In-depth review of Avatar as promised!
Well. As I said earlier, this movie is so good and so relevant that I think it ought to be mandatory. As in, I think it ought to be mandatory viewing in all North American history classes while they study the "settlement" period of Canadian and U.S. history. Heck, it should probably be part of all studies and discussions of contemporary geopolitical issues as well! But first the technical stuff.
To begin with, love Star Wars though I do and I do, I couldn't help thinking all the way through that this was the dialogue-writing and delivery that the prequels would have killed to have had. It was sharp and natural-sounding. And the actors delivered their lines with commitment and conviction, having none of the wooden, stilted quality that so plagued the Star Wars prequels. It didn't sound in the least contrived or pedantic thank God! And while I can't comment on the visual effects, I can say this: that the tech was the icing on the cake. James Cameron used the special effects as tools to tell the story rather than letting them get in the way of the story. And the story is what makes the movie so important and compelling!
Basically, it tells the story of a soldier who is sent into an aboriginal community as a spy. His job is to find out what would enduce that community to move off their land, which sits on top of a covitted resource. And if he cannot find a lure that will persuade them to move, force will be used to remove them whether they wish it or not so that the resource can be extracted and profitted from. As this soldier does his job, though, he comes to realize that he is on the wrong side, and that what he has been sent in to do is profoundly immoral. The rest of the movie, then, tells the story of his desertion from the army in which he has served, and of his putting his knowledge of their tactics and technology at the service of the native people so as to help them defend their land and sacred sites.
This last point I have heard criticized as further patronizing colonialism - the White man saveing the Natives who can't save themselves. But, as Mom so pithily pointed out, the White people created the problem. Are we not, then, rather morally obliged to put our knowledge of our technologies and their weaknesses at the service of solving that problem? After all, the indigenous people would be just fine if we weren't taking and destroying their land, and indeed were just fine until we came in with the gunships!
As you can likely tell from the above paragraph, Avatar draws lots of parallels to the colonization of the Americas, and also to the recent war in Iraq. And that is what makes the story so damned compelling! In particular, Cameron does not spare the audience by attempting to downplay or sanitize the violence of colonialism at all. There are certain scenes that are frankly very hard to watch! The only thing he doesn't show is the invading army raping Native women. And I'm really glad he doesn't show that too, as I couldn't have sat through it if he did! But he shows the rape of the Native peoples' land, culture and holy sites, and the increasingly racist atitudes with which this pillage is carried out - as the Native people refuse to give up their homes and fight to defend them, the colonizers increasingly see them as "hostiles" and "savages". In particular, he shows the cruelty and injustice of technologically imbalanced warfare - the invading army coming in with machine-guns, bombs, helicopters and gunships against a people who fight with bows and arrows. And Cameron very cleverly incorporates much of the language of the modern American army as heard in countless other movies, TV series and even news-clips, so that one cannot help but be reminded of the recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But he doesn't flag the comparison heavy-handedly. He simply uses the language and lets the viewer draw their own comparisons. And this works, I think, much better, as the heavy-handed, sermonizing approach tends to alienate people. And the same is true of the way he incorporates the kind of language used by settlers to North America, their police-forces and armies, to describe the "Indians". He doesn't state the parallel directly, although the Native people in the film are strongly meant to resemble a combination of peoples in North America, South America and Africa. Rather, he uses those details of the story to allow the viewer to draw the parallel him/herself. And it works brilliantly! Cameron does romanticize the Native people a great deal, or perhaps idealize is a better word for it. But this is not, I think, due to an ignorance of the realities of actual cultures. Rather, I think it is done deliberately to make a point which can only be made through archetypes.
This latter point is why I think the movie is so important for Pagans, and especially for Pagan activists. The Native people in the film represent not only the many peoples conquered and exploited under colonialism, but an ideal - an ideal which is in direct opposition to, and in severe danger from the atitudes and practices of that colonialism. They represent the ideal of a culture capable of living in healthy symbiosis with the rest of the biosphere - the very ideal held by eco-activists and by Pagans. And by juxtaposing this ideal against the very realistically portrayed representation of our present, highly exploitive culture and mindset, the movie gives the viewer a stark and graphic lesson in exactly why our current colonialist ways endanger that ideal and what is at stake if we let them win.
I have also heard it said that Avatar rips off the film version of Doon. I can't speak to the truth or not of that claim as, shame though I know it is, I've never either seen the film or read the book. Bad I know! I did, however, notice references to Titanic (in the score which, by the way, is gorgeous), to the TV mini-series version of Ursula LeGuin's EarthSea (also in the score), and even to the Ewok battle at the end of Return of the Jedi! And yes, I did notice what could be read as parallels or references to Dances With Wolves as well. Although here he falls in love with a Native woman, not with a White woman who has been adopted by the tribe as in Dances.
