Ethnic Review of Avatar the Movie
There’s an old Saturday Night Live sketch where David Spade reviews then-current movies. He’d start many of his reviews, in his typical dead-pan tone, with something like:
x the Movie. I liked this movie. . .when it was called y the Movie.¹
¹Where x represents a newer movie, and y represents an older, usually better, movie.
That’s a little how I felt about Avatar, the long-awaited fantasy blockbuster from James Cameron and them. I liked it: when it was called Pocahontas, the Lion King, and Warcraft the game. But, of course, there’s more to the movie than its uncanny resemblance to a live-action FernGully—including some deliciously obvious racial overtones.
We've been needing a White Guy around here.
Since the reviews are pretty much in by now, we know how it’s played on Main Street. But how did it play on Ethnic Avenue? I’ll break it down for you.
Visually, But Not Aurally, Striking
I’ll get this one out of the way, since that’s what everyone is focusing on anyway.
I can’t deny the obvious. There were tons of bells and whistles to this movie. Realistic Smurf-Thundercat hybrid creatures; unusually aggressive, and realistic, alien wildlife; colorful, iridescent foliage; the list goes on.
I saw it in 3-D because that was supposed to “enhance” the experience (though the most you actually get is a blurred 2.5-D, from the thin, even layer of someone else’s face grease spread out over the 3-D goggle lenses).
I became suspicious when I learned that it was available in 3-D, since a good movie ought to be good even you’re watching it on one of those VCR-sized black-and-white combination radio-televisions from the 70s. In other words, it’s a good thing it had the strong visuals, because compelling dialog and an original story were obviously not the focus. After all, good conversation doesn’t put asses in the seats. What does, apparently, is having the option of listening to your iPod the whole time and still getting 90 percent of the story.
So don’t be surprised when we go back to the silent-movie era, with a movie with no dialogue running up front and an old guy playing piano in the back. Except, this second-time around, it’ll be a special effects bonanza on the screen, with a hipster DJ “spinning” records on his MAC laptop.
You heard it here first.
Environmentally Sound (Recycled) Storyline
A strange thing about watching this movie was the nagging suspicion–reoccurring every few scenes–that you’d heard or seen this story before. Then, about half way through the movie, you realize Avatar is a cleverly woven quilt-work of older stories. It’s not a bad idea, actually. Instead of another single remake, why not remake several movies at once? That’s surely better. Some examples:
Pocahontas – Native princess meets the white interloper; takes him to the village to meet her father, the chief (Powhatan); the natives generously spare his life , and he adopts their way.
Warcraft II the Game – Elven archers, flying dragon-like creatures; this was every awkward gaming nerd’s dream come true.
The Lion King – Collective African-like chanting rituals at the “tree of life.”
White People Save Dumb-Ass Natives (Again)
I can speak from experience that I would be totally lost if it weren’t for the periodic, intrepid White guy coming into my life and saving me from my own noble, but foolhardy, ways.
Helping Dumb Natives, Since Colonial Times
Let’s face it: ethnic people throughout history have needed help from White people with modernizing their lives and learning how to enjoy the finer things.
The problem is that they brag about it in movies way too often. They could have stopped at Dance with Wolves and I’d still remember how much we owe them.
Avatar has an acute case of white-people-save-the-day-itis. Here’s an abbreviated list of the accomplishments a single character introduced as being kind of dumb (and handicapped), but White, was able to accomplish during the course of the story.
- Convincing the chiefs to spare his life
- Learning the language lickety-split
- Learning the ways of The People within three months
- Stealing the main warrior’s bride-to-be and then punking him in front of everyone
- Taming the untamable gigantic dragon creature–something only five other people in history have managed–in one fell swoop
- Communicating directly with the deity
- Convincing the deity to “take sides,” something it never does
- Saving the entire planet Pandora
Thanks again, White people.
Another interesting aspect to this story was the intentionally ambiguous ethnicity of the Na’vi (the natives). Like the patchwork storyline, the ethnicity of the natives was a skillful blend of Native American Indians, Africans tribes people, and blue Thundercats.
Names (Obviously) Culled from a Quick Internet Search
One of the challenges to suspending my disbelief throughout the movie was the eerily familiar (and somewhat lame) naming of things.
At times, it seemed like after the seven years of working on all of the visuals, the creative team got tired when it came to naming everything. Pandora, Avatar? It sounded more like my browsing history than a fantastical new world.
