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Contact (1997 film)
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Contact
Contact ver2.jpg
Theatrical release poster

Directed by
Robert Zemeckis
Produced by
Robert Zemeckis
Steve Starkey
Screenplay by
James V. Hart
Michael Goldenberg
Story by
Carl Sagan
Ann Druyan
Based on
Contact
 by Carl Sagan
Starring
Jodie Foster
Matthew McConaughey
James Woods
John Hurt
Tom Skerritt
Angela Bassett
Music by
Alan Silvestri
Cinematography
Don Burgess
Editing by
Arthur Schmidt
Distributed by
Warner Bros.
Release dates
July 11, 1997

Running time
150 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$90 million[1]
Box office
$171,120,329



 Uniforms from the film at Stockholm International Fairs 2011
Contact is a 1997 American science fiction drama film, adapted from the Carl Sagan novel of the same name and directed by Robert Zemeckis. Both Sagan and wife Ann Druyan wrote the story outline for the film adaptation of Contact.
Jodie Foster portrays the film's protagonist, Dr. Eleanor "Ellie" Arroway, a SETI scientist who finds strong evidence of extraterrestrial life and is chosen to make first contact. The film also stars Matthew McConaughey, James Woods, Tom Skerritt, William Fichtner, John Hurt, Angela Bassett, Jake Busey, and David Morse.
Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan began working on the film in 1979. Together, they wrote a 100+ page film treatment and set up Contact at Warner Bros. with Peter Guber and Lynda Obst as producers. When the project to make the film became mired in development hell, Sagan published Contact as a novel in 1985 and the film adaptation was rejuvenated in 1989. Roland Joffé and George Miller had planned to direct it, but Joffé dropped out in 1993 and Warner Bros. fired Miller in 1995. Robert Zemeckis was eventually hired to direct, and filming for Contact lasted from September 1996 to February 1997. Sony Pictures Imageworks handled most of the visual effects sequences.
The film was released on July 11, 1997, to mostly positive reviews. Contact grossed approximately $171 million in worldwide box office totals. The film won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and received multiple awards and nominations at the Saturn Awards. The release of Contact was publicized by controversies from the Clinton administration and CNN, as well as individual lawsuits from George Miller and Francis Ford Coppola.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production 3.1 Development
3.2 Filming
3.3 Visual effects
3.4 Music
3.5 Science and religion
4 Release 4.1 Box office
4.2 Home video
4.3 Critical reception
4.4 Awards
4.5 In popular culture
5 Controversies 5.1 Bill Clinton
5.2 CNN
5.3 Lawsuits
5.4 NASA
6 See also
7 References
8 Further reading
9 External links

Plot[edit]
Encouraged to explore as a child by her late father, Dr. Eleanor "Ellie" Arroway works for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) program at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. She listens to radio transmissions hoping to find signals sent by extraterrestrial life. Science Advisor to the President David Drumlin pulls the funding from SETI because he believes the endeavor is futile. Arroway gains backing from secretive billionaire industrialist S. R. Hadden, who has followed her career and allows her to continue her studies at the Very Large Array (VLA) in Socorro County, New Mexico.
Four years later, with Drumlin seeking to close SETI, Arroway finds a signal repeating a sequence of prime numbers, apparently sent from the star Vega. This announcement causes Drumlin and the National Security Council, led by National Security Advisor Michael Kitz, to attempt to take control of the facility. As Arroway, Drumlin and Kitz argue, members of the team at the VLA discover a video source buried in the signal: Adolf Hitler's welcoming address at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. Arroway and her team postulate that this would have been the first significantly strong television signal to leave Earth's atmosphere, which was then transmitted back from Vega, 25 light years away.
The project is put under tight security and its progress followed worldwide. Arroway learns that the signal contains more than 60,000 "pages" of what appear to be technical drawings. Hadden decodes the pages; the drawings are meant to be interpreted in three dimensions. This reveals a complex machine allowing for one human occupant inside a pod to be dropped into three spinning rings.
The nations of the world fund the construction of the machine in Cape Canaveral at the Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39. An international panel is assembled to choose a candidate to travel in the machine. Although Arroway is one of the top selections, Christian philosopher Palmer Joss, a panel member whom Arroway met in Puerto Rico and with whom she had a brief romantic encounter, brings attention to her lack of religious faith. As this differentiates her from most humans, the panel selects Drumlin as more representative. On the day the machine is tested, a religious fanatic destroys the machine in a suicide bombing, killing Drumlin and many others.
Hadden reveals to Arroway that a second machine is hidden in Hokkaido, Japan, and that Arroway will be its pilot. Arroway, outfitted with several recording devices, is locked into the pod of the Japanese machine, dropped into the spinning rings, and disappears. When the pod apparently travels through a series of wormholes, she experiences displacement and can observe the outside environment, including a radio array-like structure at Vega and signs of an advanced civilization on an unknown planet. Arroway finds herself in a surreal beachfront landscape similar to a childhood picture she drew of Pensacola, Florida, and a blurry figure approaches that becomes her deceased father. Arroway recognizes him as an alien taking her father's form and attempts to ask questions. The alien deflects her inquiries, explaining that this journey was just humanity's first step to joining other spacefaring species.
Arroway considers these answers and falls unconscious. She awakens to find herself on the floor of the pod; the machine's control team is repeatedly calling for her. She learns that from outside the machine it appears the pod merely dropped through the machine's rings and landed in the safety net. Arroway insists that she was gone for approximately 18 hours, but her recording devices show only static. Kitz resigns as national security advisor to lead a congressional committee to determine whether the machine was a hoax designed by Hadden, who has died. Arroway is described as an unwitting accomplice in the hoax; she asks them to accept her testimony on faith. In a private conversation, Kitz and White House Chief of Staff Rachel Constantine reflect on confidential information that although Arroway's recording device only recorded static, it recorded 18 hours of it. Arroway and Joss reunite, and Arroway receives ongoing financial support for the SETI program at the Very Large Array.
Cast[edit]
Jodie Foster as Dr. Eleanor "Ellie" Ann Arroway: SETI scientist who first discovers the alien contact message Jena Malone as Young Ellie Arroway
Matthew McConaughey as Palmer Joss: Renowned Christian philosopher who becomes romantically involved with Arroway
James Woods as Michael Kitz: National Security Advisor who also heads the Congressional investigation of Arroway
Tom Skerritt as David Drumlin: Scientific aide to the President of the United States
William Fichtner as Kent Clark: A blind SETI scientist who assists Arroway in her studies
John Hurt as S.R. Hadden: An eccentric and reclusive billionaire industrialist who is fundamental in financing Dr. Arroway's research and deciphering the alien's message
Angela Bassett as Rachel Constantine: White House Chief of Staff to President Clinton
David Morse as Theodore Arroway: Arroway's father, who encourages his daughter to study amateur radio. He also later plays the alien: the first extraterrestrial to make contact with humanity.
Jake Busey as Joseph: a religious fanatic
Rob Lowe as Richard Rank: leader of the Conservative Coalition (a parody of Ralph Reed and the Christian Coalition[2])
Geoffrey Blake as Fisher: SETI scientist
Max Martini as Willie: SETI scientist
Production[edit]
Development[edit]
Carl Sagan conceived the idea for Contact in 1979. The same year, Lynda Obst, one of Sagan's closest friends, was hired by film producer Peter Guber to be a studio executive for his production company, Casablanca FilmWorks. She pitched Guber the idea for Contact, who commissioned a development deal.[1] Sagan, along with wife Ann Druyan, wrote a 100+ page film treatment, finishing in November 1980.[3][4] Druyan explained, "Carl's and my dream was to write something that would be a fictional representation of what contact would actually be like, that would convey something of the true grandeur of the universe." They added the science and religion analogies as a metaphor of philosophical and intellectual interest in searching for the truth of both humanity and alien contact.[5]
Sagan incorporated Kip Thorne's study of wormhole space travel into the screenplay.[6] The characterization of Dr. Ellie Arroway was inspired by Dr. Jill Tarter, head of Project Phoenix of the SETI Institute; Jodie Foster researched the lead role by meeting her.[7] Tarter served as a consultant on the story, realistically portraying struggling careers of women scientists from the 1950s to 1970s. The writers debated whether Arroway should have a baby at the film's end.[8] Although Guber was impressed with Sagan and Druyan's treatment, he hired various screenwriters to rewrite the script. New characters were added, one of them a Native American park ranger-turned-astronaut.[1] Guber suggested that Arroway have an estranged teenage son, whom he believed would add more depth to the storyline. "Here was a woman consumed with the idea that there was something out there worth listening to," Guber said, "but the one thing she could never make contact with was her own child. To me, that's what the film had to be about."[1] Sagan and Druyan disagreed with Guber's idea and it was not incorporated into the storyline. In 1982, Guber took Contact to Warner Bros. Pictures and with the film laboring in development hell, Sagan started to turn his original idea into a novel, which was published by Simon & Schuster in September 1985. The film adaptation remained in development and Guber eventually vacated his position at Warner Bros. in 1989.[1]
Guber became the new president of Sony Pictures Entertainment and tried to purchase the film rights of Contact from Warners, but the studio refused. Coincidentally, in 1989, Obst was hired as a new executive at Warners and began to fast track the film, by hiring more writers.[1] Roland Joffé was eventually hired to direct,[9] using a screenplay by James V. Hart.[10] Joffé almost commenced pre-production before he dropped out[9] and Obst then hired Michael Goldenberg to rewrite the script, who finished his second draft[1] in late 1993. Goldenberg's second draft rekindled Warner Bros.' interest in Contact[9] and Robert Zemeckis was offered the chance to direct, but he turned down the opportunity[1] in favor of making a film based on the life of Harry Houdini.[11] "The first script [for Contact] I saw was great until the last page and a half," Zemeckis recalled. "And then it had the sky open up and these angelic aliens putting on a light show and I said, 'That's just not going to work.'"[1]
In December 1993, Warner Bros. hired George Miller to direct[9] and Contact commenced pre-production. Miller cast Jodie Foster in the lead role, approached Ralph Fiennes to play Palmer Joss and also considered casting Linda Hunt as the President of the United States. In addition to having aliens put on a laser lighting display around Earth, another version of the Goldenberg scripts had an alien wormhole swallow up the planet, transporting Earth to the center of the galaxy. Miller also asked Goldenberg to rewrite Contact in an attempt to portray the Pope as a key supporting character. Warner Bros. was hoping to have the film ready for release by Christmas 1996, but under Miller's direction pre-production lasted longer than expected.[1] The studio fired the director, blaming pushed-back start dates, budget concerns, and Miller's insistence that the script needed five more weeks of rewriting. Robert Zemeckis, who previously turned down the director's position, decided to accept the offer. Warner Bros. granted Zemeckis total artistic control and the right of final cut privilege.[1] The director cast Matthew McConaughey as Palmer Joss, who dropped out of the lead role in The Jackal to take the role in Contact.[12] Despite being diagnosed with myelodysplasia in 1994, Sagan continued to be involved in the production of the film. For the cast and main crew members, he conducted an academic conference that depicted a detailed history of astronomy.[1]
During the development of Contact, the production crew simultaneously watched Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) for inspiration.[8]
Filming[edit]



