torsdag 29 november 2012

Avatar: Anti-colonialist or...?

I recently watched Avatar, a highly acclaimed movie which completely went out of the roof regarding budget and effects. It is very much an eye candy, in an almost magical way with all these strange plants and enormous trees, dragons and jungle. But beneath all this, there is a message to the watcher about people, and about the way we treat each other. 

At the very start of the film we get to meet a group of scientists and people from companies who have travelled to a planet filled with creatures very much like... humans. It's very strange and unrealistic when you think about it. There shouldn't logically be able to live creatures more like humans than any creature currently living here apart from us on another planet. The whole idea that there is human like creatures to the very extent where they use clothes, braid their hair, use the same stone age weapons as we did, domesticate animals, which in fact looks a lot like our own horses and can learn our language is beyond strange. And apart from that, we can see the message that the creators of the film tried to convey, that of colonialism. It's very clear from the beginning that the blue natives of the planet the humans try to conquer for it's minerals are very much like the native Americans or African people. They have large noses, use Indian pearls in their hair lad talk in a very African-like manner. From that point, the humans are made to look more and more brute while the blue Na'vis are shown as helpless towards this great threat. It feels like it very much symbolizes the whole colonialism a couple of hundred years ago. The humans in the movie represented the Europeans during those days and the Na'vis represented the natives of the countries we colonialist. 

Now we ask ourselves about the title of this article, and why it does question fact that the movie was anti-colonalist, and go back to think about the characters in the movie. The humans were cruel and had guns and airplanes, while the Na'vis were kind hearted spirits who strongly worshipped their god. The Na'vis are then helpless and totally at a loss of useful action when the humans start attacking. Until, wait for  it...........  The white man shows up! And is the chosen one! And catches a dragon only a handful very trained in the skill he was taught about a month ago have ever caught before! And is generally accepted among the group as a saviour! And saves the day! Yaay!

Again, it is shown in a Hollywood movie that there has to be a white man among a group if it should have a chance to succeed, because as clearly stated in the movie and many others, neither women nor men of different origin could ever have a chance of thinking of something smart or overthrowing anything? Right?

I believe that Avatar is just another Hollywood movie that might have good special effects, but in the whole is just that. It tries to make connections and show people the colonialisation, but what it does in the end is merely scratching on the surface of the problem and then swiftly throwing in a white guy, making him accepted among the natives and making them win the war because of him. Because again, the white race is the only one capable in Hollywood productions. Had this been even slightly realistic the Na'vis wouldn't have stander a chance, and if they actually did - it wouldn't have been because of him.

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