The right has 'Avatar' wrong [hurl]

LA Times ^ | January 26, 2010 | David Boaz

[UAConservative]

Conservatives have been very critical of the Golden Globe-winning film "Avatar" for its mystical melange of trite leftist themes. But what they have missed is that the essential conflict in the story is a battle over property rights.

"Avatar," written and directed by James Cameron and set in 2154, is the story of young American Jake Sully, who joins a military mission to the distant moon Pandora, which has a supply of an expensive and almost impossible to obtain mineral (thus its name, "unobtainium"). Living among the tall, blue natives in the form of an "avatar" -- a lab-created body hooked up by Wi-Fi to his own brain -- Sully comes to doubt his mission and to join the Na'vi people in resisting the earthlings' designs on their land.

Despite its magnificent 3-D special effects, it features a tired plot and merely serviceable dialogue.

But conservatives have focused on the ideas that the film embodies. In National Review, Frederica Mathewes-Green mocked its dreamy vision of "the apparently eternal conflict between gentle people with flowers in their hair and technology-crazed meanies."

Ross Douthat in the New York Times called it an "apologia for pantheism." John Podhoretz in the Weekly Standard complained that it asks "the audience to root for the defeat of American soldiers at the hands of an insurgency." Lots of conservatives complain that a movie about American soldiers invading another planet and killing people is an allegory about the Iraq war. And many agree with Bolivia's socialist president that "Avatar" is anti-capitalist.

[UAConservative]

This moonbat needs to go back to his cave!

[GeronL]

so.... original not.

[Cyber Ninja]

Avatar?

[rabscuttle385]

.

[UAConservative]

Very nice.

[oldenuff2no]

This is like the BS surrounding the Harry Potter movies. When they first started coming out the zealots had a field day about how we were teaching our kids that witchcraft was a good thing.

“Stupid is as stupid does”

The kids knew the whole time that it was nothing more than fantasy entertainment.

Now they are trying to make something out of nothing again. It is fantasy entertainment, that is all. If you don’t want to see it then don’t buy a ticket. Everything is not a "god" issue or a political statement!!!!

[rabscuttle385]

Conservatives rallied to the defense of Susette Kelo when the Pfizer Corp. and the city of New London, Conn., tried to take her land. She was unreasonable too, like the Na'vi: She wasn't holding out for a better price; she just didn't want to sell her house. As Jake tells his bosses, "They're not going to give up their home."

"Avatar" is like a space opera of the Kelo case, which went to the Supreme Court in 2005. Peaceful people defend their property against outsiders who want it and who have vastly more power. Jake rallies the Na'vi with the stirring cry "And we will show the Sky People that they cannot take whatever they want! And that this is our land!"

That's a story conservatives ought to be able to understand.

I saw Avatar last week.

And, despite the movie's problems, I actually thought Cameron did a good job with it.

As for Boaz's commentary, I think he's right.

[max americana]

Oh, this libtard just wants to make a case his nice shiny liberal movie and unfortunate for me, I had to read most of his drivel and they are indeed, qualified rantings of an imbecile.

[NavyCanDo]

I have seen it and still can't figure out for the life of me why it is getting such high ratings. It was OK, but is it a movie that I will be counting the days till its released onto DVD? No.
And it has nothing to do with the politically correct capitalist against the indigenous natives plot. It had to do with it being such a rip off of other movies. I heard others mention Dances with Wolves, but I think it was more closer to the plot of Return of a Man Called Horse. And if that's not enough reason, then how about this: Blue aliens are kinda ugly. Give me Green Orion Girls anyday.

[AndyTheBear]

Avatar is a cool movie. The plot was a little predictable, but the fantastic alien world it was set in was stunningly well done.

[lp boonie]

Brilliant!

[rabscuttle385]

It was OK, but is it a movie that I will be counting the days till its released onto DVD? No.

I'm waiting for Zombieland to come out.

[GeronL]

It came from a FReeper I think, I don’t remember who.

[GeronL]

This was meant to be a political statement by the people who made it.

[fr_freak]

Now they are trying to make something out of nothing again. It is fantasy entertainment, that is all. If you don’t want to see it then don’t buy a ticket. Everything is not a "god" issue or a political statement!!!!

The kind of values that constitute a distinct culture are not always taught outright. Usually, they are interwoven into other things, like the stores told or the deeds that are rewarded. For example, Americans tend to root for the underdog. None of us are ever taught to root for the underdog, but most of our great stories, starting with our own history, are grand tales of the underdog triumphing against all odds, so kids absorb those values through storytelling and other subtle ways without ever having to be told outright "hey, underdogs are cool".

In the same way, if we allow subtle promotions of values and ideas that are contrary to our culture, then kids grow up absorbing those values rather than the traditional ones that the previous generations absorbed. Movies and TV are the top ways to do this. So, you may say that it is only a movie and it doesn't have to be a big deal if it promotes some left-wing anti-American thinking, but really what you are saying is that you don't value your own cultural ideals enough to protect them or promote them, and are content to let some commie nutjob have influence over the upcoming generations.

[AndyTheBear]

This is like the BS surrounding the Harry Potter movies. When they first started coming out the zealots had a field day about how we were teaching our kids that witchcraft was a good thing.

The objections are different.

Objecting to Avatar is more tenuous because the target audience is grown ups, and the moral of the story is to respect other peoples and cultures.

Harry Potter is aimed at kids. The moral of the story seems to be that it is better to be a good magician than either an evil magician in the black arts, or one of those abusive small minded muggles like the ones who adopted Harry.

[Nahanni]

What I find hilarious about this whole situation is why the leftards seem to be so concerned that I should go see this movie.

There have been article after article about how "It is OK for conservatives to go see 'Avatar'". Does anyone else remember such a string of articles about any other movie?

I am sorry but I am not going to waste my hard earned money on a movie with a storyline that I find uninteresting and unappealing. Special effects have never been a selling point of any movie to me since "Star Wars" so that is no reason for me to go spend money to see it. Most importantly I do not need to spend my money or time on yet another tired piece of leftist, America hating propaganda.

Cameron is making plenty of money off this, he does not need any of mine.

[Bobalu]

Mr BeanAtar

[AndyTheBear]

None of us are ever taught to root for the underdog, but most of our great stories, starting with our own history, are grand tales of the underdog triumphing against all odds, so kids absorb those values through storytelling and other subtle ways without ever having to be told outright "hey, underdogs are cool".

I think we gain values from distinct layers. Some we absorb from the culture around us. Others we make conscious choices about. But at the very root there is "Natural Law", or the ethical values that all people (excepting the occasional psychopath) recognize as transcending all the others. Even non-transcendental philosophers recognize them (while denying they exist with a kind of unwitting comedy).

[AndyTheBear]

This was meant to be a political statement by the people who made it.

The left indeed likes to imagine conservatives as the greedy profit mongering and war mongering antagonists in the film. However, they missed reality by so much that it fails to be a political statement in the real world.