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Analyzing The Film 'Arrival'

Decent Essays

Arrival was a sci-fi Drama set in the present day and conveyed a message of community and communication we could all learn from. In the original screenplay Louise Banks was introduced as being charming and hopeful with a perspective on stories and where they begin and end. Throughout the completed film, Amy Adam’s portrayed Louise as more mellow. Louise seemed overly sad and lonely without reason. Granted, its conveyed that she is sad because her daughter died from a rare disease. But, about three quarters of the way through the film it’s discovered that Louise was seeing the future and not the past. In essence, her daughter hasn’t been born yet, so why is she so serious and brooding? In the screenplay, Louise’s “normal day” carried on several pages too long. The film effectively snipped the minutia away and added more meaningful, engaging events leading up to the “Arrival.” For example, the classroom scene was greatly reduced, and the film was still able to convey that aliens had landed and everyone was nervous about their intentions. It also allowed for time to focus more on Louise as a character. The film also incorporated other countries into the story. China was communicating with their aliens with a game. This is where the “offer weapon” storyline came in, so it wasn’t all …show more content…

This allowed time for the strongest tentpole of the screenplay, which is was when Ian discovered that the humans timeline wasn’t ending, it was just beginning depending on how you look at it. And also that, because they had been communicating with the aliens through a window, the words they had been receiving were backwards. The film also partially omitted Louis’s development of a more in depth relationship with the alines and just how completely she begins to understand their language and time line structure. It was included, but was less rewarding and

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