Anyway, I don't think I can say any more without giving away more details than those who haven't seen it yet might want to know in advance. I hope I've gotten at least some of you curious enough to see it though! Total cynics will probably still not enjoy it and be disappointed. But anyone who isn't a total cynic may well find themselves as awed and inspired as I was! I hope so at any rate!
To begin with, love Star Wars though I do and I do, I couldn't help thinking all the way through that this was the dialogue-writing and delivery that the prequels would have killed to have had. It was sharp and natural-sounding. And the actors delivered their lines with commitment and conviction, having none of the wooden, stilted quality that so plagued the Star Wars prequels. It didn't sound in the least contrived or pedantic thank God! And while I can't comment on the visual effects, I can say this: that the tech was the icing on the cake. James Cameron used the special effects as tools to tell the story rather than letting them get in the way of the story. And the story is what makes the movie so important and compelling!
Basically, it tells the story of a soldier who is sent into an aboriginal community as a spy. His job is to find out what would enduce that community to move off their land, which sits on top of a covitted resource. And if he cannot find a lure that will persuade them to move, force will be used to remove them whether they wish it or not so that the resource can be extracted and profitted from. As this soldier does his job, though, he comes to realize that he is on the wrong side, and that what he has been sent in to do is profoundly immoral. The rest of the movie, then, tells the story of his desertion from the army in which he has served, and of his putting his knowledge of their tactics and technology at the service of the native people so as to help them defend their land and sacred sites.
This last point I have heard criticized as further patronizing colonialism - the White man saveing the Natives who can't save themselves. But, as Mom so pithily pointed out, the White people created the problem. Are we not, then, rather morally obliged to put our knowledge of our technologies and their weaknesses at the service of solving that problem? After all, the indigenous people would be just fine if we weren't taking and destroying their land, and indeed were just fine until we came in with the gunships!
As you can likely tell from the above paragraph, Avatar draws lots of parallels to the colonization of the Americas, and also to the recent war in Iraq. And that is what makes the story so damned compelling! In particular, Cameron does not spare the audience by attempting to downplay or sanitize the violence of colonialism at all. There are certain scenes that are frankly very hard to watch! The only thing he doesn't show is the invading army raping Native women. And I'm really glad he doesn't show that too, as I couldn't have sat through it if he did! But he shows the rape of the Native peoples' land, culture and holy sites, and the increasingly racist atitudes with which this pillage is carried out - as the Native people refuse to give up their homes and fight to defend them, the colonizers increasingly see them as "hostiles" and "savages". In particular, he shows the cruelty and injustice of technologically imbalanced warfare - the invading army coming in with machine-guns, bombs, helicopters and gunships against a people who fight with bows and arrows. And Cameron very cleverly incorporates much of the language of the modern American army as heard in countless other movies, TV series and even news-clips, so that one cannot help but be reminded of the recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But he doesn't flag the comparison heavy-handedly. He simply uses the language and lets the viewer draw their own comparisons. And this works, I think, much better, as the heavy-handed, sermonizing approach tends to alienate people. And the same is true of the way he incorporates the kind of language used by settlers to North America, their police-forces and armies, to describe the "Indians". He doesn't state the parallel directly, although the Native people in the film are strongly meant to resemble a combination of peoples in North America, South America and Africa. Rather, he uses those details of the story to allow the viewer to draw the parallel him/herself. And it works brilliantly! Cameron does romanticize the Native people a great deal, or perhaps idealize is a better word for it. But this is not, I think, due to an ignorance of the realities of actual cultures. Rather, I think it is done deliberately to make a point which can only be made through archetypes.
This latter point is why I think the movie is so important for Pagans, and especially for Pagan activists. The Native people in the film represent not only the many peoples conquered and exploited under colonialism, but an ideal - an ideal which is in direct opposition to, and in severe danger from the atitudes and practices of that colonialism. They represent the ideal of a culture capable of living in healthy symbiosis with the rest of the biosphere - the very ideal held by eco-activists and by Pagans. And by juxtaposing this ideal against the very realistically portrayed representation of our present, highly exploitive culture and mindset, the movie gives the viewer a stark and graphic lesson in exactly why our current colonialist ways endanger that ideal and what is at stake if we let them win.
I have also heard it said that Avatar rips off the film version of Doon. I can't speak to the truth or not of that claim as, shame though I know it is, I've never either seen the film or read the book. Bad I know! I did, however, notice references to Titanic (in the score which, by the way, is gorgeous), to the TV mini-series version of Ursula LeGuin's EarthSea (also in the score), and even to the Ewok battle at the end of Return of the Jedi! And yes, I did notice what could be read as parallels or references to Dances With Wolves as well. Although here he falls in love with a Native woman, not with a White woman who has been adopted by the tribe as in Dances.
Anyway, I don't think I can say any more without giving away more details than those who haven't seen it yet might want to know in advance. I hope I've gotten at least some of you curious enough to see it though! Total cynics will probably still not enjoy it and be disappointed. But anyone who isn't a total cynic may well find themselves as awed and inspired as I was! I hope so at any rate!