Does 'Avatar' Have A Radical Environmental Message?

Mother Nature Network:

James Cameron's Avatar is without a doubt the most epic piece of environmental advocacy ever captured on celluloid, and it only very thinly veils its message which, on the heels of a failed Copenhagen summit, is more timely now than ever... Nature will always win.

Read the whole story: Mother Nature Network

Comments

[RRonin]

02:39 PM on 01/12/2010

The truly radical message in "Avatar" is the transformation of Lt. Trudy Chacon from gung ho helicopter pilot to mutinous Marine, firing on her own troops. Unlike Jake or Grace, Trudy has no skin in the game. Jake and Grace have come to love the Na'vi, but Trudy does not love the Na'vi, nor is there anything in the film to show that her fondness for the scientists whe chaufeuer's around is so strong she would risk court-martial or death over it. Trudy arrives at her moment of truth on her own, independent of the actions or beliefs of the scientists. Like any intelligent, independent thinker, she cannot square her mercenary status and actions with her ingrained tradition of honor, integrity and courage. In the end, Trudy is forced to choose between being an honorable warrior or a participant in an atrocity, and if this requires she take up arms against her own, then so be it. She is like the helicopter pilot (!) who landed his bird at the My Lai massacre, thereby using it to shield unarmed civilians.

[omobob]

12:53 PM on 01/12/2010

Hard to have an environmental message when the films carbon foot print dwarfs the GNPs of many counties.

[doublehelix68]

04:21 PM on 01/12/2010

Proof, statistics please.
No more inflated rhetoric.

[omobob]

05:25 PM on 01/12/2010

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)

[omobob]

12:49 PM on 01/12/2010

Cameron wishes. Director Camerons belief that his endevour will "change the way we look at movies" is graniose self aggrandizement of Titanic proportions. Its a 500 million dollar cartoon drive in remake of "dances with wolves".

[doublehelix68]

01:16 AM on 01/15/2010

Glib, omobob, just glib and it adds nothing to the dialog.

[ThomasAnderson]

11:36 AM on 01/12/2010

Yes, the message is quite radical. Humans are a cancer of the Earth. Once upon a time we lived with Earth, much like the big blue alien characters did (the symbiosis with animals via hair strands is the obvious metaphor). Slowly, we began changing, began killing each other and using up the vital resources of the planet- much like cancer does to a body. The humans in Avatar acted in a similar manner. Now, what happened to the humans in Avatar? What will happen to us?

Yes, Avatar is incredibly radical.

[HLL]

04:34 PM on 01/05/2010

I loved Avatar FOR its message: love and respect for the Earth, animals, Spirit, Life.

We need to hear that message over and over and over and over until we get it.

[toxicbrainpoison]

10:09 PM on 01/04/2010

they said ferngully, dances with wolves, pocahontas and american history were radical too.

[drbob601]

08:31 PM on 01/04/2010

I dunno...maybe the message is, it's not good to invade a native population's homeland (and kill as many natives as necessary, in the process) for the sole purpose of stealing their natural resources.

Yeah, that's a real "radical" message.

[ReedYoung]

03:16 PM on 01/05/2010

I agree. Anti-imperialism was the primary theme. The Navi's love of their environment was just a plot device to set up the conflict over what they consider sacred versus what the corporate invaders considered only in terms of maximizing short-term profit. My favorite part was when Mother Nature (Eyhwa) took sides, but that does not make the whole movie a political statement.

[research]

06:10 PM on 01/05/2010

yes, I thought the author's take was odd.

I do love the "Oneness" of nature taken to the limit with the planets shared neural connection collective mind.

Neural Network theory says we already have this: our senses and expressions are the connection.

[ssmigs]

07:10 PM on 01/04/2010

Wes Studi-I recognized his voice-was in Dances with Wolves-in pretty much the same character as in Avatar. Nobel savage chieftain. The similarities are numerous. Aside from the battle against other natives versus corporate hired mercenaries, and the buffalo being replaced with a hound of the baskervilles, it's the same movie. Hugely visually entertaining with a story line second fiddle to amazing technical wizardry. Tatonka!

[lennyp]

05:48 PM on 01/05/2010

Although the Colonel in Avatar is quite the savage, I fail to see any hint of nobility in him nor do I see him as any chieftain.

[ReedYoung]

01:00 AM on 01/06/2010

Perfect response! Fanned.

[omobob]

05:30 PM on 01/12/2010

Ah, Graham Greene was the chief in "Wolves" not Wes Studi, who I agree has done some fine acting.
I also concur that the story line was derivative and weak.

[patches12]

05:59 PM on 01/04/2010

Does a bear *&% in the woods?

[Duke1225]

05:47 PM on 01/04/2010

This article would be more convincing if Avatar had not partnered with MCDONALDS!

[Please-Play-Fair]

06:59 PM on 01/04/2010

Well ... Cameron is very much like Gore who preach what "others" should do, but ultimately do what is best for their pocket book.

