux. Costume Design by Joanna Johnston. Film Editing by Arthur Schmidt. Academy Awards 1997. Golden Globe Awards 1997.
Jodie Foster plays an earnest scientist who spends her whole life searching for extra-terrestrial life and finds vindication when a message is received from outer space. Naturally, it throws the world into a huge frenzy, and despite the efforts of her pompous superior Tom Skerritt and military operations-head James Woods, she gets to go on a journey to the heart of the universe and see whether or not she can find the answers she’s looking for. It’s a little bit hokey but it’s also captivating, and the adventure Foster goes through in the last third of the picture is one of the most thrilling sequences in the films of 1997 (not the least because Foster, surrounded by all these new worlds she’s viewing, can act the scene to pieces, which is amazing considering the fact that we know she really sat in front of a blue-screen for two weeks).
