My family and I just returned from seeing the movie Avatar and I have to say that in spite of being thoroughly entertained I was also slightly disturbed. And as I write this blog I find myself still trying to work out why. So in an effort to make this discovery I will begin with the obvious. Everything about this movie from the smallest detail had “ginormous budget” written all over it. I will admit from my pedestrian point of view that most of the money was tastefully spent. This movie my finance’ likes to remind me was the most expensive movie ever made. This and the fact that I couldn’t get tickets to see it until tonight are what really made me want to see what all the fuss was about. When I finally saw it I began to realize that it was not only quite entertaining, but it was also an exercise in audacity (more on this later). I reached this conclusion right around the first half hour when the plot was revealed. I thought to myself this is Dances with Wolves in outer space. It was the story of how one colonist with a moral dilemma decided to take pity on a thriving yet clearly different civilization from his own. In the process he falls in love and decides to save it from his evil countrymen who are only concerned with the profit that comes from robbing the land of its natural resources at the expense of the mortal and spiritual lives of its inhabitants. Sound familiar?
With that being said however, I have to give respect where it is due. Cameron did an excellent job of including all the ingredients of a good science fiction story. He demonstrated yet again that there is and always will be an ongoing struggle between the forces of industry, the military and science and the values of simple folk. Of course the savior of this civilization always finds out that these simple folk aren’t that simple at all. The problem that I always have with these stories is that savior always ends up being braver, nobler and in the end more spiritually enlightened than the men of the society who have lived there for centuries. He also in the process emasculates the native who is next in line for the coveted position of leader AND gets his girl to boot! Maybe I’m just being picky here but there seems to be something slightly wrong with this motif.
These are some of the obvious splinters that I stumbled across on the road to deciphering this flick. However, the most disturbing blow that Cameron and his cohorts dealt was one that many won’t even feel. If the devil has any thing to do with Hollywood, (and those of us who believe in the devil know that he does) he is most definitely gloating right now at how often humanity chooses comfort and entertainment over change. I overheard two guys having a conversation about the movie at its conclusion. They were questioning the morals of a film which motivates its viewers to cheer for the “good guys” when in fact the good guys happened to be aliens from outer space slaughtering American soldiers. These people prior to viewing this movie probably didn’t know the amazing parallels it would make to real life soldiers in real life wars and will probably choose to conveniently forget by the time there heads hit their pillows. I also had a conversation that was directly aimed at me at the end of the movie. Some random stranger announced “I guess since the natives in this movie stood up for themselves everything’s ok now” and as a response to the confusion on my face explained that she was of course sarcastically referring to the bloody history of colonialism in this country. As I listened I found my self wondering how much of her sarcasm might be the remedy for a guilty conscience. At this point when I began to acknowledge my own sarcasm internally, I reached the conclusion that she and I were no different than the people having the first conversation. We have been given the luxury of dealing with the atrocities of war via Hollywood and in 3D! And whenever we find it necessary we can and will forget. Which is why Hollywood can audaciously release a movie which indirectly gives the message that maybe every once in a while Americans do some fucked up shit but since they only really want to be entertained with special effects and shit it won’t cause too much controversy. And even if it does all anyone will ever do is talk or maybe blog about it. The devil is always in the details but his greatest trick has always been to convince us that they don’t exist. I mean after all Avatar is just movie right?
