Arrival and Linguistic Anthropology

By Sophia Doshi

"Language is the glue that holds people together and the first weapon drawn in a conflict."

I've always found communication and languages interesting, but Arrival opened my eyes to a fascinating realm of new possibilities for language. I watched this movie alone, in my room, at around 11 pm. I wasn't expecting it to be a walk in the park, but I also wasn't expecting it to be this eerie, either. I had (unfortunately) already seen some spoilers on social media about the meaning of the movie, but that was long ago. Enough time passed to make me forget the information. Essentially, I went into this movie blind—not knowing anything about it except "aliens land at random spots on Earth, and in a typical human fashion, humans freak out globally and frantically try to make the unknown known." We'll call that the spoiler-free synopsis, but there will be spoilers ahead.

Amy Adams does a fantastic job in this movie. She simultaneously portrays Louise as extraordinarily intelligent, but also as a human being that is struggling, even suffering, through "trying to make the unknown known". What I also found interesting was the mention of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. In essence, it expands on the idea that the language one speaks drives the way one thinks. 

We learned about this hypothesis in my cultural anthropology class. It was fascinating then and still remains so now. My teacher, originally a college professor with a doctorate in cultural anthropology, explained that communities of people that have languages without a structured way of describing time are often happier and feel more connected with nature. They also gravitate toward living a more natural, structure-free life. Some of these communities have proved in research studies that their timeless language has enabled them to handle money better, both for retirement and in general. Cool, right? Arrival reminded me of that lesson. It transported me back to that windowless cultural anthropology classroom, yet everything I've learned there made me forget about not having the luxury of windows. 

Another great part of Arrival was the soundtrack, which also, in my opinion, is strongly interwoven with the sounds that the heptapods made. Eerie, mysterious, and apprehension-spreading, but enticing all the same. The music had me glued to the screen, and the heptapod's growls and clicks left me wondering what they could possibly mean. 

The last quarter of the movie really conveyed its genius. The hair on the back of my neck rose when Louise was shuttled up to the alien's ship and brought in for the special meet-and-greet with Abbot and Costello. The CGI for her hair was questionable and reminded me of how people were upset with the way that Halle Bailey's hair was animated in The Little Mermaid, but other than that, the scene was chillingly well-done. I also appreciated that subtitles were finally added to explain the symbols that the heptapods were... inking? Is that the right word? I'm pretty sure their form of visual communication was organic because the heptapods were based on organisms like squid and/or octopus, and they're known to excrete ink when startled. 

Overall, I don't really know if I will come across another sci-fi book-to-film adaptation like Arrival. It was impressive and the plot twist was the cherry on top of the beautiful cinematography and plot development. The one thing I would have liked to see from this movie was a sequel. There are no presiding sequels in the form of a book, so there is no reason for Denis Villeneuve to direct another sequel, even though it would probably do quite well at the box office. 

My overall rating for the movie is:
Cinematography - 10/10
Characters - 9/10
Pacing - 10/10
Plot - 10/10
Overall - 10/10

Cover image from IMDb