The Magnificent Arrival of a New Language
ARRIVAL
Screenplay by Eric Heisserer
Based on "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang
Starring
Amy Adams
Jeremy Renner
Forest Whitaker
Michael Stuhlbarg
Tzi Ma
Production companies
FilmNation Entertainment
Lava Bear Films
21 Laps Entertainment
Release date
September 1, 2016 (Venice Film Festival)
November 11, 2016 (United States)
Running time 116 minutes
Language is the foundation of civilization. It is the glue that holds a people together. It is the first weapon drawn in a conflict.
~ Dr. Louise Banks.
Arrival is the latest movie project by director Denis Villeneuve and it is also his first PG-13 feature film. This movie mixes drama and mystery with touches of the science-fiction world. The thriller is based on the short story 'Story of Your Life" written by Ted Chiang. Although it is true that some facts from the original story have been changed due to the amount of characteristics and details that it contained, it seems that the scent of the story has not been modified in this film which is something that we —who have read it— thank a lot. Plus, the movie pushes you to pay attention and note every detail that is said because of the scenes effects and cuts that Villeneuve and his team used in the post production. For Arrival has been also created an alien language which is a totally functional and visual one. That said, it has had a really good acceptance from the public.
Despite knowing the journey... and where it leads... I embrace it... and I welcome every moment of it.
~ Dr. Louise Banks.
Arrival tells us the story of the linguist Dr. Louise Banks. Since the moment they arrived she has been having certain unclear special short visions which seems to be memories of her life due to their contents. However, these memories or visions are not very specific in the movie and at the beginning they just seem to be images without any sense, but as the movie goes she and we start to understand what is the real meaning behind them. And at the same time, she learns to take advantage of them. The plot or the film's focus is to captivate us with her life since the mysterious arrival of an alien species to the Earth, it shows us the adventure that Louise has to live to discover the real purpose of them through the knowledge of a new language completely unknown for the human race.
The way in which the story is narrated is interesting because the movie is also narrated in first person by Louise makes it more entertaining, because of what it actually means —we can understand and experience first-hand what she is thinking with every little progress she makes in finding out why they arrived.
In addition, this movie makes us open-mind to a different perspective of our own world. Through the movie we can see that even when people is confronted as a whole —like facing something completely unknown for human beings they are very selfish even if it is for the humanity's sake and the words "global war" are easily brought to light in a situation that can be so stressful like this one. Also, having the time against you plus having your life threaten do not make things easier. Simultaneously, if we are realistic then we can say that this situation is completely possible due to the among of unexplored space in the universe, maybe in many or a few years in the future this would get to be our situation.
We think it is a movie there are many interesting parts and they all need to be featured on this post, but in this opportunity we are going to name just two of our favorite parts. One of them was watching the aliens writing in their language, because it is very amazing and captivating to see the forms of their "words" and "sentences" and while it is true that the movie is no longer enough for us to learn it by heart, it is enough for us to want to try it. Another fascinating part of this movie was the first time Louise went up to the strange spacecraft in which aliens arrived, because as they started walking by the road —gravity changed. And we do know they were coming from a unknown planet, therefore it was supposed to be normal that there was some changes in gravity, but with the edition of the movie, they were able to confuse our minds. Also, this movie shows us and opens our minds to the fact that a linguist is able to acquire languages that are peculiar and unknown for the rest of the human race.
But now I'm not so sure I believe in beginnings and endings. There are days that define your story beyond your life. Like the day they arrived.
~ Dr. Louise Banks.
Overall, Arrival is a movie that can catch you without you even noticing. If you give it a try you will be plunged into a world where humans have to learn to work as a whole and to be respectful to one another in order to survive within the parameters of discovering a complete new reality like knowing aliens do exist, because this movie breaks the paradigm that our society has —aliens bring with them the purpose of breaking out a war with human race. Maybe for a time humans just would have to worry for aliens in movies because it is a very distance idea, but we can say that taking one or maybe two facts about alien movies can help us in the future.
Written by Evelyn Jofré
Edited by Nicole Mella
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