[ExI] Avatar: misanthropy in three dimensions

Lee Corbin lcorbin at rawbw.com
Sun Jan 10 00:02:02 UTC 2010


Emlyn writes

> The plot itself, as many have said, is Pocahontas / Dances with Wolves
> / The Last Samurai, etc, except that the native people win in the end.
> In fact, I'd say the biggest foil to that reviewer's complaint about
> the misanthropy is that you can't really believe the ending, because
> we know from our history that it just doesn't work that way

Yes. The ending was so "unbelievable" (in a thinking
man's sense) that I never gave it a second thought.

> - I imagined them being nuked from orbit 5 minutes after
 > the end of the film.

Well, you sound as anti-human as the reviewer Steve Bremner
accused Cameron of being. What you write is not at all
how it would end, any more than the movie's version.

It would really end with the corporation coming back to
Pandora and "making it right" with whoever the leaders
are. I.e., cutting them in on the action. That's of
course how Chief Seattle got what was coming to him.
Not in the made-up account, as exemplified by, in 1971,
a totally fabricated speech by the Chief.

See http://www.snopes.com/quotes/seattle.asp

But you have to look hard on Google to find the truth
that the chief's speech was made up.)


Another thing so obvious in the movie that I didn't give it
a second thought is that while the Pandorans had a great deal to
give humans about biological knowledge (me, I'd estimate
their flora and fauna to be about 500 million years
more advanced than our Earth flora and fauna), the humans,
on the other hand, clearly had a great deal of technology
to share with the Pandorans.

Thus a deal could be struck. Thus a deal *would* be struck...
if you know anything at all about the history of trade.
(I must add that Bernstein's new book "A Splendid Exchange"
is the most limitlessly fascinating and informative book
I can presently imagine about trade, and its impact on
history.)

> But generally it's a bit embarrassing to be overly offended or
> enthused by this story. It's just not got enough substance for that.
> Complain about the lack of sophistication (Movie in 3D, story in 2D),
> but the politics? Really?

I don't know. People growing up today, unless they're of
an especially thoughtful variety, are surely being overwhelmed
with all these anti-tech and anti-progress memes, just as
the reviewer says. The media and the left-culture has already
turned two generations of people against corporations (and
by default therefore towards pro-government solutions), so
what else is new. Yes, I'd agree, however, that the politics
is not the first thing that strikes one about the movie.

Lee



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