Avatar or Avataint?

Jonathan Gourlay — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 16:06:11 GMT

Avatar is kind of annoying. It's such a behemoth and there is such a swirl of claptrap spewn hither and yon about it, that it is hardly worth mentioning on a blog that three people read. Nevertheless the question has been asked by greater minds than mine: is Avatar racist? The answer is, of course, yes it is, in the same uncomfortable, naive way that movies from the early-to-mid twentieth century tend to be.

Look, if you think the natives are either obstacles to be removed (racism circa 1500-1990) or simple folk who would never harm the earth b/c they're so in tune with the f-ing planet (racism 1990-?) then you need, as we said in college, a "paradigm shift". Both extremes deny the basic humanity of the "natives." Now, you'll say that the Na'vi are not human, so who gives a crap -- it's true, Avatar works on the "big blue alien" level -- yet the movie is still clearly trying to send a message that once again glorifies pre-columbian native-ness as some sort of ignorant, Edenic paradise. The easy acceptance of this message without comment is annoying as hell.

(1990, btw, is when "Dances with Wolves" was released.)

(Human beings sitting in a circle and drinking mud.)

As a thought experiment -- what if Europeans had not come to the Americas but every other technological advance had occurred as it did in history? Would the resulting culture drive no automobiles? Eat no fast food? Destroy no forests? Watch no reality television? Murder, rape, pillage, war... are these European constructs? Would you deny the essential humanity of the "natives" -- both the good and the bad, as some sort of guilt-ridden wish fulfillment? If only Europeans hadn't brought their germ-ridden blankets, we'd all be thinking in circles and worshiping Gaia instead of destroying the environment and cheering on the end-times. (Oh rapture!!) Yeah, right.

(Traditional dancing on Pohnpei.)

Speaking of humanity, if you want to cleanse your soul after Avatar, a good wash with Masaki Kobayashi's "The Human Condition" will do the trick. It's a nine-hour, B/W, Japanese (and Chinese) language movie circa 1960. Therefore, it's never going to be shown on IMAX and make a billion dollars. But what it will do is give you some f-ing faith in humanity. Strange, since it's about how the humanity is crushed out of our hero (the spectacular Tatsuya Nakadai) during WWII. Where Avatar's notion of love is facile; Human Condition's is complex. Where Avatar glorifies the "natives"; Human Condition never denies the basic humanity of the conquered Chinese, although it shows how easily this humanity can be ignored by the conquering Japanese. Where Avatar blithely throws the Earth into the dustbin without a second thought; The Human Condition (for all of its brutal honesty, its stark depiction of human depravity) shows humans on a grand scale, capable of complex emotions, not simply good/bad, reacting to a fascist war machine (like Avatar's) with real humanity... While being nothing like War and Peace, it's a faithful an adaptation of that novel's themes as there is ever likely to be. Who makes epic movies about humans any more?

Mango Haiku - Avatar

Avatar or Avataint?