Posted on 12/26/2009 12:15:26 PM PST by smoothsailing
December 25, 2009
By Phill Kline
The visuals are stunning, the story borrowed and the message shallow and false. John Cameron's new epic Avatar features a jump in animation technology and a throwback of over 1,000 years to pantheism.
Set in 2154, the movie features a U.S. mega-corporation mining the distant planet of Pandora for a rare mineral that suspiciously looks like a carbon spewing lump of coal. The mining is conducted with smoke belching machinery that rape the planet while the human workers are protected by Marine mercenaries from the mind melding sensual native population of 10 foot tall spiritual beings.
The natives are one with their native planet, including their mother-god Eywa. Eywa is the planet, and the natives reach oneness by entwining fibers from their bodies with the fibers of the planet. This representative sexual union allows them to hear their departed ancestors and gain rhythm with the planet — a séance orgy so to speak. All life on the planet is one, with one spirit and one energy.
Avatar's themes represent the new American "apology" at its best. The movie mirrors complaints about U.S. expansionism of the 1800's that drove Native Americans from their sacred grounds and reflects the "new" history that represents modern America as an imperialistic regime willing to do anything for wealth and power.
The movie's villain, the commander of the mercenary Marine force, reinforces this view when speaking with the movie's hero Jake Sully. Sully is a wounded Marine who lost the use of his legs in battle for the U.S. in Venezuela. The commander was also in Venezuela and mentions he also saw action in Nigeria. Both countries, in which the U.S. has never fought, are oil-exporting countries and the movie assumes are places where we will fight and die in the future.
As any student of the "new" history knows, U.S. soldiers are buried on islands in the Pacific, in Europe and in Southeast Asia and Korea in order to protect our polluting ways.
In the movie, these polluting ways have "killed our mother," the Earth, and now we must bring our imperialistic exploitive and destructive ways to the spiritually focused pantheistic cultures of planet Pandora, named after the Greek mythical goddess and which literally means "she who sends up gifts."
Avatar seeks audience cheers for slaughtering the Marines who are portrayed as bent on killing, cash and forwarding the capitalistic matricidal imperialist ways of the United States.
Sully, is on assignment as a mercenary for the megacorp. His assignment places him deep undercover in the native population. Technology allows him to exist in a native body (an Avatar) such that he befriends and then falls in love with the spiritual princess of the natives. While in the avatar he is also able to run and fly and hunt and love.
Over time he predictably identifies with the natives and goes to battle against the Marines. Offering a prayer to Eywa, the Marine, now native, Sully, asks for Eywa's help in repelling the Americans. In the prayer, Sully states "I know you have chosen me for a purpose...."
Such a prayer represents atheistic Hollywood's dilemma. The only way to reconcile a godless Darwinistic worldview with a deeply spiritual American culture is to convert environmentalism into religion. For what greater purpose for man than to save mother earth, or Pandora? And thus, our purpose in a purposeless world.
Further, as a plea for Eywa's assistance Sully asks the planet god to look into his memories to see how there is no green on earth and how his people have "killed our mother."
Sully's soon to be bride, a native princess, hears his prayers and instructs him that Eywa does not choose sides, a bow to the modern definition of tolerance, but only balances the forces of life and death.
All of this builds to the movies epic battle scene. US Marines moving in with carbon belching high tech machines to face the arrow firing natives. The battle looks lost for the good guys (the natives not the Marines) until Eywa chooses sides and she chooses Al Gore environmentalism. Suddenly Pandora's animals join forces and attack the U.S. forces. The attack is led by giant, aggressive, hippo-resembling beasts with giant anvil heads.
Nature prevails and evil capitalism and man is defeated. Eywa thereby expresses the only truth respected by the left, a truth worth choosing sides for — a truth worth killing for, mother earth. China's forced abortion policy as spiritual expression.
