Overal chosen message of the film relation to time

Final Minimum 1,750 words (roughly 5 pages)

Sources: Arrival and minimum 5 scholarly sources (must NOT be personal websites or Wikipedia)

To analyze a text, we must look at a text closely and take it or scene by scene. In the a Text assignment, Im asking you to do just that. For this paper, we will all be watching the film Arrival. I have selected this text in part because I enjoy it, but also because its free on Amazon Prime. It is also rich in symbolism but is too new to have any real critical works written about it. This makes it a really good film to analyze because you can come to it unencumbered by other peoples thoughts. What this paper asks you to do is look past the plot and look at the underlying themes of the film and how they make meaning. We will watch the film in class, and I will stop the film and discuss it, but really you should watch it again. And again. And again (hence Amazon Prime). Watch it until you start noticing whats going on in the background and with color and its cinematographic style. Focus on a few pivotal scenes and look at the stylistic choices and what they might mean for the overall message of the film (there are several to choose from). Here are some questions to think about:

How does the film represent time?
What role does the media play in the conflict of the film?
What does it say about the impermanence of life?
What does the film argue about destiny?
How does the film portray other countries, and what does that say about US relations with them?
What does the film say about motherhood?
What does the film argue about femininity and masculinity?
How does feminist/ Jungian/ Freudian/ theory intersect with this film?
And the BIG question: what role does language play in human life?

Ask yourself ONE of these questions, decide your answer, and support it with your close reading of the film and support it with research. You may use the film as a source; other sources can be about film in general, or be a by Carl Jung or another theorist, but the bulk of them must come from a scholarly publication. Because this assignment requires research, this paper will require at least and an MLA-style works cited page.