 Concept drawing of early NASA site idea
Principal photography for Contact began on September 24, 1996, and ended on February 28, 1997. The first shooting took place at the Very Large Array (VLA) near Socorro, New Mexico. "Shooting at the VLA was, of course, spectacular but also one of the most difficult aspects of our filming," producer Steve Starkey said. "It is a working facility, so in order for us to accomplish shots for the movie, we had to negotiate with the National Science Foundation for 'dish control' in order to move the dishes in the direction we needed to effect the most dramatic shot for the story."[6] After arduous first weeks of location shooting in New Mexico and Arizona, production for Contact returned to Los Angeles for five months' worth of location and sound stage shooting that used a total of nine soundstages at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, and Culver Studios. All together, the art department created more than 25 sets.[6]
In an attempt to create a sense of realism for the storyline, principal CNN news outlet commentators were scripted into Contact. More than 25 news reporters from CNN had roles in the film and the CNN programs Larry King Live and Crossfire were also included. Ann Druyan makes a cameo appearance as herself, debating Rob Lowe's character, Richard Rank, on Crossfire. In January 1997, a second unit was sent to Puerto Rico for one week at the Arecibo Observatory.
Other second unit work took place in Fiji and Newfoundland, Canada. Also essential to the production were a host of technical consultants from the SETI Institute, the California Institute of Technology, the VLA and a former White House staff member to consult on Washington D.C. and government protocol issues.[13] Sagan visited the set a number of times, where he also helped with last-minute rewrites. Filming was briefly delayed with the news of his death on December 20, 1996. Contact was dedicated in part to his legacy.[1]
Cinematographer Don Burgess shot the film in anamorphic format using Panavision cameras as well as using large format 65mm and VistaVision for special effects shots. The sound designers used Pro Tools software for the audio mixing, which was done at Skywalker Sound.[14]
Visual effects[edit]