Posted in Ethnic Reviews, White People | 
Tags: Avatar Movie, Pocahontas, Race, Remakes, Reviews, Thundercats, White Guys
Hey, patching together different movies into a brand “new” title is something we’ve been doing in India for years and years! Most Hindi movies are a combination of a minimum of two, and up to 18, other movies, usually foreign. In fact, I think this is actually good, experimental science as we’re trying to prove that combining movies, in the limit of infinity, will actually yield a brand new, *original* work. Just imagine a movie with every single line and scene being from a different movie… all rendered in stunning 3D with a $573 million budget, of course! It can’t possibly miss!!!
I think, in most cases, it would be more entertaining to spend $300 on a cheap camera and then record how a ghetto-ass person would spend the other $572,999,700!
You forgot to mention how hard it is to Google this movie, there are zillions of oooooooo between the G and the GLE. And not to out myself too much… the joint medical and scientific program from the movie was called AVTR: http://avtr.com/ get it?
I know. It’s like naming your $573-million blockbuster “naked college girls.” Imagine trying to find that one on Google.
Plus, the very obvious references to Vietnam/Apocalypse Now (a.k.a. the only war against the natives white people ever felt like apologizing for, and its twentieth century movie representation) don’t make up for the fact that the whole movie feels like a advertisement for the military. After all, what would Jake have done without the strength and opportunities given to him by the Marines, blah blah blah.
visually, aurally and content-wise
“I liked it: when it was called Pocahontas, the Lion King, and Warcraft the game.”
I’d like to add one: Princess Mononoke
it’s an animated film by Hayao Miyazaki released in 1997 – visually, aurally and contentwise striking.
I liked Pocahontas too, when it was dumbed down and given a cheesy ending for Disney viewers. The real Pocahontas converted to Christianity and was paraded around England as proof that the Natives could be “civilized”. The movie had a happy ending, but we know how things turned out for the Native Americans. At least with Avatar, it’s not trying to sanitize an actual part of our guilty history.
And about the “ethnic”-looking faces of the natives in Avatar, I think there would be more complaining about racism if they looked European. Hell, I would be complaining if they looked European. The main character is white because he is supposed to represent European colonialism/imperialism. The natives looked African/Native American with Animist/Pantheist beliefs because they represented the people who were exploited and treated like sub-humans during European colonialism. So I don’t see the problem.
If the symbolism was a little obvious, then maybe that works for the movie’s favor. I loved District 9 but not many people who saw it had any idea that it was a metaphor for anything. Some people I spoke to had no idea what Apartheid or Bantustans were, and didn’t even know where Palestine was located let alone that there is a segregation wall being built around it. Avatar is a metaphor for so many past and current conflicts that it could mean something different for anyone in the world.
Personally I didn’t think that the white guy was saving the Natives. The planet saved herself in the end. I viewed the white guy as someone who could help them understand the humans and know their weaknesses, and spot their lies. If white people see this movie and identify with the “white hero”, why is that a bad thing? It sends the message that you don’t need to view the world as “my race against theirs”. If you have the upper hand over someone else, you don’t need to exploit them, you can help them… and helping doesn’t mean helping them to become more like you, sometimes it means helping them NOT become like you.
Peoples all over the world are trying to hang on to their ancient traditions, and resist the globalization of materialist culture. They are on the defensive while multi-national corporations are on the offensive. Just because I am part of the western materialist culture, that doesn’t mean I can’t sympathize with the the oppressed, exploited, and marginalized peoples around the world. Any movie that promotes environmentalism, humanitarianism, tolerance, and resisting oppression can’t be that bad.
Yes the dialogue could have been better, but I liked the predictability. It has been sooo long since I’ve seen an environmentalist film that was truly uplifting. I’m so used to hopeless endings that the happy ending in Avatar was actually a pleasant surprise.
That’s a mouthful. Don’t even get me started on so-called historical movies. I can’t even bear to talk about movies like Amistad or 300. There oughta be a law.
While I agree that, in a way, the White guy was a net zero (not the internet service), since he merely canceled out the damage done by other White people, I think the planet saved itself only because he interceded. It’s hard to deny that he was presented as the White savior. And, while people might relate to that character, he still comes from a fundamentally condescending place.
I’m all for a little propaganda in my movies, since it exposes the otherwise ignorant plebs to messages they would otherwise ignore or not even get in their corporate-ass media. Is that elitist?