But Sully still has one more critical passage. He desires to permanently inhabit a native body, his Avatar. To do this he must join forces with Eywa and possibly be reborn into a native body. He is warned that all is Eywa's choice — he may be reborn as a native or he may not for as all of us know — it is always the mother's choice.
As the natives join in a ritual touching and chanting that has a cultist quality, Jake Sully is laid before Eywa, becomes one with the planet through the intertwining of the fiber of his Avatar and the planet and is reincarnated as a 10 foot dragon subduing arrow flinging environmentalist.
Avatar represents the left's first epic introduction of the new Darwin spiritualism. Since Darwin cannot survive in the West's spiritual culture, Darwin has now become god in the form of mother earth. Every living thing on planet Pandora is a god. And so, the new left has reached back in history to leap ahead of the scientific age. In the new religion, man is not god as in the age of reason and science. Rather, all is god and thereby nothing is god. But at least we're spiritual.
All this provided just in time for Christmas, oops, the Winter Solstice.
At least my theatre audience did not applaud when Sully's eyes came alive in his Avatar body at the "climatic" (predictable) end of the movie. In fact, the movie did not draw cheers or tears at any point. Perhaps we were still fixated on Hollywood's tossing our Marines around in the jaws and claws of Eywa's warriors — Freudian expressions of the left's desire for that all-powerful environmental protecting global police force.
Call me unenlightened, but when I see a Marine battle an anvil headed beast called forth by a planet-god — I root for the U.S. Marine.
© Phill Kline
The message I got from this movie was NO ONE HAS THE RIGHT TO STEAL FROM SOMEONE ELSE.
I believe that is in the Bible.
You think the film can be justified by finding one of the commandments in it? (BTW, you need not believe it is there; It actually is)
You say it is wrong to insist the movie has any relationship to reality, and in the very next sentence you connect the movie with reality...
I had discussed this movie with my sons when it came out. Last week one of them came home from high school to inform me of a classmate who claimed that Avatar was just like America's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
If one needs lessons in the power of propaganda visit the Holocaust museum. One can see the films and books that portray the "evil Jews" and extol the virtues of the Reich. The journey starts on the top floor; it shows a world not all that different than ours. The trip is a downward spiral. Floor by floor one goes from that world all the way down to the very bottom. One can see the human inflicted misery that included mass murders, gas filled showers, ovens and horrific experiments.
I don’t know what direction the next such attack on humanity will come from. Do you? I would prefer such brainwashing be left in museums rather than being alive and well and received as "no big deal" by those who are too ignorant to see and resist.
If America was rational and educated it probably wouldn’t be a big deal. But then cap and trade, socialized health care, and Obama would not be big deals either, would they?
Hey, it's just a children’s book. What's the problem? You are reading things into it...
Page from the anti-Semitic German children's book, 'Der Giftpilz' ( The Poisonous Toadstool). The text reads, " 'He who fights against Jews, wrestles with the devil.' Julius Streicher." The advertisement in the illustration reads, "Julius Streicher speaks in the Volkshalle about The Jews are our misfortune." 1935
It seems Kline was too preoccupied with framing the movie into his preconceived notions to notice that none of the “soldiers” were wearing US military uniforms. They were, in fact, private mercenaries, hired to drive the local residents off their land (so much for his respect for private property rights). There are only two characters that we know were former Marines, one of whom is the hero of the film. Maybe the amazing popularity of this movie shows that people aren’t afraid of taking a new look at things. Kneejerk reactions, right or left, are tiresome.
2. Did the fact that all the main human characters are whites and all the people providing voices for the primitive, cornrow-wearing aliens were non-whites strike you as unusual? No possible message there?
3. Unobtanium? Really?
One of my sons saw Avatar yesterday. His friends wanted to see it and he thought it would at least be a good sci fi story. He is able to suspend disbelief and get into a movie. He said, "it sucked", and that the reason is the bombardment of the movie’s message.
I contend:
1) Cameron deliberately made this film a propaganda vehicle.
2) His doing so screws up the movie.
