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Arrival (2016)
Ever since the silent film A Trip to the Moon was shown in 1902 audiences have turned to Science Fiction for creative images of life beyond earth. Generally speaking, Sci-Fi’s play on our fears and curiosity about alien threats, or their appearance, or their technology. The film Arrival (2016) takes a different approach by looking at the challenges of language when first contact is made. Under a thick layer of American propaganda, the film also offers a sermon about global cooperation.
The central storyline is simple: twelve huge elliptical extra-terrestial objects arrive on earth and hover just above ground level in twelve locations across the globe. While each nation carries out its own threat assessments, the Americans opt to explore how to communicate with the visitors rather than default to military options. Our heroine is accomplished linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams) who leads a team assigned to enter the spacecraft and assess if humans can communicate with the visitors. Paired with physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner) they represent the soft and hard faces of science. When contact is made with the tentacled aliens via a glass-like wall it becomes evident that dialogue is possible using a form of circular symbols.
Global panic erupts when linguistic trial and error decodes a symbol for “weapon” and China prepares to attack even though Louise believes the translation is ambiguous. In the midst of the crisis, she is haunted by visions of her daughter who died of a rare disease. The visions gradually transition from memories to predictions. Unlike human linear memory the aliens have circular memory that connects the past, present and future. Her flashbacks and flash-forwards are the key to understanding the film but they add a layer of narrative confusion in the process.
The film’s unsurprising message is that when alien contact occurs the future of the planet will depend on global cooperation. This theme is packaged inside a story that is told with digital effects that are modest by today’s standards. Some will feel let down by the unimaginative spindly alien forms that are kept at a hazy distance within the concrete bunker-like spaceship setting. The back-story of Louise’s personal life is a distracting melodrama and the concept of memory circularity is a weak idea on which to base the plot. That the Hollywood dream-factory makes America the global saviour again is not new. Unlike other visually ground-breaking Sci-Fi’s this one is more about ideas than spectacle. But it is a thought-provoking film about the technology of language and it works well at this level.
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Stars: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker
CineMuseFilms 
could not agree more and yes, in my own review missed the part about American propaganda.
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I dont mind some in-your-face American supremacy but a more subtle touch works better cinematically.
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So many films I haven’t seen. But I have seen this one, and liked it a lot.
https://beetleypete.wordpress.com/2016/11/12/just-been-watching-22/
Thanks for following my blog, which is much appreciated.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Oh wow, cinemusefilms, it looks like we had a significantly different experience concerning this film! I didn’t really consider the pro-America angle, as this is typical of so many American sci-fi films. It’s so funny that you begin your review with the 1902 Melies film. I did the same in writing my review (I promise that I didn’t see your blog until AFTER I wrote my review), but I kind of went in a different directtion. Honestly, I loved this film. It was poetic, visually lovely, and the electronic film score effectively supported the surrealistic atmosphere. See cinemascooper.com, and let me know what you think!
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You have written a great review and I’m glad you like the film so much. I had several difficulties with the film. Like the memory circularity concept is meaningless, the aliens and spaceship are very old-fashioned special effects, the USA propaganda a bit over the top, and the romantic back-story was on the melodramatic side. But it does raise many interesting lines of thought about the role of language when alien contact is eventually made. Thanks for commenting here.
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I certainly appreciate your concern about the USA propaganda angle, and there’s nothing here technically that supersedes “Independence Day” or anything like it. But I really think there’s some poetic–and –poignant about the existential crisis the main character faces as a result of her involvement with the alien project. You know, in considering this film, I am reminded of Ray Bradbury’s beautiful short story, “The Golden Apples of the Sun.” Have you read it? The plot concerns a space ship that goes to the sun and digs up a piece of it for transport to Earth. How ridiculous is that? But the story is written so well an so poetically that you really don’t care.
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I loved this film but never noticed the propaganda until reading your reviews (and I consider myself relatively critical of the America First mentality and strong American Nationalism). I guess as an American I’m so inundated with the narrative that I don’t even see it when it’s there. I do think the film has something to say about our treatment of the “other” – about not rushing to judgement and displaying hostility to those who are strange or “alien” to us (no pun intended). And I loved what they did with the alien’s language. Still, the America propaganda and demonizing of China is problematic. Thanks for the perspective!
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Thanks for responding; its interesting how we miss the obvious until its pointed out by ‘others’, in this case, an Aussie. Many of our home grown films are also easier to critique from elsewhere.
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