MOVEIE REVIEW: AVATAR (JAMES CAMERON, 2009) Avatar (James Cameron, 2009) is part of a long tradition of “going native” movies. In this sense, Avatar has been correctly described as “Dances with Wolves in space.” Nonetheless, there is more to Avatar than this. Avatar is a cliche with a twist. A mining corporation and military from Earth have occupied the moon of Pandora in order to obtain the mineral “unobtainum.” Large deposits of the valuable mineral exist under a large, sacred tree that is inhabited by thousands of tall, blue-skinned natives, the Na’vi. The Na’vi resist human attempts to plunder their world. The humans employ a “carrot and stick” strategy to convince the Na’vi to abandon their home in their sacred tree. Because the human corporation does not want bad press, a science team is given a chance to deal with the natives in a more “diplomatic” way. The team is the “carrot” side of the strategy. The main protagonist Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is a marine who is brought in as a replacement member of the science team. In order to gain the trust of the Na’vi, to infiltrate their society, the team has created “avatars.” Avatars are native bodies that have been artificially produced in a lab. The science team uses the avatars, controlled from the lab, to interact with the natives to try to convince them to leave their tree peacefully. The science team is given a deadline move past the impasse with the Na’vi, otherwise the military will use its stick. Jake, using his avatar body, is able to infiltrate Na’vi society. Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), the daughter of the Na’vi chief, is assigned to show him the ways of their tribe. Jake learns the indigenous ways and is initiated into their society as a warrior. Along the way, Jake falls in love with Neytiri. Eventually, his loyalties change. Jake “goes native.” He unites the tribes and leads a successful war to drive the humans away. Director James Cameron himself has admitted that Avatar is an implicit criticism of the war against Iraq. However, the politics of Avatar is broader than this. Avatar is not an allegory of any one struggle. Rather, Avatar is about any confrontation between imperialism and oppressed countries. The antagonists of the film are the capitalists and military men who seek to plunder Pandora. The two main antagonists are Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi) and Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang). Parker Selfridge is the corporate suit who directs the mining operation. He is painted, even down to his last name, with the cliches of American corporate culture. He is self-centered, stupid, shallow, greedy. Similarly, his military right-hand, Colonel Miles, is portrayed as a typical American jar-head fascist. Unable to imagine anything beyond the small horizons of the military, the colonel is overly eager, even passionate, about destroying the Na’vi. These two represent the imperialists as a whole, both lack any redeeming qualities. By contrast, the Na’vi are a stand-in for all oppressed countries that battle for self-determination. This is apparent in the portrayal of the Na’vi as having characteristics of numerous oppressed peoples. The Na’vi inhabit a rain forest, like the First Nations of South America. Reminiscent of the First Nations of the North American prairies, the Na’vi are shown riding horse-like animals. They reside on vast quantities of “unobtainum,” like the oil beneath the Middle East. In addition, the Na’vi yell “war cries” that have a Middle Eastern or Arab ring. However, the Na’vi are not based on anthropological studies of real Indigenous peoples. Rather, the Na’vi are a White imagining of how Indigenous people are or should be. The worldview of the Na’vi is a mix of new-age cliches, animism, and nature religion. The Na’vi are portrayed as happy and innocent communitarians who live in perfect harmony with nature. The Na’vi are a blue-skinned romanticization of Indigenous peoples, noble savages in space………….." READ MORE AT: llco.org/avatar-james-cameron-2009/
Posted on: Fri, 19 Jul 2013 13:09:42 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015