The Effective Science Fiction of Arrival | Video Essay
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- Опубліковано 27 сер 2019
- In today's video we take a look a one of my favorite recent science fiction movies: Arrival
If you haven't seen it yet you should definitely go and check it out before watching the video essay.
We examine how Arrival is such an effective sci-fi movie by the way it by presents a complex idea in a simple way.
Video essay made by Moises & Sergio Velasquez
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Twitter: / moivel
-------------Sources:
1- 2:07 Interview with Bradford Young: www.latimes.com/entertainment...
2- 5:52 The earliest use of the quote is by Ray Cummings.
-------------Editor's notes:
* 5:05 I realized the only physical calendar I own was a Snoopy dog house.
------------- Music:
Time Mysteries by Eduardo Gonzalez
/ time-mysteries
/ @edgmusic
#ScienceFiction #Arrival - Фільми й анімація
What Sci-fi movie do you keep thinking about?
Stalker by Andrei Tarkovsky
Arrival is one of my favorite with Interstellar and Life (as a Lovecraftian survival scifi), I was so glad to see this notification pops.
Her by Spike Jonze
This one definitely kept me thinking after I saw it. My friend and I had a lengthy conversation about time and the nature of communication and how it shapes our thinking and reality. Really great stuff. Keep it up!
You know, for all its problems, I still keep thinking about Contact, all these 20 ish years after it came out. It had some good ideas.... Some of the time anyway.
I was a linguistics major and it always annoyed me that first contact stories never properly explored how the hell we would communicate. This movie was everything I ever wanted from a first contact story.
There's a bunch of hard sci-fi novels that treat the question really seriously. I would suggest looking into them. One I read recently was The Hercules Text - it focused less on the language, however, and more on the ramifications that first contact would have on human society.
Not the ending, I hope? The linguistics part was fantastic until the 'time mind magic' at the end. Learning a language may reshape your brain on a literal level, but it does NOT add entire structures that aren't already there.
Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
@@anti0918One of the best episodes ever
The story and the the movie "Contact" do a very good job on that topic too, I think.
Good old Carl Sagan based the communication mostly on mathematics, the language of the universe itself.^^
I think Amy Adams deserved an Oscar nomination for this. The entire movie hinges on her performance and she plays it with exactly the amount of subtlety and ambiguity it needs
I heard she almost made the cut for the nomination. It's a shame, her performance in this piece is by far one of the movie highlights.
She is underrated. She, in my opinion, is the best actress but due to Hollywood's own politics as well as her not choosing "other means" suppresses her under other lesser talented actresses. She gave another exhilrating performance in Nocturnal Animals too.
@@TheClinchMagazine i love Nocturnal Animals, what a brilliant movie
@@TheClinchMagazine i love Nocturnal Animals, what a brilliant movie
@@TheClinchMagazine I'm sorry, but Amy "one-face" Adams can be only overrated, never underrated.
The Heptapod language is non-linear, meaning that they don't communicate information bound by time direction. They don't talk in a series, they can talk backwards, sideways, all at once, past, future.
Which kind of eludes to why China was the first to establish meaningful communication; they used a board game, in which the relay of information between the players (the “language” of the game, if you will) is the moves that the other makes. And in Mahjong, you often have to think ahead and think backwards and connect what had happened to what will happen, or what might happen.
As I understood it, both from the book and the movie, the heptapod language was like a huge three-dimensional matrix, with no particular point in that matrix given precedence over any other. Therefore, all the possible points of time--and we must presume that they are infinite, like points on a single line--can be regarded in any sequence required. Or no particular sequence at all.
From a strictly mathematical perspective, this is entirely logical. If a single line can be demonstrated to have an infinite number of points, and a two-dimensional plane also has infinite number of lines, and a three dimensional figure like a cube has an infinite number of planes, then we can logically extend that to the multidimensional artifact we call "time."
It takes a mighty imagination to conceive of that and then place humans into that complex matrix to see how they react. I deeply admire Ted Chiang, the author of "The Story of Your Life." He's not particularly prolific, but what he does write is absolutely brilliant, every time. The man has some very high standards for his own work and we are all the more fortunate for it.
Could be that in those cases the alien "words" were the whole game of moves and countermoves from start to finish, forwards and backwards. The movie itself points out all the baggage humans bring with their interpretation of the games.