[paganmist]

02:47 PM on 01/05/2010

And unless a director can afford the cost of the entire movie, then he's got other people to answer to. Other people who think that he should tean up with McDonald's.

No offense, but if no one ever compromised and just "stuck to their principles" all the time, we'd have no movies, no music, no art - nothing good. Life is about compromise. People who stick to their principles to their net detriment need to grow up.

[Andrea K-J]

08:21 PM on 01/04/2010

McDonalds?!? Really???

[Andrea K-J]

04:40 PM on 01/04/2010

A radical environmental message? I wouldn't call it "radical" - just open your eyes and look around. I would call it an important message and I appreciate seeing this message conveyed so beautifully in a film of this calibre.

It's great that movie-goers are being encouraged to recycle their 3-D glasses but I think that donations should be made from even the smallest portion of Avatar's profits to various children's environmental education and tree planting organizations around the world. I think this would make the movie so much more powerful. Kids in Canada, the United States and many places around the globe are paying to see the movie and as the future stewards of our planet, they will pay for our inability to agree that the planet is in peril. Steps need to be taken now before it's too late. For many children who will never have the opportunity to see Avatar, for example, children in the poorest and most environmentally impacted parts of Africa, it may already too late.

Kids care about the planet and they want to help so it would be outstanding if corporate partnerships and donations could be directed to kids tree planting initiatives that empower and educate kids to help the planet.

[Topanga2009]

08:55 PM on 01/04/2010

Totally agree. It's a beautifully crafted message - and a great way for those who don't particularly "understand" climate change (i.e. the masses) to understand the message subtly, but in a powerful way.

[dmac]

04:20 PM on 01/04/2010

The movie is entertaining, which is pretty much what movies are supposed to be. And it's pretty as a bonus.

The reactions to it have been amusing. Conservatives all aquivver over the Liberal Message. But did Cameron write in Bush cliches or did Bush just speak in cliches to begin with? European countries exploited "the new world" for its resources for centuries, North America exploited South America for its resources --- if a viewer chooses to see the film as war-for-oil in Iraq, fine. But that's only one of many choices.

And the warm-and-fuzzy native victory? The natives were losing; it was only when the planet itself joined in that the Bad Guy faction of humans were defeated. And that may be as close to a radical message as the movie gets: Nature Will Take Care Of Itself. That sounds a much more Conservative than Liberal to me.

[headly66]

03:48 PM on 01/04/2010

I sure hope so.

[marshhen]

03:35 PM on 01/04/2010

Avatar is the left's ultimate dream in one movie, here is a list of topics covevered by the movie:

1. Cloning/stem cell research

2.Animal Rights

3. Racism (American Indians)

4. Environmentalism

5. We destroyed (pollute) the earth.

6. Corporations rule the world and CEOs only care about greed.

7. The military are controlled by coporations who are nothing but ruthless, imperialistic killing machines.

8. Internet connectivity is the answer to all our problems.

9. Earth has no religion left.

10 We can send people into space light years away, but healthcare is still unaffordable.

The only thing missing was gay rights.

[dmac]

04:33 PM on 01/04/2010

Paranoia strikes deep, eh?

1. Implied, but not confirmed in the movie.

2. Respect for animals and "animal rights" are not the same thing.

3. There was a degree of racism by the Bad Guy humans, but think of it this way --- were you English, might you have seen the natives as people of the Indian Subcontinent? Or if you were French, the North Africans? Or Spanish, the indigenous South American population? That's a worldwide theme.

4/5. Um, yeah. And the stroy is based on the idea that earth is dying; it's a common SF theme.

6. The one corporate guy in the movie was all about impatience and the greed. You have extrapolated that that means "Corporations rule the world and CEOs only care about greed".

7. That was not "the military"; the movie made it clear that they were mercenaries. If you'd like to defend Blackwater, please give it your best try.

8&9. Huh?

10. Yeah. And that reference was cute.

We all see things through our own filters. But yours needs a little antidistortion work.

[Gover]

04:37 PM on 01/04/2010

Yeah sucks to pay $15 to have the truth shoved in your phase in 3D huh?

[Lonon Smith]

03:02 PM on 01/04/2010

Environmental message? "Avatar" is about oversized blue creatures battling evil humans and their use of cutting edge but soulless technology in a movie made using cutting edge technology to make a soulless movie about ... did I mention the blue creatures? There is probably a great movie to be made about the fact that humanity is committing environmental suicide, but "Avatar" isn't it -- although the few humans that manage to evolve enough to survive our delusions of invulnerability may very well be blue creatures from holding their breath.

[Topanga2009]

09:00 PM on 01/04/2010

Totally agree with you that this isn't a fantastic film about environmental suicide (very well put, by the way) - but 'Avatar' might just be the medium that speaks to delusional ones in a way they can understand. The "Disney-fication," if you will, of environmentalism. Something that the simple-minded folks who might not understand climate change, global warming (etc etc) will "get."