 The film's (second) Machine in operation at Hokkaidō, Japan
Designing Contact's visual effects sequences was a joint effort among eight separate VFX companies. This team included Sony Pictures Imageworks, Peter Jackson's Weta Digital, George Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic, and Effects Associates. Weta Digital, in particular, was responsible for designing the wormhole sequence.[15] Jodie Foster admitted she had difficulty with blue screen technology because it was a first for the actress. "It was a blue room. Blue walls, blue roof. It was just blue, blue, blue," Foster explained. "And I was rotated on a Lazy Susan with the camera moving on a computerized arm. It was really tough."[1]
News footage of then-President Bill Clinton was digitally altered to make it appear as if he is speaking about alien contact. This was not the original plan for the film;[1] Zemeckis had initially approached Sidney Poitier to play the president, but the actor turned the role down in favor of The Jackal.[16] Shortly after Poitier's refusal, Zemeckis saw a NASA announcement in August 1996. "Clinton gave his Mars rock speech," the director explained, "and I swear to God it was like it was scripted for this movie. When he said the line 'We will continue to listen closely to what it has to say,' I almost died. I stood there with my mouth hanging open."[1]
One notable feature of Contact is its use of digital color correction. This approach helped solve continuity errors during the location shooting at the Very Large Array in New Mexico. "The weather killed us, so we were going back in and changing it enough so that the skies and colors and times of day all seem roughly the same," visual effects supervisor Ken Ralston commented.[17]
The opening scene of the movie is a three-minute computer-generated sequence, beginning with a view of Earth from high in the exosphere and listening in on numerous radio waves of modern programming emitting from the planet. The camera then starts zooming backward, passing the Moon, Mars, and other features of the solar system, then to the Oort cloud, interstellar space, the Local Bubble, the Milky Way, other galaxies of the Local Group, and eventually into deep space. As this occurs, the radio signals start to drop out and reflect older programming, representing the distance these signals would have traveled at the speed of light, eventually becoming silent as the distance becomes much greater. The sequence eventually resolves into the iris of young Ellie's eye as she is listening on her amateur radio set. This scale view shot of the entire universe was inspired by the short documentary film Powers of Ten (1977). At the time, it was the longest continuous computer-generated effect for a live-action film, eventually surpassed by the opening sequence from The Day After Tomorrow (2004).[18]
The decoding of the extraterrestrial message, with its architectural drawings of the machine, was created by Ken Ralston and Sony Pictures Imageworks. This is the sixth film collaboration between director Zemeckis and VFX supervisor Ralston. Imageworks created more than 350 visual effects shots, using a combination of model and miniature shots and digital computer work. On designing the Machine, Zemeckis explained that "The Machine in Sagan's novel was somewhat vague, which is fine for a book. In a movie, though, if you're going to build a giant physical structure of alien design, you have to make it believable." He continued that "it had to be huge, so that the audience would feel like it was bigger than man should be tinkering with. It had to look absolutely real."[6] The machine was then designed by concept artist Steve Burg, reusing a conceptual design he had originally created to appear as the "Time Displacement Device" in Terminator 2 in a scene that did not make the final cut.[19]
Early conceptual designs of the Pod itself were based, as it existed in the novel, on one of the primary shapes in geometry, a dodecahedron, or a twelve-sided figure. Eventually the Pod was modified to a spherical capsule that encases the traveler. Zemeckis and the production crew also made several visits to the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, where officials allowed them access to sites off-limits to most visitors. Filmmakers were also brought onto Launch Complex 39 before the launch of the space shuttle.[6] There, they concentrated on the mechanics of the elevator and the gantry area and loading arm. The resulting photographs and research were incorporated into the design of the machine's surrounding supports and gantry. Once the concept met with the filmmakers' approval, physical construction began on the sets for the Pod itself, the interior of the elevator, and the gantry, which took almost four months to build. The rest of the effects were compiled digitally by Imageworks.[6]
The climactic scene depicting the mysterious beach near the galactic core where Arroway makes contact, in particular, called for major visual innovations. The goal was an idyllic seashore with a sky blazing with stars that might exist near the core of the galaxy. Ralston said that "the thought was that this beach would have a heightened reality. One that might make the everyday world seem like a vague daydream."[8] To keep the question alive whether any of it was real in Arroway's mind, elements such as ocean waves running in reverse and palm tree shadows swaying with sped-up motion were applied.[8]
The Hitler newsreel also required digital manipulation.[8]
Music[edit]

Contact: Music from the Motion Picture

Soundtrack album by Alan Silvestri

Released
August 19, 1997
Label
Warner Bros. Records
The original score was composed by Alan Silvestri, most of which was released on August 19, 1997, by Warner Bros. Records.[20] The full score is approximately an hour long, 44 minutes of which is on the CD, including every major cue. The CD track entitled "Good to Go" features a slightly different opening—a brief brass motif that is not in the film—but all other cues are identical in orchestration to the mix in the film.
The Region 2 Special Edition DVD release contains a 5.1 isolated score track,[21] which presents the complete score (this feature, as with many isolated scores, is not mentioned in most product descriptions of the DVD).[22][23]

