While I'm still on the subject of movies here's a quote from the redoubtable David Brooks writing about Avatar. I haven't seen the film, but from what I know of it this sounds right on target.
Cameron’s handling of the White Messiah fable is not the reason “Avatar” is such a huge global hit. As John Podhoretz wrote in The Weekly Standard, “Cameron has simply used these familiar bromides as shorthand to give his special-effects spectacular some resonance.” The plotline gives global audiences a chance to see American troops get killed. It offers useful hooks on which McDonald’s and other corporations can hang their tie-in campaigns.
Still, would it be totally annoying to point out that the whole White Messiah fable, especially as Cameron applies it, is kind of offensive?
It rests on the stereotype that white people are rationalist and technocratic while colonial victims are spiritual and athletic. It rests on the assumption that nonwhites need the White Messiah to lead their crusades. It rests on the assumption that illiteracy is the path to grace. It also creates a sort of two-edged cultural imperialism. Natives can either have their history shaped by cruel imperialists or benevolent ones, but either way, they are going to be supporting actors in our journey to self-admiration.
My advice would be to avoid Cameron's simplistic treatment of these themes, and check out more complex and realistic meditations such as Terrence Malick's The New World (2005), or just about anything by Werner Herzog.
1 comment:
Looks like another Cameron outing with a screenplay that will only frustrate if you examine it too closely. Too bad, b/c I heard it's an amazing experience in IMAX and 3-D. Every time we try to go, it's sold out.
In any event, one wishes the writing could be as dazzling as the effects...
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