My impression is that the film is unconsciously elaborating on a thorny philosophical problem in analytic philosophy, namely the indeterminacy of translation between languages and the issue therefore of Truth. Quine talked about the indeterminacy of meaning in his masterwork “Word and Object” and to cut a long philosophical story short, for truth to operate through language between speaking beings there needs to be a Metalanguage that transcends the particular languages, that both beings have access to, I think the film suggests that this deeper knowing operates through some kind of cosmic love lrinciple
China wanted to go to war because the heptapods were like "lol winnie the pooh"
@@fizywig what are you on about? That metalanguage is the physical reality, that's how any mono-linguistic situation goes. You try to establish a vocabulary by showing common nouns and verbs. That's what they did in the movie.
"Cosmic Love Principle" is nowhere even part of the movie, are you confusing Interstellar with this?
I'm so glad this movie is getting more coverage over the past couple of months, I remember first watching the movie a couple of years ago and thinking to myself "I wish this movie won awards."
Honest to god one of the best movies I've seen in a long time.
It really is 👍
@@Screened awesome analysis btw thank you for analyzing such an amazing film!
Such a fantastic movie. It explains so well these difficult to communicate ideas. It should be added to our culture's mythology to serve as a reference for talking about these ideas in generations to come.
Arrival was one of two movies I've ever seen where, after it ended, the audience stood in awe for a few moments and then stood up and started clapping respectfully. I was so impressed with it, I cried in joy. It proves something that I always believed to be true, but couldn't prove myself - that one doesn't need a McGuffin to make a _contact_ story interesting, there's no need to rely on irrationality, violent aliens or dumb humans to create drama, it's enough to just let aliens be aliens and humans be humans. The sense of wonder of meeting the unknown is more than interesting enough to drive a story.
Great movie 👍
nicely put
Beautifully said, Andre. I also cried a little because it was so good
Oddly, this is one of the most romantic movies I've ever seen.
it is. feels like a love letter.
You're not outraged by the protagonists behaviour at the end?
@@louisburke8927 No. I think if she had chosen to avoid creating her daughter, it would have been a very disturbing ending. It wouldn't be murder, but the conscious prevention of a wonderful little girl she already seen live and learn and love, which is almost as egregious I think.
@@louisburke8927 that's the question asked. "if you could see you whole life, what would you change?" she chose to change nothing
This channel is unbelievably underrated. All the content is exceptional
The deep voice also helps
Thank you 👍
I still don’t understand why this masterpiece didn’t win best screenplay in 2017
Yeah it's too bad
In all fairness, 2016 was a *stacked* year. It could be argued that Moonlight deserved to be in Original Screenplay rather than Adapted (based on an unpublished stage play), and if it had, I think Arrival would have been a solid contender for the win. But it's hard to argue against Moonlight winning for its screenplay - it, too, is a masterpiece in its own right.
It's because all the awards are given out by pre-defined projects of friends of friends and seem rarely driven by objectivity.
Good movies will never win awards. And now we are living in an age of 'woke'ness where only 'black' movies are championed even when they don't deserve it.
Probably because the premise was already explored by Vonnegut decades before.
The Arrival weighed on me heavily. The director perfectly captured the mental fatigue the characters went through. I was exhausted, by the end of the movie. The next closest experience I've ever had was GoT S6E09. When Jon Snow was under that pile of bodies, my chest felt constricted...I was also exhausted, at the end of that episode.
The Arrival is a well written work of art
Alexander Supertramp That's because it's based off great source material
I'm no longer gonna be surprised to see you in nearly all the videos I watch. But say you have good tastes. Thumbs up!
agreed.
I think youre a weebs
And I'm here to claim that novel "story of your life" (source material) was better.
9:05 The concrete answer is that we know we are going to die, but that doesn't stop us from living and loving, inventing and creating, better ourselves and thrive for the betterment of others. If we only focus on death, our lives would be constant despair towards the inevitable.
If the premise of the movie were true then no, we would not die... but we would.... If the universe exists as described here with no differentiation between past, present and future then we too would always exist in each moment of our lives.