Contact: Music from the Motion Picture

No.
Title
Length

1. "Awful Waste of Space"   1:41
2. "Ellie's Bogey"   3:23
3. "The Primer"   6:19
4. "Really Confused"   1:18
5. "Test Run Bomber"   4:25
6. "Heart Attack"   1:29
7. "Media Event"   1:24
8. "Button Me Up"   1:18
9. "Good to Go"   5:11
10. "No Words"   1:42
11. "Small Moves"   5:35
12. "I Believe Her"   2:31
13. "Contact"   7:58
Total length:
 44:14 
Science and religion[edit]
Contact often suggests that cultural conflicts between religion and science would be brought to the fore by the apparent contact with aliens that occurs in the film. A point of discussion is the existence of God, with several different positions being portrayed.[8] A description of an emotionally intense experience by Palmer Joss, which he describes as seeing God, is met by Arroway's suggestion that "some part of [him] needed to have it"—that it was a significant personal experience but indicative of nothing greater. Joss compares his certainty that God exists to Arroway's certainty that she loved her deceased father, despite her being unable to prove it.[8]
Contact depicts intense debate occurring as a result of the apparent contact with aliens. Many clips of well-known debate shows such as Crossfire and Larry King Live are shown, with participants discussing the implications of the message, asking whether it is proof of the existence of alien life or of God, and whether science is encroaching upon religious ground by, as one believer puts it, "talking to your god for you."[24] The head of a religious organization casts doubt on the morality of building the machine, noting: "We don't even know whether [the aliens] believe in God." The first machine is ultimately destroyed by a religious extremist, in the belief that building it was detrimental to humankind.[8]
Although the revelation at the end of the film that Arroway's recording device recorded approximately 18 hours of static is arguably conclusive proof of the fact of—if not the experience of—her "journey", several coincidences and indications throughout the film cast doubt on its authenticity. Director Robert Zemeckis indicated: "The point of the movie is for there always to be a certain amount of doubt [as to whether the aliens were real]."[24] These indications consist mostly of visual cues during the "journey" that echo Ellie's experiences earlier in the film (which Ellie believed to be the result of the aliens "downloading [her] thoughts and memories"), but the timing of the message's arrival and its eventual decoding are also highly coincidental: the message was first received shortly before Arroway and her team were to be ejected from the VLA facility and was successfully decoded only by S.R. Hadden (Arroway's only sponsor, who was close to death from cancer) after weeks of failed attempts by the team at the VLA.[24]
At the end of the film, Arroway is put into a position that she had traditionally viewed with skepticism and contempt: that of believing something with complete certainty, despite being unable to prove it in the face of not only widespread incredulity and skepticism (which she admits that as a scientist she would normally share) but also evidence apparently to the contrary.[24]
Zemeckis stated that he intended the message of the film to be that science and religion can coexist rather than being opposing camps,[24] as shown by the coupling of scientist Arroway with the religious Joss, as well as his acceptance that the "journey" indeed took place. This, and scattered references throughout the film, posit that science and religion are not nominally incompatible: one interviewer, after asking Arroway whether the construction of the machine—despite not knowing what will happen when it is activated—is too dangerous, suggests that it is being built on the "faith" that the alien designers, as Arroway puts it, "know what they're doing."[8]
Release[edit]
Box office[edit]
Contact had its premiere on July 1, 1997, at the Westwood Theater in Los Angeles, California.[25] The film was released in the United States on July 11, 1997, in 1,923 theaters, earning $20,584,908 in its opening weekend. Contact eventually grossed $100.92 million in the US and $70.2 million in foreign countries, reaching a worldwide total of $171.12 million.[26] The release of Contact in July 1997 rekindled public interest in Sagan's 1985 novel. The book remained on the The New York Times Best Seller list from July 27 to September 21, 1997.[27][28]
Home video[edit]
With VHS release in early December 1997, Contact earned an additional $49 million in rental figures.[29] Warner Home Video released Contact on DVD later that month, containing three separate audio commentaries by director Robert Zemeckis and producer Steve Starkey, another by visual effects supervisors Ken Ralston and Stephen Rosenbaum, along with one by star Jodie Foster.[30] Contact was released on Blu-ray Disc on October 6, 2009.[31]
Critical reception[edit]
Contact received a generally average-favorable response from critics.[32][33] On the basis of 62 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, 63% of critics enjoyed the film, with an average score of 6.8/10.[32] Metacritic calculated an average score of 62/100, based on 22 reviews.[33] Roger Ebert gave a largely positive review, believing that Contact was on par with Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) as Hollywood's most cinematic study of extraterrestrial life. "Movies like Contact help explain why movies like Independence Day leave me feeling empty and unsatisfied," Ebert commented.[34] On December 21, 2011, Ebert added Contact to his Great Movies collection.[35]
Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the film carried a more philosophical portrait of the science fiction genre than did other films, but he believed that Contact still managed "to satisfy the cravings of the general public who simply want to be entertained," he said.[36] Internet reviewer James Berardinelli called Contact "one of 1997's finest motion pictures, and is a forceful reminder that Hollywood is still capable of making magic." Berardinelli also felt that the film was on par with Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) to be one of the greatest science fiction films ever made.[37] Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle largely enjoyed the first 90 minutes of Contact but felt that director Robert Zemeckis was too obsessed with visual effects rather than cohesive storytelling for the pivotal climax.[38] Rita Kempley, writing in The Washington Post, gave a largely negative review: she did not like the film's main premise, which Kempley described as "a preachy debate between sanctity and science."[39]
Awards[edit]
Sound designers Randy Thom, Tom Johnson, Dennis S. Sands and William B. Kaplan were nominated for the Academy Award for Sound but lost to Titanic.[40][41] Jodie Foster was nominated the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama, but Judi Dench was awarded the category for her work in Mrs. Brown.[42] Contact won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation over The Fifth Element, Gattaca, Men in Black and Starship Troopers.[43] The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films awarded individual awards to Jodie Foster (Best Actress) and Jena Malone (Best Performance by a Younger Actor) at the 24th Saturn Awards. Director Robert Zemeckis, writers James V. Hart and Michael Goldenberg, film score composer Alan Silvestri and the visual effects supervisors also received Saturn Award nominations. Contact was nominated the Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film, but lost to Men in Black.[44]
American Film Institute listsAFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills – Nominated[45]
AFI's 10 Top 10 – Nominated Science Fiction Film[46]
In popular culture[edit]
South Park's creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker are well known for poking fun at the movie. In the episode "Tom's Rhinoplasty" where Mr. Garrison is waking up from his nose job operation, the doctor asks whether he has seen the movie. Garrison, in response, vomits in disgust of the movie. The film was also referred to in the episode "Cancelled".[47] It has also been briefly mentioned in the animated series Family Guy on 2 occasions: in "Three Kings" and "Da Boom".
Controversies[edit]
Bill Clinton[edit]
A meteorite was found in Antarctica in 1984, thought to be from Mars. Twelve years later, a paper by a NASA scientist was published in the journal, Science, proposing that the meteorite might contain evidence for microscopic fossils of Martian bacteria (later, a disputed interpretation).[48][49] The announcement made headlines around the world and the following day, on 7 August 1996, the President of the United States, Bill Clinton, made remarks about the news at a press conference that were, in places, sufficiently generic in nature to allow fragments of his videotaped statement to be included in Contact, implying that Clinton was speaking about contact with extraterrestrial life, congruent with the film's story:[50]
“ Good afternoon. I'm glad to be joined by my science and technology adviser ...[words cut by film editors]... This is the product of years of exploration ...[words cut]... by some of the world's most distinguished scientists. Like all discoveries, this one will and should continue to be reviewed, examined, and scrutinized. It must be confirmed by other scientists. But clearly, the fact that something of this magnitude is being explored is another vindication ...[film scene performed over recording, with dialogue obscuring Clinton's remarks and creating a gap]... If this discovery is confirmed, it will surely be one of the most stunning insights into our universe that science has ever uncovered. Its implications are as far reaching and awe inspiring as can be imagined. Even as it promises answers to some of our oldest questions, it poses still others even more fundamental. We will continue to listen closely to what it has to say as we continue the search for answers and for knowledge that is as old as humanity itself but essential to our people's future. Thank you.[51] ”
Later in the film, a separate fragment of generic remarks by President Clinton, speaking about Saddam Hussein and Iraq at a different press conference in October 1994, was lifted out of context and inserted into Contact:
“ I would encourage you not to inflame this situation beyond the facts. Let us deal with this on the facts. We are monitoring what has actually happened.[52] ”
On July 14, 1997, three days after Contact's opening day release in the United States, Warner Bros. received a letter from White House Counsel Charles Ruff protesting against the use of Clinton's digitally-composited appearance. The letter made no demands to director Robert Zemeckis or Warner Bros. about pulling release prints, film trailers or other marketing, but called the duration and manner of Clinton's appearance "inappropriate". No legal action was planned; the White House Counsel simply wanted to send a message to Hollywood to avoid unauthorized uses of the President's image. Zemeckis was reminded that official White House policy "prohibits the use of the President in any way ... (that) implies a direct ... connection between the President and a commercial product or service."[53]
