I finally dragged myself away from tracking the indignities inflicted by politics on the environment to see the highest grossing movie of all time, James Cameron's "Avatar".
Last week, the worldwide box office total for the movie was a boffo $1.859 billion, and judging from the youthful, enthusiastic crowd at an IMAX 3-D theater in Miami last night, it ain't over. (If you can pull an audience with an environmental theme in Miami you can pull them in, anywhere.) I have to say: straight up, the new 3-D is a winner. The cost of "Avatar", reported to be around $300 million, bought my full attention. I couldn't help comparing the experience to watching "Star Wars" in 1977, that set the standard then using technology to amp up traditional story-lines and characters, yanked from the archetypes of human experience we studied in college.
What raised my jaded eyebrows even more than the special effects was the plot twist at the end that has fictive "intelligent" nature rescuing the Na'vi civilization from humans. When the bows and arrows can't beat back the over-used military equipment of American mercenaries (who have traveled from our own desiccated planet to mine a rare metal we now need to survive on earth-- valued at $20 million a kilo!), here come the triceratops and saber tooth tigers to overwhelm the bad guys. Us.
It is the character of Sigourney Weaver, now the Grand Dame of interpreters for extraterrestrials who either mean to kill us or mean us no harm and also narrator for the remarkable series, "Planet Earth", who provides the cypher for the hundreds of millions who will shell out big bucks to watch Cameron's feast: that the web of life on the planet of the Na'vi is smart enough to amass its force against human invaders when all else fails.
I suspect the Reverend James Dobson and old, wacky Pat Robertson will take issue at the animism at the center of a plot that seems to be wobbling, ever so slightly, on its axis as the movie spins into its third act. That is, until nature rescues the world and the Tree of Souls.
A few weeks ago I watched James Cameron accept the Golden Globe Award for Best Picture for "Avatar", and I recall his comments to the effect of thanking 20th Century Fox for helping to bring the issues of the film to a mass audience. Even before watching the film, my eyebrows raised.
Having now watched the movie, it is clear that an appeal to environmentalism-- to the imperative to rescue our own planet from the exploitation and degradation that threatens our own species-- not only animates "Avatar" but has hundreds of millions of viewers cheering for the wrath of nature against the Chamber of Commerce values that motivate the pillagers.
And yet it scarcely registered as news when the New York Times reported on January 22nd, "The latest in an annual series of polls from the Pew Research Center on people's top priorities for their elected leaders shows that America and President Obama are completely out of sync on human-caused global warming... According to the survey of 1,503 adults, global warming, on its own, ranks last out of 20 surveyed issues."
Among the ironies of "Avatar" is that it was made with bags of money from Rupert Murdoch and News Corp., the media empire and emperor who bows at the feet of Roger Ailes and Fox News, that according to the New York Times, makes more money than CNN, MSNBC, and the evening newscasts of the Big Three combined. Not only do Fox News bloviators foment public antagonism to environmental rules and regulations that could reverse global warming-- supported in their jihad of course by big corporate advertisers-- I'm pretty sure that Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch both could be spied as extras in the line of dispirited mercenaries beating back into their spaceship for the trip back to wrecked Planet Earth at the end of "Avatar".
The box office records that "Avatar" is breaking internationally will plumb the world's love/hate relationship with the United States, our fabulous culture juxtaposed against defensive, reflexive self-righteousness, with relish. Inside our porous borders, mountain top removal, rock mining, and every manner of man-made pollution will continue unabated, and Americans will continue to reject protecting the environment even when sea levels rise to their doorsteps.
We will pray that the crippled will walk again, that Sigourney or Glenn Beck can make life simple, filled with grace, God and amber waves of grain. And, of course, we will still give corporations the same rights as individuals.
6 comments:
"...and Americans will continue to reject protecting the environment even when sea levels rise to their doorsteps."
Yep, you nailed, like you did Florida's housing bubble and collapse.
I too enjoyed the special effects. Now I enjoy kids movies more than they do because I spend most of the time being wowed by the advances in CGI. With the "new" 3D coming of age, the imagery is even more immersive.
The part that I absolutely despised was the ridiculous and insulting stereotypes littered liberally through the movie. The plot was nothing more than "Dances With Wolves" in space - but with a way-worse script.
The cheesy animism and even the Native American (and Caribbean) voices for nearly all of the aliens, along with the requisite menagerie of "alien" horses, wolves, bison, panthers, arrows, head dress, was too much to bear.
If Star Wars fans though Jar Jar was an affront to Caribbean culture, the only saving (dis)grace for this is that the movie portrayed the natives as the victims/heroes.
Coming from a diverse ethnic background, including Native American, I admit to having a higher sensitivity to these sorts of things. I usually shrug them off as just that - me being overly sensitive.
I'd heard some groups had already voiced their displeasure over using the "white guy saves the primitives" narrative, but went in thinking they were being thin skinned since that's a pretty regular plot device in Hollywood. But after nearly three hours of this shallow and insulting plot, I just wanted to plug my ears and go back to enjoying the stunning computer graphics.
And to the racist remarks by "Chief Black Jack Eagle," I guarantee that if there was some mass exodus from Florida, the tribes would be quite content being left alone without having to resort to tourist gimmicks to thrive.
It is a good message for children to see good and bad behavior by Americans. If they understand it we will have gained some empowered advocates for the planet.
PS
and don't forget to bring the fire water.
Get a grip "loved the visual" its called sarcasm. My assesment of this movie was similar to yours and not even close to Alan's ethnocentric tree hugging musings.
Sarcasm by a loser...
Chief, if euro-man is banished, your casinos will return to swampland. Good luck with that.
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