Last year’s sci-fi drama stresses the importance of acceptance, empathy, and communication. We should look to it on Thanksgiving instead of the standard holiday lore.
Remember when we first learned about Thanksgiving? We were told that the holiday honors the Pilgrims and the Native Americans, who many moons ago put aside their differences and decided to help one another in the spirit of brotherhood. In order to show their mutual gratitude, they sat down together to enjoy a multicultural dinner complete with a horn of plenty. That, boys and girls, is why we give thanks every November by eating large amounts of turkey.
Obviously we didn’t receive the whole story. Indigenous peoples did give colonial settlers food and shelter, but the settlers gave them smallpox blankets in return. Don’t get me wrong, it’s commendable to take a moment and give thanks for the good things in your life. However, it is worth noting that the Thanksgiving brand as we know it is, at best, deeply flawed.
So I say we jettison the problematic Pilgrims and Native Americans lore and adopt Arrival as our go-to cultural identifier for Thanksgiving. For those of you who haven’t seen Denis Villeneuve’s Oscar-winning film, it centers on Louise Banks (Amy Adams), an isolated linguistics professor who is drawn out of her shell when aliens arrive at 12 different locations on Earth. She and physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner) attempt to communicate with the two squid-like beings who land in the U.S. in the hopes of understanding their species’ overall purpose on Earth.
I know, I know. Arrival sounds pretty far removed from Thanksgiving and the act of giving thanks, for that matter. But consider it a metaphor, comparable to but better than the nebulous Pilgrims and Native Americans myth we all know.
In order to find out what the aliens want, Louise must learn their language. To learn their language, she must understand how they communicate. It turns out Abbott and Costello, as Louise and Ian nickname their extraterrestrial friends, communicate in circular symbols and therefore perceive life as a circle, as opposed to a line with a beginning and an end.
Louise is highly intelligent, sure, but she masters Abbott and Costello’s language because she is simply willing to empathize. As she begins to comprehend Abbott and Costello’s way of communicating, she also develops the ability to experience life like they do, as a circle. She puts herself in their shoes. Unlike the film’s international armed forces and governments, Louise doesn’t automatically assume the aliens mean humans harm. It doesn’t matter that they are not anthropomorphic or that the echo sounds they make are unlike any human language. Louise extends Abbott and Costello her trust sight unseen, so they return the favor.
In fact, Louise’s insistence on listening to the alien duo — not just translating their messages, but really listening to them — ultimately prevents intergalactic warfare in Arrival. As domestic and international tensions grow higher every day in the real world, it’s comforting to think that if we just let cooler heads prevail and allowed each other speak without being interrupted or judged, we could avoid hardship and violence. (This is also an important message for anyone who celebrates Thanksgiving with their extended family. Just saying.)
As we grow up it can feel impossible to not be cynical about the holidays, especially those with dubious historical context. Thanksgiving in particular is tough because it whitewashes a past whose xenophobia and racism share many parallels with the present. That’s why Arrival is the film we need to turn to on Thursday. Peace and goodwill are in our grasp, it argues, if we’re willing to live by the golden rule and treat others as we wish to be treated. With an optimistic and fairly pragmatic message like that, Arrival should be the new Thanksgiving classic.
Next: For a smart, feminist horror film, watch The Others
You can stream Arrival on Hulu or Amazon Prime as you enjoy your tryptophan-induced euphoria.