A Warner Bros. spokeswoman explained that "we feel we have been completely frank and upfront with the White House on this issue. They saw scripts, they were notified when the film was completed, they were sent a print well in advance of the film's July 11 opening, and we have confirmation that a print was received there July 2." However, Warner Bros. did concede that they never pursued or received formal release from the White House for the use of Clinton's image. While the Counsel commented that parody and satire are protected under the First Amendment, press secretary Mike McCurry believed that "there is a difference when the President's image, which is his alone to control, is used in a way that would lead the viewer to believe he has said something he really didn't say."[53]
CNN[edit]
Shortly after the White House's complaint, CNN chairman, president, and CEO Tom Johnson announced he believed that in hindsight it was a mistake to allow 13 members of CNN's on-air staff (including Larry King and Bernard Shaw) to appear in the film, even though both CNN and Warner Bros. are owned by Time Warner. Johnson added that, for Contact, the CNN presence "creates the impression that we're manipulated by Time Warner, and it blurs the line." CNN then changed their policies for future films, which now requires potential appearances to be cleared through their ethics group.[53]
Lawsuits[edit]
Director George Miller, who had developed Contact with Warner Bros. before Zemeckis' hiring, unsuccessfully sued the studio over breach of contract policies.[1]
During the filming of Contact on December 28, 1996, filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola filed a lawsuit against Carl Sagan and Warner Bros. Sagan had died the previous week.[54][55] Coppola claimed that Sagan's novel was based on a story the pair had developed for a television special[56] back in 1975,[54] titled First Contact. Under their development agreement,[56] Coppola and Sagan were to split proceeds from the project, as well as from any novel Sagan would write, with American Zoetrope and Children's Television Workshop Productions. The TV program was never produced, but in 1985, Simon & Schuster published Contact and Warner Bros moved forward with development of a film adaptation. Coppola sought at least $250,000 in compensatory damages and an injunction against production or distribution of the film.[54]
In February 1998, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ricardo Torres dismissed Coppola's claim. Although Torres agreed that Sagan violated some terms of the contract, he explained that Coppola waited too long to file his lawsuit, and that the contract might not be enforceable as it was written. Coppola then appealed his suit,[56] taking it to The California Courts of Appeal (CCA). In April 2000, the CCA dismissed his suit, finding that Coppola’s claims were barred because they were brought too late. The court noted that it was not until 1994 that the filmmaker thought about suing over Contact.[55]
NASA[edit]
The scene where the NASA scientists give Arroway the "cyanide pill" caused some controversy during production and when the film came out. Gerald D. Griffin, the film's NASA advisor, insisted that NASA has never given any astronaut a cyanide pill "just in case," and that if an astronaut truly wished to commit suicide in space, all he or she would have to do is cut off their oxygen supply.[24] However, Carl Sagan insisted that NASA did indeed give out cyanide pills and they did it for every mission an astronaut has ever flown. Zemeckis said that because of the two radically different assertions, the truth is unknown, but he left the suicide pill scene in the movie as it seemed more suspenseful that way and it was also in line with Sagan's beliefs and vision of the film.[24]
See also[edit]
List of films featuring space stations
References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Benjamin Svetkey (1997-07-18). "Making Contact". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2009-01-27.
2.Jump up ^ Bryan P. Stone (2000). Faith and Film: Theological Themes at the Cinema. Chalice Press. p. 20.
3.Jump up ^ Carl Sagan (October 1985). Contact: A Novel. New York City: Simon & Schuster. p. 432. ISBN 0-671-43400-4.
4.Jump up ^ "Ann Druyan". Warner Bros. Archived from the original on 2000-10-18. Retrieved 2009-02-01. "Carl and I wrote the more than 100-page treatment in November of 1980..."
5.Jump up ^ "About the production". Warner Bros. Archived from the original on 2001-05-17. Retrieved 2009-01-30.
6.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f "Contact – High Technology Lends a Hand/Science of the Soundstage". Warner Bros. Archived from the original on 2001-03-04. Retrieved 2009-01-30.
7.Jump up ^ William J. Broad (1998-09-29). "Astronomers Revive Scan of the Heavens for Signs of Life". The New York Times.
8.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i Norman Kagan (2003). "Contact". The Cinema of Robert Zemeckis. Lanham, Maryland: Taylor Trade Publishing. pp. 159–181. ISBN 0-87833-293-6.
9.^ Jump up to: a b c d John Evan Frook (1993-12-16). "WB makes 'Contact'". Variety. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
10.Jump up ^ Bernard Weinraub (1997-07-06). "Using a Big Budget To Ask Big Questions". The New York Times.
11.Jump up ^ Michael Fleming (1997-07-10). "Verhoeven eyes 'Houdini'". Variety. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
12.Jump up ^ Michael Fleming (1996-12-16). "McConaughey inks with WB". Variety. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
13.Jump up ^ "Creating Strange New Worlds". Warner Bros. Retrieved 2009-01-30.[dead link]
14.Jump up ^ Richard Buskin. "Making Contact". FilmSound.org. Retrieved 2009-01-30.
15.Jump up ^ Ian Pryor (2003). Peter Jackson: From Prince of Splatter to Lord of the Rings. New York City: Thomas Dunne Books. p. 206. ISBN 0-312-32294-1.
16.Jump up ^ Army Archerd (1996-08-16). "Two 'Titanics' on collision course". Variety. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
17.Jump up ^ Michael Mallory (1997-05-08). "Invisible tricks of the trade". Variety. Retrieved 2009-01-28.
18.Jump up ^ Tim Dirks. "Milestones in Film History: Greatest Visual and Special Effects and Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) - Part 16". Filmsite.org. Retrieved 2009-01-29.
19.Jump up ^ "Steve Burg homepage". Steve Burg. Retrieved 2009-09-09.
20.Jump up ^ Amazon.com: Contact: Music From The Motion Picture: Alan Silvestri: Music
21.Jump up ^ DVD Music - Soundtrack.Net
22.Jump up ^ Contact (Special Edition) [1997] [DVD]: Amazon.co.uk: Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt, Jena Malone, David Morse, Geoffrey Blake, William Fic...
23.Jump up ^ http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/1871/Contact-Special-Edition/Product.html
24.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g Robert Zemeckis, Steve Starkey, DVD audio commentary, 1997, Warner Home Video
25.Jump up ^ Anita M. Busch (1997-07-03). "'Contact's' starry night". Variety. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
26.Jump up ^ "Contact". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2009-01-27.
27.Jump up ^ "Paperback Best Seller: July 27, 1997". The New York Times. 1997-07-27. Retrieved 2009-01-28.
28.Jump up ^ "Paperback Best Sellers: September 21, 1997". The New York Times. 1997-09-21. Retrieved 2009-01-28.
29.Jump up ^ Staff (1997-12-16). "Rental champs: Rate of return". Variety. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
30.Jump up ^ "Contact (1997)". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2009-01-27.
31.Jump up ^ http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Contact-Blu-ray/5891/
32.^ Jump up to: a b "Contact". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2010-01-06.
33.^ Jump up to: a b "Contact (1997): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2009-01-27.
34.Jump up ^ Roger Ebert (1997-07-11). "Contact". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2009-01-27.
35.Jump up ^ "Contact (1997)". Chicago Sun-Times.
36.Jump up ^ Kenneth Turan (1997-07-11). "Foster Passes Hearing Test". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on November 20, 2007. Retrieved 2009-01-27.
37.Jump up ^ James Berardinelli. "Contact". ReelViews.net. Retrieved 2009-01-27.
38.Jump up ^ Mick LaSalle (1997-07-11). "Anybody There?". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2009-01-27.
39.Jump up ^ Rita Kempley (1997-07-11). "Contact". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2009-01-27.
40.Jump up ^ "The 70th Academy Awards (1998) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-11-19.
41.Jump up ^ "Contact". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 2009-01-30.
42.Jump up ^ "Contact". Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Retrieved 2009-01-30.
43.Jump up ^ "1998 Hugo Awards". The Hugo Awards. Retrieved 2009-01-30.
44.Jump up ^ "Past Saturn Awards". Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films. Retrieved 2009-01-30.
45.Jump up ^ AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills Nominees
46.Jump up ^ AFI's 10 Top 10 Ballot
47.Jump up ^ Tom's Rhinoplasty (Season 1, Episode 11) - Full Episode Player - South Park Studios
48.Jump up ^ Crenson, Matt (2006-08-06). "After 10 years, few believe life on Mars". Associated Press (on usatoday.com]). Retrieved 2009-12-06.
49.Jump up ^ McKay, David S.; et al. (1996). "Search for Past Life on Mars: Possible Relic Biogenic Activity in Martian Meteorite ALH84001". Science 273 (5277): 924–930. Bibcode:1996Sci...273..924M. doi:10.1126/science.273.5277.924. PMID 8688069.
50.Jump up ^ The real Adolf Hitler and the real Bill Clinton in Contact (Video from Contact, and commentary) Critical Commons. Retrieved: 2013-07-21.
51.Jump up ^ Remarks on the Possible Discovery of Life on Mars and an Exchange With Reporters William J. Clinton at The American Presidency Project, 1996-08-07.
52.Jump up ^ The President's News Conference William J. Clinton at The American Presidency Project, 1994-10-07.
53.^ Jump up to: a b c Staff (1997-07-15). "Cameo crisis on 'Contact'". Variety. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
54.^ Jump up to: a b c Staff (1996-12-30). "Zoetrope sues over 'Contact'". Variety. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
55.^ Jump up to: a b Janet Shprintz (2000-02-13). "Coppola loses 'Contact'". Variety. Retrieved 2009-01-28.
56.^ Jump up to: a b c Paul Karon (1998-02-17). "Coppola's 'Contact' claim is dismissed". Variety. Retrieved 2009-01-28.
Further reading[edit]
Keay Davidson (1999). Carl Sagan: A Life. New York City: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-471-25286-7.
External links[edit]
 Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Contact (1997 film)
Contact at the Internet Movie Database
Contact at allmovie
Contact at Rotten Tomatoes
Contact at Box Office Mojo
Cinematography analysis
Visual effects analysis
September 8, 1995 screenplay
In-depth analysis of the realism of the film and novel
SETI Institute - Contact the Movie
On Location: Revisiting Contact - a Tribute to Carl Sagan