I liked your analogy about the telescope and microscope.😀
Thank you 👍
I loved this movie so much. I ultimately agreed with the adapted change from the rock climbing accident, b/c reading a short story provides a lot more opportunity to get into the protagonist’s mind. I think if they had kept it the same for the film, viewers might have been too distracted by their harsh judgment of Louise to understand fully the compelling philosophical issues it raised. Ted Chiang praised the adaption.
I completely agree with you, it would've been very difficult to explain how Louise felt that she had to allow things to happen the way they're supposed to. By taking the choice away from her made it more difficult in the sense that her choice is to have her daughter or not.
I really think Arrival is a masterpiece and I don't get why this is a controversial opinion. Under videos about this movie there's almost always people arguing about it's quality. For me Arrival hit the right emotional places, made me reconsider my reality, wonder how a language like this would impact our society, how I would react in a situation like this, etc. It really moved me, and I think that's what a good movie should do.
This movie was so satisfying. Even the use of fractured story telling didn't feel misplaced. Utterly wonderful to have such a level of thought put into a different intelligence and have them be depicted as non-humanoid too.
this was in my recommended list, i paused after the spoiler warning and watched the movie before coming back and watching the video 10/10 thank you for that! it was an experience!
Glad you liked it 👍
First I was like “Oh look, a video essay about a film I thoroughly enjoyed quite a while ago but have almost forgotten about, let’s check it out”
10 minutes later I’m questioning my existence
This movie broke my heart man! But I would have wanted to experience my child also, it’s a beautiful joy!
Let’s give a moment to one and only Johann Johannsson. Such a tragedy the world won’t ever experience his unique storytelling through absolutely mesmerizing music.
Man you really love talking about movies that tell stories non-linearly
Superb analysis! "The best science-fiction movies are those that leaving you questioning...yourself." I could not have put it better.
I watch this movie at least once a month. I love language and the idea of first contact. Even just among other humans who don't speak the same language. The music is incredible too.
Yes great music 👍
I’ve always felt like the movie perfectly captured some of our favorite components of sci-fi. We get to see the hero’s journey, just in a different order than we originally interpreted it. We see development through an otherworldly encounter. We even get to learn about an invisible string tying the events and components of the movie. Watching it, you almost feel like this movie could have happened without the aliens. They seem to facilitate those great questions: what if I could see the future? Would I change things?
One of my favorite youtubers makes a video essay of one of my favorite films of that year ♥️
Great movie 👍
It’s one of my favorites also. Could you recommend some other sci-fi films in a similar vein you’ve enjoyed?
Arrival is the best movie I've ever watched. It almost made me cry
Great movie 👍
Easily one of my top ten movies, great performances from the whole cast, incredible cinematography and superb writing.
What are your other top movies? :)
This channel has really helped me expand my writing and delve deep into first caring about and later developing my characters. When my books get made into movies I hope the story fits right in with this channel and they do a video about it, I'd be so happy
Pay no attention to the troll. You're on the right track. Your characters are the most important part, not the technical aspects, not even the plot--although it helps to have an interesting one to work with. Your stories should ALWAYS be about the people, else why read them? We have enough bang-wow-gee whiz stories already. Stay with the people--and when you have a moment, look up the origins of "The World as Myth." If you haven't read Heinlein's "The Number of the Beast," then I suggest that you do so, then carefully consider the possibility that you are creating a real universe with real people every time you sit down to write. Don't laugh; it's no crazier than any other philosophy we humans have invented. But it will cause you to respect your creations a little more and care about them--even if you have to kill them off because the plot requires it.
This is one of the best films of the last decade, let alone one of the best sci-fi films, well, ever. I appreciated seeing clips of greats like Stalker alongside it. It's that wonderful. Thanks for the superb and thoughtful analysis.
Glad you liked it 👍
Like Moon, Arrival is a fantastic Hard Scfi Masterpiece...
Hard Scfi has the fiction elements but Science is the golden thread that runs through everything! Your work really captures the beauty and genius of Hard Scfi - My favorite genre!
Hard Scfi is well.... Hard to pull off... That is why it is the gold standar of Scfi and why so many fall short !!! This is also why other Genres like Scfi Horror or Scfi Drama or Scfi Fantasy are so often the standard choice for artists trying to tell a story.
Hard Scfi has some masters though and Arrival was so well done it makes other shows look incredibly weak like Another Life the netflicks Scfi show!!!
