Written & Directed by James Cameron
“Outcast. Betrayer. Alien. I was in the place the eye does not see. I needed their help…and they needed mine. But to ever face them again, I was going to have to take it to a whole new level.”
Pundits have dismissed this film as Pocahontas with a mutant-smurf cast. They’ve criticized it as an unsubtle anti-military, pro-environment, unapologetic tree-hugging allegory that everyone has seen before
Well, it IS an unsubtle anti-military, pro-environment, unapologetic tree-hugging allegory that everyone has seen before. The only difference is that few have ever managed to see it realized with such scope, such vision…and with such genuine emotional impact.
People shouldn’t see Avatar for the story. They should see it for the experience. They should see it for the environment, the world-building, and the astonishing spectacle. The 3-D is designed to put you inside the movie…and it succeeds beyond all expectations…particularly my own.
People should see Avatar to witness Jake Sully’s exhilarating rediscovery and rebirth: a broken, cynical survivor…given new life and new hope thanks to a power greater than himself…and Sam Worthington’s star-making, evocative performance.
People should see Avatar to witness Sigourney Weaver’s character of Dr. Augustine transform from jaded, disappointed, and single-minded scientist to guardian and mother…rediscovering her humanity on a world that humanity once recognized as its own.
People should see Avatar to behold the ultimate mirror: humanity at its stoic, heroic, selfless best…and its brutal, ugly, selfish worst. The lessons of history — learned AND ignored, side-by-side.
“See the world we come from: there’s no green there. They’ve killed their mother…and they’re going to do the same thing here!”
People should see Avatar for the most exquisite physical and spiritual realization of an alien world ever committed to film. George Lucas’s prequel universe has NOTHING on the achievement of James Cameron. Is it original? Not a bit…but it transcends mundane expectations by simply synthesizing the aboriginal, spiritual, and ecological traditions of Earth and fashioning an environment so beautiful, so textured, so VITAL…that it will leave you open-mouthed with astonishment.
I wept…twice. I held my breath during the battles — action so glorious, so astounding, so ground-shaking, I found myself shivering. I bit my nails during Jake Sully’s trials and tribulations — sharing his pain & joy with each successful achievement. I was swept away by a film that staggered me in every conceivable way…and even now, I wonder why and how this managed to affect me so deeply.
I can trace it back to a Christmas reading of The Wayfinders: a published series of Massey Lectures by Wade Davis. It’s a book that explores the tragedy of the destruction of Earth’s aboriginal societies: their languages, their traditions, their completely unique world views…all slowly fading into the mist of oblivion.
Avatar is the incarnation of this powerful sense of melancholy & loss…and a drawn line in the sand that states that certain individuals and cultures will not allow such events to happen again. It’s regret and remembrance. It’s the ache of loss…as represented by an unchanging, military-industrial complex so rapacious that it has failed to learn its lessons at home…prepared to inflict the same torture on another world, and another culture. The conflict, the heartache, and the redemption of lessons learned…all of that spoke to me in Avatar in a way I can’t fully articulate. But the churning emotions, the breathtaking believability of Pandora & its people…all of it conspires to create an experience that every movie should aspire to achieve…but very, VERY few have come close.
Gone With the Wind managed it. Ben-Hur managed it. The original Star Wars managed it. Avatar easily & poignantly manages it. That’s four films in 75 years…rarified company indeed. I’m still not sure why Avatar managed to affect me so deeply. Was I simply in the right place at the right time, in the right mood? Were my expectations so modest that the film couldn’t help but exceed them? Whatever confluence of events occured, the end result was me, walking out of the theatre, shaking — literally shaking — with happiness, and filled with incredible & boundless energy. Just how many films are capable of eliciting such a powerful reaction? I wonder…
10+