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Crash (2004 film)
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This article is about the Paul Haggis film. For the David Cronenberg film, see Crash (1996 film).

Crash
Crash ver2.jpg
Theatrical release poster

Directed by
Paul Haggis
Produced by
Paul Haggis
 Mark R. Harris
Bobby Moresco
Don Cheadle
Bob Yari
Cathy Schulman
Screenplay by
Paul Haggis
Story by
Paul Haggis
Starring
Sandra Bullock
 Don Cheadle
Matt Dillon
Jennifer Esposito
William Fichtner
Brendan Fraser
Terrence Howard
Chris "Ludacris" Bridges
Thandie Newton
Ryan Phillippe
Larenz Tate
Music by
Mark Isham
Cinematography
J. Michael Muro
Editing by
Hughes Winborne
Studio
Yari Film Group
DEJ Productions
Distributed by
Lionsgate (US)
Pathé (UK)
Release dates
September 10, 2004 (TIFF)
May 6, 2005 (United States)

Running time
112 minutes[1]
Country
United States
 Germany
Language
English
 Persian
 Spanish
 Mandarin
 Korean
Budget
$6.5 million[2]
Box office
$98,410,061[2]
Crash is a 2004 crime drama film co-written, produced, and directed by Paul Haggis. The film is about racial and social tensions in Los Angeles, California. A self-described "passion piece" for Haggis, Crash was inspired by a real-life incident in which his Porsche was carjacked outside a video store on Wilshire Boulevard in 1991.[3]
Several characters' stories interweave during two days in Los Angeles: a black detective estranged from his mother; his criminal younger brother and gang associate; the white district attorney and his irritated, pampered wife; a racist white police officer who disgusts his more idealistic younger partner; an African American Hollywood director and his wife who must deal with the officer; a Iranian-immigrant father who is wary of others; and a hard-working Hispanic family man, a locksmith. The film differs from many other films about racism in its rather impartial approach to the issue. Rather than separating the characters into victims and offenders, victims of racism are often shown to be racist themselves in different contexts and situations. Also, racist remarks and actions are often shown to stem from ignorance and misconception rather than a malicious personality.
Crash stars a large ensemble cast including Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, Jennifer Esposito, Brendan Fraser, Terrence Howard, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Thandie Newton, Ryan Phillippe, Larenz Tate and Michael Peña. In 2006, the film received six Academy Award nominations and won three for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Film Editing at the 78th Academy Awards.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Reception 3.1 Critical response
3.2 Box office
4 Accolades 4.1 Best Picture Oscar
5 Music 5.1 Score
5.2 iTunes Version (Complete Score)
5.3 Soundtrack
6 Home media
7 Television series
8 See also
9 References
10 External links

Plot[edit]


