I have had similar prompts to this task, however I recently have watched the movie Arrival for one of Neil Shelleys’ film classes and it has provided me with a new concept/film to talk about when asked questions similar to this one. This film challenges the mind of the audience because the events that take place are shown non-linearly. Like time, most movies go in order from past to present, however this movie was directed to be future and then past which is an interesting take on an alien movie. One character however in this film, changed my perspective on communication, acceptance and patience which are all tools that are critical for the real world.
The character Louise Banks played by Amy Adams seemed to get through and work well for me because she was the first to advance her mind and accept it. The main conflict in this movie in a language barrier between the aliens who came to visit Earth and the inhabitants of the planet. Everyone, including the general of U.S.’s military as well as other armies all believed the aliens were dangerous and were planning to attack Earth. Although this was not prominant it was assumed because the Americans as well as the Chinese and Russians weren’t able to communicate with the aliens they way they needed to.
The generals of all armies gave Louise (the translator) a very short period of time to prove they weren’t dangerous before they planned on killing the aliens. The aliens don’t speak but rather shoot ink in certain patterns to communicate. Louise could not figure out what they were trying to say in the time she needed to. She developed a safe and healthy connection with the aliens trying to communicate with them, but began to lose the connection due to her surrounding forces who had lack of hope. One of the largest “planned violence” scenes occurred when the all militaries logged off of online and decided to make the order to kill them. All of the military trucks were on their way, Louise picked up a phone within the base camp and negotiated terms with the Chinese in order to call the attack to a stop. She used the skills the aliens had provided her, which was the gift of viewing time non-linearly. It took courage and action to stand up and change a national leaders mind about his commanded army. She had hope for the aliens, patience and tried her hardest to communicate. To me this can be taken into into the real world. When you meet someone you don’t know, they seem alien to you. You may not understand them or know their intentions at first, but if you’re open minded, and patient a lot can be learned.
The lessons that can be taken away from this story are that the human race should push their fears of the unknown behind them . We should try our best to keep an open mind in order to unite behind a shared goal for the common good. As well has the concepts of patience, open-mindedness, and acceptance.