Now for my main observation! The Expanse is the best Hard Scfi show in the world including movies like Arrival !!!! Check it out and do a video on The Expanse and you will see just how much Science is trusted in the stories medium!!!
Kind Regards from Australia
I absolutely loved this movie. As much as I love action in Sci-fi, this felt like a nice, calm take on the genre. It left me thinking about i weeks after I had originally watched it. It is interesting, original and has a refreshing perspective. Probably one of the best sci-fi movies I've ever watched:)
This was one of the very best science fiction films I've ever seen.
Arrival is yet again an example of how awesome linguistics and language are.
The story and the philosophical questioning that comes with it always gets me to cry, as I did watching this video.
Also, I must say, I really *really* appreciate that you pronounce Denis Villeneuve's name correctly, but then again this might be because you're Canadian and actually speak french?
Man how do I regret not seeing this at the movie theater when it came out. I was completely blown away the first time I saw it
This movie is one of the best scifi movies ever made. I was honestly surprised at how great it was, since I was expecting another hollywood-style film and it really caught me off guard
It's really good 👍
I thought it was great in the short story, when it was explained that experiencing the simultaneous time linearly was like a liturgy. You took joy in 'reciting' it. Wonderful idea!
Ted Chiang's stuff is all amazing. I first started reading his work after I was introduced to it in an undergrad English course on science fiction (not even an English major/minor, just had to take it because of the topic--the final assignment was to write an original SF piece!). Most of his stuff is short, so you can take in a lot of his ideas in within a fairly short amount of time.
My favorite movie of all time, so far. Amy Adams was absolutely snubbed of an Oscar. The film was snubbed of an Oscar
I absolutely loves this film. I wish people really invested and paid attention cause most people I've talked to about it didn't, and the concepts went over their heads.
Best film I've seen in years.
This was a real unexpected treat of a film. Loved every minute as it developed.
I feel like arrival is criminally underrated and noticed, I think it's my second favorite scifi movie (number 1 being Aliens)
Still one of my favorite movies. I’ve seen it about 7 times, and each time I give it another go, I feel the emotions just as strongly as the first time, and my admiration for the execution of this story grows.
I've watched many analyses of Arrival, and none have broken down Arrival as a *sci-fi* movie as aptly as you have. Thanks for sharing!
The best thing for me is how - in plain sight, in big letters, on the whiteboard - the fundamental question the film poses to the audience is revealed (but nobody notices):
"What is your purpose on Earth?"
One of the best scifi films ever made. Brilliant.
This was one of my all time favorite movies when it came out and it still is, their are other scifis that I loved like interstellar and the martian around that time, but this was a different kind of experience, not many movies have immersed me as If I was reading a good book
Yeah it did feel like a good book
Bradford Young deserved a Cinematography Oscar for his work on Arrival. The shot at 1:08 is gloriously magnificent.
This film did so much right; story, scripting, acting, fantastic work.
Arrival was one of my favourite movies that i've seen in cinemas. It's just so great!
I love your editing, soundtrack, subjects and that beautiful voice!!! Also the movies you choose to talk about are amazing!!
There is one thing that i believe would be great to apply which is putting a simple spoiler text before a spoilerd gets shown (for example when you show the appearence of the aliens), im not saying something big but just a little text or subtitle to alert. I havent watched every movie you talk about, but i still love watching your videos, although i'd like to know when to close my eyes or skip parts of the video as to avoid spoilers.
Much love to you!
5:52 'Time is what keeps everything from happening at once.'
I find that a very beautiful sentence for some reason.
I think it won't be long until this channel becomes enormous, and it absolutely deserves it. A truly fantastic and well thought-out analysis man. Look forward to every video from you, please never stop!
Thank you very much for the kind words 👍
Your voice is always so calming to listen to. Props on another extremely insightful video!
“Archaeology is the search for facts because truth can be subjective” ~ Indiana Jones
Thanks for this! It's rare for me to rewatch a recently released film a few times within the span of a few months, but Arrival quickly became one of my favorites.
This movie was already one of my favorites, and your video only made it better. Thank you.
Glad you liked it 👍
Great breakdown of what is definitely one of the best First Contact stories ever put to screen. What I love most is how genuinely enjoyable and enlightening it is as we travel with her and unravel the mystery of the visitors.
