Contact is a war film that might have been made by Anthony Mann in its depiction of a platoon of English soldiers patrolling the border between Northern and Southern Ireland. There are no real characters (though Sean Chapman is riveting as the demoralized officer), and very little talk. Instead, we see the implacable prowling in idyllic terrain, searching for guns, trouble, or mines. It is as if the "Irish problem" had been filmed by a shell-shocked bird in a blasted tree, equipped with infrared night-sight vision. -David Thomson