Does Avatar deal with U.S. role in Iraq and Afghanistan?
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January 25, 2010 • Andrew Heustess, Guest Contributor
Filed under Movie Reviews, Nation & World
The world-premiere of James Cameron’s new movie Avatar is being called brilliant and unlike anything ever seen before. The film, critics say, is revolutionizing modern cinema with its dazzling and mind-blowing special effects.
The 3-D epic is reportedly one of the most expensive movies ever made, costing about $400 million.
The film is set in the future, about humans who take extraterrestrial from while they explore a distant world. The alien planet soon becomes occupied and pillaged by the humans for its natural resources, conflicting with the native inhabitants.
Cameron told the Associated Press that the movie deals with how indigenous people are treated by newcomers.
“It’s a way of connecting a thread through history,” said Cameron, “I take that thread further back to the 16th and 17th centuries and how the Europeans pretty much took over South and Central America and displaced and marginalized the indigenous peoples there,” he said.
Actress Sigourney Weaver is in the film and says it’s “an old-fashioned, epic, swashbuckling romance.”
The film does provide a familiar mix of romance, action and the battle between good and evil.
Avatar features the forest-dwelling Na’vi who are fighting for their survival against a rapacious colonial mining operation led by humans bent on displacing them and stripping their planet of its natural resources.
An ex-marine, who happens to be in a wheel chair, is chosen to make contact with the mysterious people via a remotely controlled body, which allows him to move freely in the alien world. In turn, he falls in love with the Na’vi princess. The rest of the story unfolds from there.
Critics say the movie highlights topical messages especially given the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan being waged by the powerful U.S. military.
In the movie, humans exploit their newfound world as the indigenous species of the planet team up with nature’s allies to fight back.
“There’s a sense of entitlement: we’re here; we’re big; we’ve got the guns; we’ve got the technology; we’ve got the brains; we’re therefore entitled to every damn thing on this planet,” said Cameron, describing the humans’ attitude in the film. “[But] that’s not how it works and we’re going to find out the hard way if we don’t wise up and start seeking a life that’s in balance with the natural cycles of life on earth,” he adds.
Cameron conceived the story idea in 1995 and waited a decade for technology to catch up so he could film it. The movie shows live action and computer animation that the film industry is closely monitoring, hoping for a wide reception. Cameron has suggested two sequels will follow.
Avatar is Cameron’s first narrative film since his 1997 Titanic, which won 11 academy awards and has grossed $1.8 billion worldwide at the box office. Titanic drew sharp criticism for its high cost at the time, but remains the highest-grossing film ever.
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