I absolutely loved this movie. Came in without expecting too much, yet it delivered.
Thank you for making my intuition manifest.
I never clearly figured out why this movie moved me soo much.
Many thanks!
Glad you liked it 👍
I don't even remember how I watched the film itself. But now while watching your video I found myself with tears in my eyes. Somehow this description of the movie, of Louise's experience revoked something in me. Maybe I'm just sentimental this evening =)
I was just thinking this morning about how awesome this movie is, and then I saw your video recommended. I must have known it would as time is an illusion anyway.
Aaaaah ! My favourite sci-fi movie of these last few years.
this movie is so dear to my heart, great video essay
Thank you 👍
I've been waiting for you. Again. A video from you is like an early present before my birthday.
I found aspects of this movie difficult to wrap my head around, but your video has really cleared a lot of for me. I'm going to re-watch it now with this new understanding. Thank you for another fantastic video!
Glad you liked it 👍
a video analysis on my favourite movie by one of my favourite channels? love that.
Consider yourself you got a new follower. Bravo for this commentary.
I randomly found this video ... boy this was good. I never thought of science fiction movies this way... I always loved movies who had a meaning and made us work to understand it, movies that seem to be a paint that need multiple looks to discover it all. You said it well nice video 👍
Glad you liked it 👍
Absolutely stellar review, it gave me more insight into a movie I love poring over and examining (inbetween bouts of crying and joy)
I love arrival too! I've been binge watching Netflix sci-fi shows, they're all very entertaining! What a great video!
Definitely one of the best movies I have watched in a long time.
Plus your review of the movie is really well done.
Another amazing video.... the ending was beautiful the way you worded everything
This epiaode is a great analysis of one of my favorite films. Great job!
Glad you liked it 👍
The only significant difference between ourselves and Louise is she knew what was coming next, and yet we all know there will be an end to our own stories. Because there will be an end is no reason not to experience it. Louise chose to let her daughter Hannah experience her own story, despite the shortness of the tale. It was the right choice.
I agree 👍
excellent video... I must watch Arrival again... it is the deep thinker type of sci-fi that I love... thank you for the enlightenment...
Yes! Arrival was absolutely the one movie I have felt such a strong desire to watch in the last decade. It seemed more about worldbuilding, understanding the workings of an alien language - something that is just the beginning of a whole future of communication, yet I watched it with wonder.
The narrative is so beautiful.....thanks...💗
Well spoken and narrated, like your approach, perspective, and tone. just subscribed!
One of the best Sci-Fi movies I've seen. Great video!
Great as always guys, keep them coming
Thank you 👍
9:44 Thank YOU for taking the time to make this video.
I really enjoyed Arrival, and to be honest i wasnt sure exactly as to why, but you gave me some answers. So thank you!
Glad it was helpful 👍
One of my favorite films ever. This video is perfection 👏
One of the best storytelling in movie history. Arrival is incredible ♥️♥️♥️
Being waiting for this all month
Wonderful and very enlightened narrative. Thank you.
It's beautiful. Your video, you know. I loved the movie; it felt like everything I was longing to see in the big screen and it didn't disappoint me. I love your video because it elevates all the amazing aspects of what gave me such a great wave of "warmness". Thank you.
I'm glad you enjoyed it 👍
Amazing work as always. Looking forward to the next one
Thank you 👍
This is one of the best sci-fi films I have seen in years.
I love how everything about the aliens, even the ships in this movie are pretty obscure
I have grown a deeper love for this movie. It really got me into scifi genre. This and Interstellar. While this gave us a microscopic approach the other movie dove deep and carried you into Space. I love that
Thank you for acknowledging the importance of Arrival
Thanks for this very insightful video!
Wow, a really thought provoking and well done look at a thought provoking and well done film. The questions asked apply to all of us.
Congrats on the growth of your channel
Thank you very much 👍
Your videos are the best videos on this platform, great as usual. Looking forward to the next one! Also loved this movie btw :3
Thank you very much 👍
A clever and insightful review from my favourite movie. Thanks!
Glad you liked it 👍
Great job as always!
Thank you 👍
Wish I had had this movie, and your essay, when I was teaching a science fiction lit class.