One of the basic foundations of Language and Communications came from “The medium is the message”, a famous phrase coined by Marshall McLuhan in his book, Understanding Media: the Extensions
of Man, which was published in 1964. McLuhan proposes that a medium itself, and not the content it carries, should be the focus of study. He said that a medium affects the society in which it plays a role not only through the content delivered through the medium, but also through the characteristics of the medium itself.
This introduction can help us better understand the dramatic science fiction film, ARRIVAL. This American film was produced in 2016 and was considered by the American Film Institute as one of the top 10 major films of the year.

Arrival was directed by Denis Villeneuve with Amy Adams (Lois Lane in Man of Steel), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye in Thor and Bourne Legacy), Forest Whitaker (Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland) and Michael Stuhlbarg (computer scientist and inventor Andy Hertzfeld in the biopic Steve Jobs) as the main actors.

Eric Heisserer’s screenplay for Arrival was based on the 1998 short story “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang.

Arrival earned various Oscars and Golden Globe nominations but won only the best sound editing of the Oscars as well as the 2017 Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation. It has also received a lot of positive movie reviews.

My take is that most of the movie was filmed almost with dimmed lights, maybe to add more drama to it, though its plot is more than enough drama. All the actors played their roles well, especially Amy Adams who was nominated for best actress in this film.
The plot of the film is intense because the viewer can feel that he/she is part of the story.
After several very intense and dramatic moments, Louise Banks (Amy Adams) lived with her only daughter in a life that eventually ended in tragedy, she decided to resume her work as an expert linguist professor in a Massachusetts University. While she was teaching, 12 extra-terrestrial spacecraft landed in different major cities in countries around the world. Each country involved summoned its best Communications and Language experts to communicate with the aliens, in an effort to find out their intentions.

Louise was chosen to be one of them together with physicist, Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner). Communications with the two 7-legged aliens representing the 12 extra-terrestrial spacecraft were fraught with difficulties. Their other-worldy language seemed nothing in common with ours until Louise understood that her own dramatic experience with her daughter could help them interpret and understand what the aliens wanted and intended to do. Obviously to heighten the climax of the story, war and violence were elements introduced so that they seemed to be the only recourse, until finally something truly extraordinary happened through communication. I have to cut my short storytelling here, so as not to give away the whole story.

What lessons can we draw from this film? First, we learn that any language, which
is a form of communication, always needs some feedback for better understanding. Q&As exist not just as formulas to facilitate conversations and interviews, but also
to learn and understand more about the content of the exchange between the communicator and the receiver.

If the “medium is the message” as Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase to prove
his communication concepts, then the medium or the media in this film were manifold. The 12 alien spaceships and their positions in different cities of the world, the 2 “heptapods” aliens as they were called in the film, the “flashforward” experiences of Louise Banks, the monitor showing the representatives of the 12 countries in a video-conference, the military equipment on exhibit by different countries, the spacesuits worn by the actors, and the satellite mobile phone Dr. Banks (Amy Adams) used were just several mediums that in themselves conveyed a message or became the message itself.

Everyone desired to have peace and unity in the world but nobody seemed to have the patience, the understanding and energy needed to pursue these goals as everyone seemed easily led to do the opposite.

Viewers can feel a great desire to have the presence of the Divine in this film through the hunger and thirst of people around
the world for God though He was never mentioned. Yet due to this strong desire
to have or to know more of the Divine, people seemed to be trying to play God through their decisions, by using even their mandates as prime authority of the countries they represented.

Thankfully, an intervention happened that changed the whole situation of the world.
After the flash-forward experience of Louise Banks, life seemed to be still worth living even if one knows how it will end because it is still Love that counts in everything and that will remain.

Roberto A. Samson