Avatar: Opening Pandora's Box

Lord knows Hollywood has provided us with enough “Great White Hope” stories to last a lifetime. Just to name a few are:

The Substitute (with Tom Berenger)
Dangerous Minds (with Michelle Pfeiffer)
Losing Isaiah (with Susan Sarandon)
Dances With Wolves (with Kevin Costner)
The Last Samurai (with Tom Cruise)
The Missing (with Tommy Lee Jones)

In each of the above-mentioned movies, Caucasian characters are the rescuers of the downtrodden people of color. Such movies often bring Hollywood under fire for perpetuating racist stereotypes, mainly that people of color cannot rescue themselves without help from their fairer skinned counterparts.

The latest movie to come under fire for perpetuating such stereotypes is James Cameron’s “Avatar.” In the following article, the movie is panned for carrying racist themes:

http://movies.yahoo.com/news/movies.ap.org/some-see-racist-theme-alien-adventure-avatar-ap

I must admit before seeing Avatar, I was fearful of it not living up to its hype. There was such buzz about the film and then its early reviews (or at least the ones I read) were lackluster at best. In the last year (or two), I have found Hollywood movies quite disappointing. I wanted Avatar to wow me, but suspected my fears of it not measuring up were well founded.

A few days after its opening, I convinced a friend to see it in 2-D. It had been over a decade since I’d seen anything in 3-D and frankly, I wasn’t excited about things jumping out of the screen at me. Once inside the film, I realized I’d made a tactical error by not seeing it in 3-D. The colors and tapestry of Pandora are so rich and beautiful that you won’t want to miss even the tiniest of details. Within minutes of it starting, I knew I would have to see it again in 3-D.

Never before have I seen so many reviewers completely miss the boat. The reviews I read said the action was bogged down by a love story that didn’t work. They of course compared Avatar to Cameron’s earlier blockbuster “Titanic,” taking time to outline why Avatar’s love story was in no way comparable to the one that worked in Titanic.

Well, I am here to respectfully dispute all negative reviews that I’ve read of this movie. Avatar’s love story worked perfectly. And anyone who believes that it didn’t, or that racist themes are included in the movie has failed to comprehend Cameron’s brilliance.

Yes, Avatar’s main character, Jake Sully, is Caucasian, but he is not the rescuer of Pandora’s people of color. To think this is erroneous. In fact, it is quite the opposite in Avatar. Jake Sully’s journey is toward one of enlightenment. When the film begins, he belongs to a society of lost souls whose destructive nature will stop at nothing in their pursuit of wealth. Jake Sully’s people (and that’s us, folks) have ruined Earth, which is why they are on Pandora in the first place – to exploit it. Sully and people like him will sacrifice all in the name of greed. In fact, fighting for such causes has cost Sully the use of his legs and he is confined to a wheelchair. But he is only promised to have his legs restored, a technology, which exists, if he further compromises himself by participating in the destruction of yet another world.

Like most people on his team, Jake Sully is completely disconnected from his true role in nature. As such, he is by no means a rescuer. It is in fact the people of color who rescue him from a life of ignorance and miseducation. It is only through their eyes that he can truly see reality as it is, rather than as it is told to him. And yes, such an awakening is only accomplished through love of some kind.

Avatar is not an action-adventure movie; it is the story of Jake Sully’s path toward enlightenment. Once Sully’s eyes are opened, he becomes a crusader for truth and justice. But his complete transformation cannot take place in his original Caucasian body because that version of Jake Sully is both physically and spiritually corrupted. Jake Sully’s soul is only fully redeemed when he is removed from his former broken body and placed in his Avatar’s body as a fully enlightened individual.

Does Avatar have racist themes? Not at all. If you haven’t seen Avatar yet, see it in 3-D.

Just today, I saw this article, which is also quite interesting:


http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/11/avatar.movie.blues/index.html