 This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (April 2013)
Farhad, a Persian shop owner, and his daughter, Dorri, argue with a gun store owner as Farhad tries to buy a revolver. After the shop keeper grows impatient and orders Farhad outside, Dorri defiantly finishes the gun purchase, which she had opposed. She selects a red box of ammunition. In another part of town, Rick Cabot, the local district attorney, and his wife Jean are carjacked as they are about to enter their Lincoln Navigator by two black men: Anthony and Peter. Later, at the Cabot house, Hispanic locksmith Daniel Ruiz is changing their locks when he overhears Jean complaining about having been carjacked and now having to endure a Hispanic man changing their locks, feeling he will give copies of the keys to "his other gang members." Detectives Waters and Ria next arrive at the scene of a shooting between two drivers. The surviving shooter is a white male, identified as an undercover police officer. The dead shooter, a black male, is revealed also to be an undercover police officer. There is a large amount of cash found in the black officer's trunk. This is the third time the white officer has shot and killed a black man.
LAPD officer John Ryan and his partner, Tom Hansen, begin their evening patrol. They pull over a Navigator similar to the one carjacked earlier, despite discrepancies in the descriptions. They order the couple, TV director Cameron Thayer and his wife Christine, to exit. Cameron is cooperative, but Christine is argumentative. This annoys Ryan, who manually molests Christine under the pretense of administering a pat-down; intimidated, Cameron says nothing. The couple is released without a citation. Once home, Christine becomes enraged that Cameron did nothing while she was being violated. Cameron insists that what he did was correct and storms out. Arriving home from work long after dark, Daniel finds his young daughter, Lara, hiding under her bed after hearing a gunshot outside. To comfort her, Daniel gives her an "invisible impenetrable cloak," which makes her feel safe enough to fall asleep in her bed. In the carjacked SUV, Anthony and Peter, arguing and distracted, hit an Asian man while passing a parked white van. They argue about what to do with him, finally dumping him in front of a hospital and driving away.
The next day, at the LAPD station, Hansen talks to his superior, Lt. Dixon, about switching partners. Dixon, a black man, claims that Hansen's charge of Ryan as a racist could cost both Hansen and Dixon their jobs. Dixon suggests a transfer to a one-man car and mockingly tells Hansen that he should justify it by claiming to have uncontrollable flatulence. Ryan visits Shaniqua Johnson, a "managed care" insurance representative with whom he argued earlier. He explains that his father was previously diagnosed with a bladder infection but he fears it may be prostate cancer. Ryan wants him to see a different doctor, but Shaniqua denies the request. Ryan then proceeds to insult Shaniqua by calling her an affirmative action hire; Shaniqua has him escorted out of her office. Daniel is seen replacing a lock at Farhad's shop and tries to explain to him that the door frame needs to be replaced. Farhad, whose English is limited, misunderstands and accuses Daniel of cheating him and refuses to pay. The next morning, Farhad discovers the store has been wrecked and defaced with graffiti. His insurance company does not cover the damage, calling it a case of negligence due to the defective door, so he vows revenge on Daniel. Detective Waters visits his mother, a some-time hard drug abuser. She asks him to find his missing younger brother; he promises and takes notice that there is almost no food in the apartment as he is leaving.
Ryan comes across a car accident and as he crawls into the overturned vehicle, he finds Christine trapped. Upon recognizing Ryan, Christine becomes hysterical, but gasoline is leaking from the tank and running downhill towards another wreck, which has already caught fire. He calms her down, and with the assistance of his partner and spectators, Ryan pulls Christine out just as her car bursts into flames. Anthony and Peter attempt to carjack Cameron, who reached his limit of being pushed around and resists. Anthony tells Peter to shoot Cameron, but Peter does not. As police officers arrive, Cameron and Anthony both race for the car and jump in. Cameron drives away, with Anthony continuing to hold a gun on him. A car chase ensues; one of the police responders to the chase is Tom Hansen, who recognizes the vehicle. Cameron drives to a dead end, grabs Anthony's gun, and gets out of the car, all the while yelling insults at the officers. Just before he pulls out the gun, Hansen convinces him to stop aggravating the situation and just go home. Hansen vouches for Cameron to the other officers, promising to give him a "harsh" warning. Later, Cameron tells Anthony that as a black man he is embarrassed for him and drops Anthony at a bus stop.
Farhad locates Daniel's home address and travels there with his gun. As Daniel's wife Elizabeth watches in horror, Farhad shoots at Daniel as Daniel's daughter Lara jumps into his arms to protect her father with the "invisible cloak." It takes the grief-stricken parents a moment to realize that Lara is miraculously unharmed; the box of ammunition that Dorri had selected contained blanks. Farhad later tells his daughter that he believes that the little girl was his angel, saving him from committing a terrible crime. Jean is complaining to someone she knows over the phone that she's angry every day and doesn't know why. Just after, she slips and falls down a flight of stairs. Later, she talks with Rick and it's revealed that she's okay, thanks to the maid she had previously treated badly. Peter, who is hitchhiking, is picked up by Hansen. Peter sees that Hansen has a small statuette of Saint Christopher like his own. He begins to laugh as he realizes that there is no difference between the two of them, but Hansen thinks that he is being racist. Peter then pulls his statuette out of his pocket, but Hansen thinks it is a gun and shoots and kills Peter. Hansen dumps the body and then torches his own car.
Peter is revealed to be Waters' missing brother. Waters and his mother meet up at the morgue, and Waters promises to find who is responsible. His mother tells him she blames him for his brother's death. Anthony returns to the white van owned by the Asian man that they had run over earlier. Finding the keys still hanging from the door lock, he drives the van away. The Asian man's wife Kim Lee arrives at a hospital looking for her husband, named Choi Jin Gui and the man who was run over. Conscious and coherent, he tells her to go and immediately cash a check that he has in his wallet. Anthony has driven the white van to a chop shop he frequents, and as they inspect the van, a number of Asian immigrants are discovered in the back of the van, revealing that Choi was involved in people smuggling. Anthony is offered $500 for each person in the van.
Lastly, a white van is parked in Chinatown, where Anthony sets the Asians free. As Anthony drives away, he passes a minor crash, which turns out to involve Shaniqua. Shaniqua and the other driver hurl racial insults at one another.
Cast[edit]
Karina Arroyave as Elizabeth
Sandra Bullock as Jean Cabot
Dato Bakhtadze as Lucien
Thandie Newton as Christine Thayer
Terrence Howard as Cameron Thayer
Matt Dillon as Officer John Ryan
Don Cheadle as Det. Graham Waters
Ryan Phillippe as Officer Tom Hansen
Keith David as Lt. Dixon
Jennifer Esposito as Ria
William Fichtner as Flanagan
Brendan Fraser as Rick Cabot
Chris "Ludacris" Bridges as Anthony
Larenz Tate as Peter Waters
Michael Peña as Daniel Ruiz
Shaun Toub as Farhad
Bahar Soomekh as Dorri
Loretta Devine as Shaniqua Johnson
Tony Danza as Fred
Reception[edit]
Critical response[edit]
The film received mostly positive reviews. Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reporting that 148 out of the 196 reviews they tallied were positive, for a score of 76% positive reviews and a certification of "fresh," with an average score of 7.1 out of 10,[4] while Metacritic tallied an average score of 69 out of 100 for Crash's critical consensus.[5] Roger Ebert gave the film four-out-of-four stars and described it as "a movie of intense fascination,"[6] listing it as the best film of 2005. The film also ranks at #460 in Empire's 2008 poll of the "500 Greatest Films of All Time."[7]
From an alternative perspective, the film has been critiqued for "laying bare the racialized fantasy of the American dream and Hollywood narrative aesthetics," and for depicting the Persian shopkeeper as a "deranged, paranoid individual who is only redeemed by what he believes is a mystical act of God."[8] The film has also been criticised for using multicultural and sentimental imagery to cover over material and "historically sedimented inequalities" that continue to affect different racial groups in Los Angeles.[9]
Box office[edit]
Crash opened in wide release on May 6, 2005, and was a box-office success in the late spring of 2005. The film had a budget of $6.5 million (plus $1 million in financing).[2] Because of the financial constraints, director Haggis filmed in his own house, borrowed a set from the TV show Monk, used his car in parts of the film, and even used cars from other staff members.[citation needed] It grossed $53.4 million domestically, making back more than seven times its budget.[2] Despite its success in relation to its cost, Crash was the lowest grossing film at the domestic box office to win Best Picture since The Last Emperor in 1987.[citation needed]
Accolades[edit]
Best Picture Oscar[edit]
Crash won the Best Picture Oscar at the 78th Academy Awards, controversially beating the critically favored Brokeback Mountain and making it only the second film ever (the other being The Sting) to win the Academy Award for Best Picture without having been nominated for any of the three Golden Globe Awards for Best Motion Picture (Best Drama, Best Comedy/Musical and Best Foreign Film).
The film's use of moral quandary as a storytelling medium was widely reported as ironic, since many saw it as the "safe" choice to Brokeback Mountain. Critic Kenneth Turan suggested that Crash benefited from anti-homosexual discomfort among Academy members[10][11] while critic Roger Ebert was of a different opinion, arguing that the better film won that year. He went on to question why many critics weren't mentioning the other nominees and that they were just mindlessly bashing Crash merely because it won over Brokeback Mountain. Ebert also placed Crash on his best ten list as #1 best film of 2005,[12] and correctly predicted it to win Best Picture.[13]
Film Comment magazine placed Crash first on their list of "Worst Winners of Best Picture Oscars," followed by Slumdog Millionaire at #2, and Chicago at #3.[14]
Crash was nominated for six awards at the 78th Academy Awards and won three, including the win for Best Picture. It was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards, one for Best Supporting Actor (Matt Dillon) and the other for Best Screenplay (Paul Haggis and Robert Moresco).
Other awards include Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture at the 2005 Screen Actors Guild Awards; Best Original Screenplay at the Writers Guild of America Awards 2005; Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress (Newton) at the 59th British Academy Film Awards; Best Writer at the Critics' Choice Awards; Outstanding Motion Picture and Outstanding Actor in a Leading Role (Howard) at the Black Movie Awards; Best First Feature and Best Supporting Male (Dillon) at the Independent Spirit Awards; Best Cast and Best Writer at the Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards; and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture (Howard) and Outstanding Motion Picture at the NAACP Image Awards.

Award
Category
Winner(s) and nominee(s)
Outcome
78th Academy Awards Best Director Paul Haggis Nominated
Best Film Editing Hughes Winborne Won
Best Picture Paul Haggis and Cathy Schulman Won
Best Original Song "In the Deep" Nominated
Best Original Screenplay Paul Haggis and Robert Moresco Won
Best Actor in a Supporting Role Matt Dillon Nominated
2006 ALMA Awards Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture Michael Peña Won
1st Austin Film Critics Association Awards Best Director Paul Haggis Won
Best Film
Won
59th BAFTA Film Awards Best Cinematography J. Michael Muro Nominated
Best Director Paul Haggis Nominated
Best Editing Hughes Winborne Nominated
Best Film
Nominated
Best Sound
Nominated
Best Screenplay – Original Paul Haggis and Robert Moresco Won
Best Supporting Actor Don Cheadle Nominated
Best Supporting Actor Matt Dillon Nominated
Best Supporting Actress Thandie Newton Won
Black Reel Awards 2005 Best Actor Don Cheadle Nominated
Best Cast
Won
Best Film
Won
Best Supporting Actor Terrence Howard Won
Best Supporting Actor Matt Dillon Nominated
Best Supporting Actress Thandie Newton Nominated
11th BFCA Critics' Choice Awards Best Cast
Won
Best Director Paul Haggis Nominated
Best Film
Nominated
Best Supporting Actor Matt Dillon Nominated
Best Supporting Actor Terrence Howard Nominated
Best Writer Paul Haggis and Robert Moresco Won
Casting Society of America Awards 2005 Best Film Casting – Drama Sarah Finn and Randi Hiller Won
18th Chicago Film Critics Association Awards Best Film
Won
Best Screenplay Paul Haggis and Robert Moresco Won
Best Supporting Actor Terrence Howard Nominated
Cinema Audio Society Awards 2005 Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for Motion Pictures
Nominated
12th Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Awards Best Supporting Actor Matt Dillon Won
58th Directors Guild of America Awards Outstanding Directorial Achievement Paul Haggis Nominated
Empire Awards Best Actor Matt Dillon Nominated
Best Actress Thandie Newton Won
Best Film
Nominated
Scene of the Year
Nominated
63rd Golden Globe Awards Best Screenplay Paul Haggis and Robert Moresco Nominated
Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture Matt Dillon Nominated
37th NAACP Image Awards Outstanding Motion Picture
Won
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture Terrence Howard Won
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture Chris "Ludacris" Bridges Nominated
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture Don Cheadle Nominated
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture Larenz Tate Nominated
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture Thandie Newton Nominated
17th Producers Guild of America Awards Motion Picture Producer of the Year Paul Haggis and Cathy Schulman Nominated
12th Screen Actors Guild Awards Best Cast
Won
Best Supporting Actor Don Cheadle Nominated
Best Supporting Actor Matt Dillon Nominated
6th Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards Best Supporting Actor Terrence Howard Won
4th Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Awards Best Cast
Won
Best Film
Nominated
Best Screenplay – Original Paul Haggis and Robert Moresco Won
Best Supporting Actor Matt Dillon Nominated
Best Supporting Actor Terrence Howard Nominated
58th Writers Guild of America Awards Best Screenplay – Original Paul Haggis and Robert Moresco Won
Music[edit]
Score[edit]

