There are a lot of movies that exemplify interpersonal communication. One of those movies was the movie Arrival, which was made in 2016 and directed by Denis Villeneuve. This film is about an alien’s arrival on earth, and the military has assigned Dr. Louise Banks (Amy Adams) to learn their language and figure out what they want. Dr. Louise Banks is a linguistics professor with a military background who oversees the communication with the aliens. This exemplifies interpersonal communication because the entire film is centered around communicating with an unfamiliar source with an unidentified language. Some concepts that were shown throughout the movie are verbal and nonverbal communication, conversational skills, conflict management, competence, perception, and becoming other-oriented. The movie Arrival demonstrates many of the interpersonal communications skills we have learned throughout the class just because the movie is centered around communication with aliens but also the communication between people who disagree about how to handle the conflict.
In interpersonal communication, we discussed competence and perception skills. These skills are important when it comes to interpersonal communication. According to our textbook, being a competent communicator means you “express messages that are perceived to be both effective and appropriate” (Beebe et al., 2020). As I watched the film, I saw Dr. Louise Banks’s display of being a competent communicator perfectly. Throughout the movie, she has plenty of interactions with people and aliens. For example, Colonel Weber is upset at Dr. Louise because he feels like her process for understanding the aliens was taking too long, but once she explains why he then starts to understand. So, while this altercation is going on, Colonel Weber demands she give him answers that will help him stall the people to whom he is answering. She told him Kangaroo with a background story about how the name came about, but the story was a lie. However, Weber and the other people understood the story and why they needed to let her do what she was doing, but they did not know she was lying. This shows how effective her communication skills are.
Now that we see how important competence is, we can discuss perception and its role in the movie Arrival. “Improving our interpersonal perception skills is not a single skill, but a collection of related “people skills.” (Beebe et al., 2020) This states that bettering your perception skills can enhance your ability to relate and become other-oriented. Becoming other-oriented is a skill that helps you understand other people and show empathy. This relates to the movie because there were many times when the people had to relate to each other and the aliens. Such as, when Dr. Louise and Ian (a scientist working with Louise and the military) first meet the aliens for the first time, you can tell they are scared too. So, as they are meeting the aliens, they are so scared they cannot say anything to them. (Appraisal theory of emotion -something happened, then you have a psychological reaction, we label the reaction, then we experience the emotion). As the scene went on, they went back into the alien’s UFO and built the courage to speak to them. However, when she tries to explain her name to them, they do not understand, so she takes off her hazmat suit and then tells them her name. When this happened, they responded better; she even puts her hand on the glass separating them, and so do the aliens, who tell her their names. This example helps demonstrate what becoming other-oriented is because it shows how after she got over her feelings of fear, she instantly thought of ways to help them understand.
As we continue to relate, the aspect of removing the suit is crucial since it helps to create a bond and trust between the two parties. She is creating a chance for non-verbal communication since the other party can get to see her face and body movements better. Many people currently prefer face-to-face or video conferencing for official meetings since it helps to provide the visual for non-verbal communication. Although nonverbal communication is more than just the face of the people communicating, many people tend to rely on the face to help determine whether the person they are interacting with is genuine (Hezser, 2017). The non-verbal act of touching the glass helps to show trust and create a relationship between the two parties. The decision could have been considered impulsive since people thought that the aliens had been sent to earth to cause us harm, like in most preconceived notions.
Conflict can easily be solved when the other parties are willing to listen and communicate. Dr. Lousie was also afraid of the aliens, just like the other scientists in her group. However, she opted to show trust and go against the protocol, which made her get into conflict with her bosses and some of her crew members. She believed that the only way to solve any misunderstanding that could exist between the aliens and humans was through communication and a show of trust. The Soldiers were not willing to follow her lead since they did not wish to take the same risks. However, due to her conflict resolution skills, she managed to convince Colonel Weber that her process was working and that she just needed more time rather than escalating the issue. Understanding the way the Aliens communicated could be beneficial to humans.
As much as Louise was impulsive, she understood the importance of listening to other soldiers and also explaining her method. However, she made the decision to do things that could have jeopardized the entire operation without consulting with the other soldiers. However, she managed to explain to the colonel why she had taken the initial actions and did not have time to explain at the moment. She followed her guts which helped in smoothing the communication with the aliens.
The movie depicts how world leaders approach uncertain situations, thus the disagreements. They did not understand the intention of the aliens, which made them uneasy and readily influenced with fear on how to react in such a manner. However, with just a little patience, people with different beliefs may come to an understanding and be able to solve the matter. The US government was in charge of communicating with the aliens, which created distrust from some of the world leaders who were even ready to launch nuclear weapons on the sites. They wanted to go on full war combat with the aliens before trying other options.
References
Beebe, S. A., Beebe, S. J., & Redmond, M. V. (2020). Interpersonal communication: Relating to others. Pearson.
Hesser, C. (2017). Facial expressions. Rabbinic Body Language: Non-Verbal Communication in Palestinian Rabbinic Literature of Late Antiquity, pp. 203–243. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004339064_006
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