3) People are receiving the anti American message he is pushing.
To be fair, I have not seen this movie. I prefer to avoid supporting such efforts with my money. I am basing this on the reviews I have read, both positive and negative, and the comments of those who have seen it.
As Mr. Silverback has pointed out, media can be used to move sentiments toward good goals or bad. Uncle Tom's Cabin is an excellent example of what could be left handedly described as "good propaganda". The same can be said for the obvious pro war movies and news reels from the 40s.
Our children are bombarded with anti western and anti American messages in all forms of media and in school. In my opinion, breaking apart this assault to individual items in order to say it is no big deal is intentionally ignorant and dangerous.
If anyone wants to see a completely enjoyable and very well done "message" movie go rent Wall-E.
The movie was asinine, written by a person who doesn’t understand technology. My wife liked it. She doesn’t pay attention to the messages.
If you have a super-shuttle like the one shown, you don’t use it as a “bomber.” You have it loft a package (a damn big rock) into a suborbital trajectory. When it arrives at the target at a velocity of 3-5 miles per second, its “game over.” There’s nothing left but a big crater.
Likewise, you don’t’ have you chopper gunships flying around slowly in formation, you keep them fast, loose, and working in pairs.
Finally, if unobtainium is necessary for the survival of Earth, we’ll be back. And this time we’ll do the job from orbit... and make very, very sure its done right.
Doesn’t matter if DO make it. You have to get past the gatekeepers into the theaters. That won’t be allowed to happen.
“Taking a new look at things” is what has placed our liberty, our society, it's shaken morality and it's future economic health in complete jeopardy.
Only moderate RINOs would see this reaction as “knee jerk”. Conservatives who see reality have correctly identifies what drives this evil force into accepting complacency and soft tyranny in the name of environmentalist fundamentalism.
This article is spot on. If you don't like the fact that us Conservatives see this as it truly is, then you might consider going back to a more Liberal blog of your choice, which better suits your philosophy.
My best friend humorously founded the "Brown Earth Society" on the net. His motto? Earth First! We'll strip mine the other planets later.
I missed pinging you (IggyDad) in my post 105 - and the reply was primarily for you. The two most applicable sentences are:
It is wishful and misguided thinking to conclude Cameron had no additional motive in it's construction.
and
In my opinion, breaking apart this assault to individual items in order to say it is no big deal is intentionally ignorant and dangerous.
Not impressed with your "can't do" attitude. But seriously, the conservative movement needs to think much BIGGER, and much more LONG TERM. Presumably, within the entire conservative movement, there is enough money for a few souls with extremely deep pockets (Limbaugh) to buy or form an entertainment conglomerate. If Limbaugh has the dough to buy a football team, he has the money to buy or form an entertainment company.
Such a company would have to be more than just a small concern dedicated to solely conservative-themed movies. It would have to be a legitimate business, and would have to produce enough movies of varying styles to stay profitable.
But among the entire range of movies produced could be movies with conservatve themes. And not overt, ham-handed, obvious ones. Not where the conservative theme was so obvious as to obscure the entertainment value.
Conservatives need to grab the reins of cultural power and get in the game. Why should Limbaugh waste his money on a football team, which has no significant cultural influence or value, when he could buy into something with strategic value?
There are a million small ways conservatives could subtley effect the culture. How about creating apps for Iphones? Maybe one is just a humor app---it gives you jokes. And many of the jokes could have a conservative slant. How about a history app for kids, that has a conservative slant.
But they ought not advertise the slant. The idea is to INFILTRATE the mainstream. Just act as if the ideas are normal (which they are.) Do not mention the political slant. Infiltrate.
Not necessarily. Take a look at Fireproof.
It cost half a million to make and made 33 million. Plus, some people in Hollywood are beginning to catch on to the fact that Christians are a large and neglected market. If they can go one step further and realize that the same is true of conservatives, we'll get movies that make Cameron rip his hair out.
Well put.
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