Question book-new.svg
 This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2012)
All songs were written and composed by Mark Isham, except where noted. The original score was released through labels Gut and Colosseum in 2005. The iTunes release is the complete score released through Yari Music Group, and has the cues isolated and in film order (unlike the commercial score CD which is edited, incomplete, in a different order, and in suite form).[15]

No.
Title
Note
Length

1. "Crash"     3:21
2. "Go Forth My Son"     0:57
3. "Hands in Plain Sight"     3:48
4. "...Safe Now"     1:03
5. "No Such Things as Monsters"     3:59
6. "Find My Baby"     4:23
7. "Negligence"     2:56
8. "Flames"     7:59
9. "Siren"     4:41
10. "A Really Good Cloak"     3:28
11. "A Harsh Warning"     2:51
12. "Saint Christopher"     1:55
13. "Sense of Touch"     6:44
14. "In the Deep"   Co-written by Bird York and Michael Becker; performed by Bird York 5:55
15. "Maybe Tomorrow"   Performed by Stereophonics 4:34
iTunes Version (Complete Score)[edit]

No.
Title
Length

1. "Main Title"   5:14
2. ""We've Got Guns""   1:00
3. "Black Navigator / The Grope"   5:05
4. "A Warning"   1:18
5. "Magic Cloak"   4:00
6. "Back to the Toilet"   1:34
7. ""Your Father Sounds Like a Good Man""   4:22
8. "Negligencia"   1:39
9. "Cameron - Receipt"   2:23
10. "The Rescue"   5:57
11. "News Conference"   2:35
12. "Car Jack II"   1:46
13. ""I Didn't Ask for Your Help""   2:51
14. ""Your Embarrass Me""   1:24
15. "The Shooting"   3:29
16. "Jean's Fall"   1:55
17. "Illegals / Morgue"   6:43
Soundtrack[edit]

Question book-new.svg
 This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2012)
The soundtrack's title is: Crash: Music from and Inspired by the Film.

No.
Title
Artist
Length

1. "If I..."   KansasCali 4:18
2. "Plastic Jesus"   Billy Idol 4:49
3. "Are You Beautiful"   Chris Pierce 2:52
4. "Free"   Civilization 3:43
5. "Hey God"   Randy Coleman 4:04
6. "Take the Pain Away"   Al Berry 4:19
7. "Problems"   Move.meant 3:49
8. "Arrival"   Pale 3/Beth Hirsch 5:08
9. "Acedia (The Noonday Demon)"   Quinn 3:00
10. "In the Deep"   Bird York 3:48
11. "Afraid"   Quincy 5:08
12. "Maybe Tomorrow"   Stereophonics 4:37

Note: The country song playing during the carjacking scene is Whiskey Town by Moot Davis.
Home media[edit]
Crash was released on DVD on September 6, 2005, as widescreen and fullscreen one-disc versions, with a number of bonus features, including a music video by KansasCali (now known as The Rocturnals) for the song "If I..." off of the "Inspired by Soundtrack to Crash." The Director's cut of the film was released in a 2-disc special edition DVD on April 4, 2006, with more bonus content than the one-disc set. The director's cut is three minutes longer than the theatrical cut. The scene where Daniel is talking with his daughter under her bed is extended and a new scene is added with officer Hansen in the police station locker room.[citation needed]
The film also was released in a limited-edition VHS version. It was the last Academy Award (for Best Picture) winning film to be released in the VHS-tape format.[citation needed] It was also the first Best Picture winner to be released on Blu-ray Disc in the United States, on June 27, 2006.[16]
Television series[edit]
Main article: Crash (2008 TV series)
A 13-episode series premiered on the Starz network on October 17, 2008. The series features Dennis Hopper as a record producer in Los Angeles, California, and how his life is connected to other characters in the city, including a police officer (Ross McCall) and his partner, actress-turned-police officer, Arlene Tur. The cast consists of a Brentwood mother (Clare Carey), her real-estate developer husband (D. B. Sweeney), former gang member-turned-EMT (Brian Tee), a street-smart driver (Jocko Sims), an undocumented Guatemalan immigrant (Luis Chavez), and a detective (Nick Tarabay).[17]
See also[edit]
Grand Canyon (1991 film)


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References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "CRASH (15)". British Board of Film Classification. 2005-03-04. Retrieved 2013-05-15.
2.^ Jump up to: a b c d "Crash (2005)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved October 12, 2012.
3.Jump up ^ Crash DVD Commentary Track. 2005.
4.Jump up ^ "Crash". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixter. Retrieved April 30, 2010.
5.Jump up ^ "Crash". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved April 30, 2010.
6.Jump up ^ Ebert, Roger (May 5, 2005). "Crash". Chicago Sun-Times (RogerEbert.com). Retrieved April 30, 2010.
7.Jump up ^ "Empire Features". EmpireOnline.com. Retrieved April 30, 2010.
8.Jump up ^ "Crash and the City". DarkMatter101.org. May 7, 2007. Retrieved April 30, 2010.
9.Jump up ^ "Film Criticism Current Issue". FilmCriticism.Allegheny.edu. Retrieved April 30, 2010.
10.Jump up ^ Turan, Kenneth (March 5, 2006). "Breaking no ground: Why 'Crash' won, why 'Brokeback' lost and how the Academy chose to play it safe". The Los Angeles Times.
11.Jump up ^ "Maybe Crash's upset at the Oscars shouldn't have been such a surprise?". The Los Angeles Times. April 16, 2009.
12.Jump up ^ "The fury of the 'Crash'-lash". Chicago Sun-Times (RogerEbert.com). Retrieved October 12, 2012.
13.Jump up ^ Poland, David (February 28, 2005). "On Ebert & Crash". MovieCityNews.com. Retrieved October 12, 2012.
14.Jump up ^ "Extended Trivial Top 20®". March/April 2012. Retrieved October 12, 2012.
15.Jump up ^ "iTunes - Crash by Mark Isham".
16.Jump up ^ "Historical Blu-ray Release Dates". Bluray.HighDefDigest.com. Retrieved April 30, 2010.
17.Jump up ^ "Crash: A Starz Original Series". Starz.com. Retrieved April 30, 2010.
External links[edit]
 Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Crash (2004 film)
Official website
Crash at the Internet Movie Database
Crash at Box Office Mojo
Crash at Rotten Tomatoes


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Categories: 2004 films
2000s crime films
2000s drama films
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Fictional portrayals of the Los Angeles Police Department
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Films directed by Paul Haggis
Films set in Los Angeles, California
Films set in the San Fernando Valley
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Films whose editor won the Best Film Editing Academy Award
Films whose writer won the Best Original Screenplay Academy Award
Gang films
German crime films
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