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Does 'Avatar' perpetuate stereotypes?

#41
Any movie that doesn't end before it begins is a stereotype. So there!!

Cameron always stereotypes. Why was the Titanic's hitting the iceberg always the fault of the ship's captain and the White Star Line's management? Just for once he should've explored the possibility that the iceberg deliberately jumped in front of the ship because it was jealous of what a technological advance for Western civilization the ship represented. But no, big masses of ice might get offended....
 
#42
Bob Lee (QSC) said:
Just for once he should've explored the possibility that the iceberg deliberately jumped in front of the ship because it was jealous of what a technological advance for Western civilization the ship represented.
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This would have made for a much better movie. I may start my writing career by typing it up and sending it to Analog. I'll give you full credit, and none of the money.
 
#44
JansenW said:
I can't remember the last time Hollywood made a move with the military as a positive role model.

Any suggestions?
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I don't think they portrayed militarism in a positive light in this movie. It seemed blatantly obvious that it was written as a direct criticism of a certain war on a certain people because of a certain valuable commodity they posses. More or less I saw it as a warning for what happens when superpowers get money hungry.
 
#45
You could argue a pro-military and anti-war case for The Hurt Locker, which came out last year.

It also happens to be an incredible film.

And for everyone who assumes that this film is explicitly about Iraq and Afghanistan, remember that Avatar was based on something James Cameron wrote in 1994...


Also, some stuff interesting stuff from the man himself (from a 2007 interview):
This is an original screenplay, correct?
That's correct.

How did you come up with this story?
Well, my inspiration is every single science fiction book I read as a kid. And a few that weren't science fiction. The Edgar Rice Burroughs books, H. Rider Haggard — the manly, jungle adventure writers. I wanted to do an old fashioned jungle adventure, just set it on another planet, and play by those rules.

Your premise reminded me a lot of the Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter, Warlord of Mars series.
It's definitely got that feeling, and I wanted to capture that feeling, but updated. To be certain, I wanted a film that could encompass all my interests, from biology, technology, the environment — a whole host of passions. But I've always had a fondness for those kind of science fiction/adventure stories, the male warrior in an exotic, alien land, overcoming physical challenges and confronting the fears of difference. Do we conquer? Exploit? Integrate? Avatar explores those issues.

How long has this been in your head?
I wrote an 80-page treatment 11 years ago. We were working from the treatment in designing the world and the creatures and so on. I wrote the script the first four months of 2006.

Is it true you have developed a whole culture and even a whole language for the aliens in this movie?
Absolutely. We have this indigenous population of humanoid beings who are living at a relatively Neolithic level; they hunt with bows and arrows. They live very closely and harmoniously with their environment, but they are also quite threatening to the humans who are trying to colonize and mine and exploit this planet.

Sounds like you've crafted a story with a lot of political resonance.
Only in the very broadest sense of how we as a Western technological civilization deal with indigenous cultures; we basically supplant them. If not in an active, genocidal way, then in a passive manner. They just kind of wither away. Our impact on the natural environment, wherever we go — strip mining and putting up shopping malls. Now, we're extending that to another planet.


Source:
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#47
JansenW said:
I can't remember the last time Hollywood made a move with the military as a positive role model.

Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

Saving Private Ryan

Sargent York

I'm sure I could go on. These movies are more about the internal struggles of individuals with the military as a backdrop.

But they are positive, and they don't operate under the assumption that the campaign is misguided, morally wrong, or that the US military is a tentacle of an evil empire.

When you think about Avatar like that (which is easy to do, it's pretty transparent), I for one am getting sick of America bashing by fellow Americans.
 
#48
electracoyote said:
Saving Private Ryan

Sargent York

I'm sure I could go on. These movies are more about the internal struggles of individuals with the military as a backdrop.

But they are positive, and they don't operate under the assumption that the campaign is misguided, morally wrong, or that the US military is a tentacle of an evil empire.

When you think about Avatar like that (which is easy to do, it's pretty transparent), I for one am getting sick of America bashing by fellow Americans.
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+1

It seems, despite low box office sales (and not counting Avatar), that Hollywood has been making movie after movie that negatively stereotyped the military.
 
#50
Were the Smurfs Racist? Gargarmel was a mean old Caucasian guy that tried ceaselessly to destroy the peaceful communal society of the little blue people. If his cat had turned against him and helped the Smurfs try to defeat his evil plots, it would pretty much be the same story. No?
 
#55
Michelle Rodriguez comes from Dominican Republic, there are black soldiers in the movie, etc...

FFS, sometimes people are so obsessed with politically correct/anti racism that they see racism EVERY WHERE, even when it's not there, like here.

Oh, and I'd like to add, "The Simpsons already did it".
 
#56
Haven't seen the movie. Don't plan on seeing it. I've heard some talk about this. I think there are people with a lot of time on their hands. I also think you can find whatever you want in any media if you look hard enough and can impart your own spin. Just like anything else.
 
#59
epic-fail-avatar-plot-fail.jpg
 

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