All you need is love...

As a few of you many know, I study film in school – which makes me a bit of a pop culture fanatic. Naturally, this passion, coupled with a long-harbored affection for Titanic, led to my interest in director James Cameron’s most recent project, Avatar. I’m sure I don’t have to give a plot summary – many of you contributed to its $1 billion box office roundup – but for those of you who don’t know…

SPOILERS! Avatar is the story of paraplegic soldier Jake Sully (Sam Worthington). In his quest for physical freedom, he agrees to travel to the world of Pandora, where a priceless metal is hidden beneath the grounds of the Na’vi people. Jake agrees to dig up as much information as he can on Pandora by going undercover, using the body of a human/Na’vi avatar – hence the title. Seduced by the use of his legs in the alternate reality, he ignores the greedy businessmen who are willing to destroy the Na’vi people, and their beautiful land, for a share.

Love, in the form of Pandorian Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), will reform Jake, forcing him to consider the lives of others before the complete use of his body. Jake must stand up to the men hellbent on destroying Pandora for their natural resource. Hmm. And so life imitates art – or art imitates life. And according to The New York Times‘ Patrick Goldstein, “America’s prickly cadre of political conservatives” aren’t happy about it. Righties have slammed the film’s pro-environment/anti-corporation stance, as well as its anti-military undertones. He quotes John Nolte, who described the film as…

“A sanctimonious thud of a movie so infested with one-dimensional characters and PC cliches that not a single plot turn, large or small, surprises. . . . Think of ‘Avatar’ as ‘Death Wish’ for leftists, a simplistic, revisionist revenge fantasy where if you . . . hate the bad guys (America) you’re able to forgive the by-the-numbers predictability of it all.”

Conservatives also take issue with the film’s “godless” director, Cameron. So caught up in the ideology, they have failed to recognize the film’s stunning achievement: its artistry. Had they, the environmental subtext may have been easier to swallow. It’s undeniable that our natural resources are being eaten up, with or without an acknowledgment of global warming. There has also been a rise in endangered species. Even now, The Natural Resources Defense Council is fighting for the addition of false killer whales – a kind of dolphin – to the endangered species list. Whether or not we consider the “inconvenient truth” mulled over by sleazy politicians and religious zealots alike, we can not deny that our environment – the living creatures around us – are in danger.

No need to get testy over one man’s artistic expression of a shared concern.

Silver Screened, The Green Gamine