The Terminal-Fight Approach

           The Terminal is a drama/comedy that came out in 2004 that follows the intercultural transitions of a man named Viktor Navorski as he attempts to come into a new culture.  The movie begins with his passport being rejected as he comes into the U.S.  He is then brought into the office of a U.S. Customs official who tells him that his home country, Krakozhia, had been “annexed from the inside”  (MacDonald & Spielberg, 2004).  Since his country is undergoing a civil war, the U.S. does not recognize his passport and can neither let him into the country nor let him return home.  With no other options, he begins to create a way of living within the terminal and forms relationships along the way.  After nine months of living in the airport, he is told that the civil war in Krakozhia is over and that he can return home.  However, his original plan of coming to the U.S. was to get the signature of a saxophone player named Benny Golson, the last autograph needed to complete a series in a photo that his late father found long ago.  With the help of a flight attendant, Amelia, whom he falls in love with, Viktor is granted a one-day visa to go get the signature.  The U.S. customs official, however, wants him to leave and uses leverage of threat to ensure that Viktor goes back to Krakozhia by telling him he will deport one of his friends, Gupta, that works at the airport.  To ensure that Viktor could fulfill his fathers’ wishes, Gupta runs out on the tarmac in front of a plane, delaying his flight and getting himself deported to take that pressure off of Viktor.  Ultimately, Viktor gets the signature and returns home.  This film is appropriate for discussion of intercultural communication because it takes a look at a man with a transitional pattern of the “fight approach”.

           The fight approach, as defined by our text, is a trial and error approach to coping with a new situation.  This approach, “involves jumping in and participating” and the migrants “don’t mind if they make mistakes” (Martin & Nakayama, 2013, P. 334).  The migrants who exhibit the fight approach are those who often make mistakes when trying to take part in cultural patterns because they are not well practiced in it, however, this approach can sometimes be beneficial.  The fight approach is a subcategory of the Transitional Model of the Social Science Approach, which involves culture shock, adaptation, and “change, including some loss and some gain, from individuals”  (Martin & Nakayama, 2013, P. 332).  Although I am specifically discussing the fight approach, this background information is important to remember.  The fight approach is important in intercultural communication because without it, a migrant would not have the benefit of learning from trial and error and in turn, would not adapt to the cultural surrounding.  There are many connections that can be made between the movie The Terminal, and the concept of the fight approach.

            In The Terminal, Viktor Navorski has no choice but to make the best of the situation he unfortunately fell into.  He has two options, fight or flight, and within this movie he displays the fight approach.  Since Viktor is not familiar with our language, customs or social framework, he jumps right in and begins trying to communicate and engage in the society within the airport by speaking with people and trying to receive help understanding what is going on in his country of Krakozhia, via the news station that is broadcasting on the television.  He fails at this as he is not able to properly communicate and more makes himself look like a lunatic.  The U.S. Customs official called him into his office after a few days and told Viktor that there was a way for him to go to the U.S. legally, and all he had to do is answer one question.  “Are you afraid to return to Krakozhia?”, to which Viktor replies, “no, it’s home, I’m not afraid from home” (MacDonald & Spielberg, 2004).  This is a clear misunderstanding that Viktor experiences and by thinking all they wanted him to do was answer a question honestly, he was denied this option because the Customs official had to prove he was afraid to return to Krakozhia.  He realizes that he is ill equipped to communicate/understand and begins adapting by reading an English version of a tour guide next to a Krakozhian version of the tour guide to help him learn the language.  

Another example in the film of the fight approach takes a specific look at the trial and error aspect.  Viktor has no way of receiving money so he begins to look for a job and goes to different businesses within the International lounge that are at the airport.  He goes to a bookstore and gives his application to the manager and informs her that he lives in “gate sixty-seven”, which he was unaware, would discourage his hire.  He then proceeds to several businesses and gets laughed out of nearly every one, until he reaches his last stop.  He is in the process of applying for a job at the Discovery Channel store when the manager asks him for a phone number.  Viktor goes to the nearest payphone and gives the manager that number.  He waits all day and when the manager is leaving the store he calls the payphone, just outside the store, and Viktor picks it up and is told that the position is filled.  Viktor exemplifies the fight approach, and although he did not get hired anywhere, it is easily visible that Viktor’s culture holds value in honesty.  Viktor kept “running into a wall”, so to speak, because he was unable to understand the why his honesty wasn’t getting him what he wanted.  This form of “trial and error” would be better described as “honesty and rejection”.  Throughout the film Viktor showed his lack of worry for making mistakes in communication and for the most part this was beneficial to him because he didn’t have time for the flight approach.  He needed to communicate, adapt, and understand our culture as fast as he could and that was the only option. 

           

References

MacDonald, L., & Spielberg, S.  (2004).  The Terminal.  U.S.:  Amblin Entertainment.

Martin, J.N., & Nakayama, T.K. (2013). Intercultural Communication in Contexts (6th ed.) New York, NY: McGraw Hill.