Click on the title to link to a "YouTube" film clip of the movie trailer for "Avatar".
Recently I have begun to post entries under the headline- “Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By”-that will include progressive and labor-oriented songs that might be of general interest to the radical public. I have decided to do the same for some films that may perk that same interest under the title in this entry’s headline. In the future I expect to do the same for books under a similar heading.-Markin
Film Review
Avatar, written and directed by James Cameron (director of “Titanic”), 2009
What is not to like here, for an old political leftie, right? A summary of the plot tells the tale, and incidentally explains part of the headline above. Greedy, apparently, American imperialists (they speak English and are loaded up to the gills with the latest technology so it has to be Americans, right?) having wreaked havoc and exhausted the Earth’s resources are now, as the film starts, in the process of doing the same to other faraway planets. For what purpose? To get that next important natural resource to monopolize and sell on the international, make that interplanetary, market. The target resource at this time is on Pandora (in honor of her nasty box, I presume) right in the heart of the “rain forest” and, more importantly, right at the spiritual center of the “primitive communist” campsite of the indigenous hunter-gatherer inhabitants of that planet. The imperialists are willing, to a point, to negotiate with these inhabitants but come hell or high water they are going to get the “gold”, so the bulldozers are on the march. Oh, yes, and in case of necessity they have their own private Blackwater-style mercenary operation to “enforce the peace”, the peace of the graveyard.
Enter our transformative (literally) avatar hero, a combat-hardened, war-injury paralyzed, ex-Marine used initially to get information about the “enemy” in case they get uppity about the impeding destruction of their sacred grounds. He is slated to, through the genius of modern technology, become one of the “natives”. The long and short of this process is that while our avatar learns the “native” culture from a “girl inhabitant”, in a salute to the best trans-planetary multiculturalism and a tip of the hat to earthly political correctness, he turns traitor once he knows what the old ways mean to this native, and gets wind of the ultimately evil intentions of the imperialists.
Well, as is to be expected in an action movie-all hell breaks loose as the imperialist demonstrate their mastery, led by a battle-tested Marine officer, with an overkill display of “shock and awe” on one of the important religious sites. This is now getting to sound very familiar, right? But here is where the “people’s will is greater than the man’s technology” comes in. Taking a page from the Vietnam War period (and from the time when that slogan had currency, reflecting Western admiration for the Vietnamese, their courage and creativity in the face of massive American firepower) the now renegade ex-Marine and what is left of the indigenous peoples decide to “fight back”, guerilla-style, using their primitive forms of weaponry and knowledge of the terrain. Naturally, the underdog wins. Although as with the case of the Vietnamese the struggle could have been much easier had they had massive amounts of modern weaponry to “fight back” with. There is no inherent virtue in fighting heavily-armored enemies with sticks and stones. But here is the best part, for an old political leftie, at least. After the final battle the imperialists, in a scene reminiscent of the last days of the American Embassy in Vietnam, are marched, guarded by the now well- armed indigenous inhabitants, through the airport to a waiting plane to be shipped back to earth. And all of this in 3-D. Wow!
But can all of that political stuff. This movie is really just an old- fashioned “boy meets girl” story that Hollywood has been cranking out since the dawn of film. It just so happens that the indigenous person who “finds” the avatar is a girl, a rather sprightly girl at that, with a mind of her own and a certain surface contempt for earthling ways, or maybe ex-Marines. Moreover, she is assigned to teach our avatar the native ways, up close and personal. And the long and short of this story is that they fall in love, a seemingly chaste love that will conquer all Pandora’s enemies. And it does. I once read in a survey of Western literature that there were about ten basic story lines that had evolved throughout the whole existence of that literature. If there is any truth to that cut it in half to get the number of basic story lines from the film industry. “Boy meets girl” is still a top drawer though. Hey, and they won too!
Recently I have begun to post entries under the headline- “Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By”-that will include progressive and labor-oriented songs that might be of general interest to the radical public. I have decided to do the same for some films that may perk that same interest under the title in this entry’s headline. In the future I expect to do the same for books under a similar heading.-Markin
Film Review
Avatar, written and directed by James Cameron (director of “Titanic”), 2009
What is not to like here, for an old political leftie, right? A summary of the plot tells the tale, and incidentally explains part of the headline above. Greedy, apparently, American imperialists (they speak English and are loaded up to the gills with the latest technology so it has to be Americans, right?) having wreaked havoc and exhausted the Earth’s resources are now, as the film starts, in the process of doing the same to other faraway planets. For what purpose? To get that next important natural resource to monopolize and sell on the international, make that interplanetary, market. The target resource at this time is on Pandora (in honor of her nasty box, I presume) right in the heart of the “rain forest” and, more importantly, right at the spiritual center of the “primitive communist” campsite of the indigenous hunter-gatherer inhabitants of that planet. The imperialists are willing, to a point, to negotiate with these inhabitants but come hell or high water they are going to get the “gold”, so the bulldozers are on the march. Oh, yes, and in case of necessity they have their own private Blackwater-style mercenary operation to “enforce the peace”, the peace of the graveyard.
Enter our transformative (literally) avatar hero, a combat-hardened, war-injury paralyzed, ex-Marine used initially to get information about the “enemy” in case they get uppity about the impeding destruction of their sacred grounds. He is slated to, through the genius of modern technology, become one of the “natives”. The long and short of this process is that while our avatar learns the “native” culture from a “girl inhabitant”, in a salute to the best trans-planetary multiculturalism and a tip of the hat to earthly political correctness, he turns traitor once he knows what the old ways mean to this native, and gets wind of the ultimately evil intentions of the imperialists.
Well, as is to be expected in an action movie-all hell breaks loose as the imperialist demonstrate their mastery, led by a battle-tested Marine officer, with an overkill display of “shock and awe” on one of the important religious sites. This is now getting to sound very familiar, right? But here is where the “people’s will is greater than the man’s technology” comes in. Taking a page from the Vietnam War period (and from the time when that slogan had currency, reflecting Western admiration for the Vietnamese, their courage and creativity in the face of massive American firepower) the now renegade ex-Marine and what is left of the indigenous peoples decide to “fight back”, guerilla-style, using their primitive forms of weaponry and knowledge of the terrain. Naturally, the underdog wins. Although as with the case of the Vietnamese the struggle could have been much easier had they had massive amounts of modern weaponry to “fight back” with. There is no inherent virtue in fighting heavily-armored enemies with sticks and stones. But here is the best part, for an old political leftie, at least. After the final battle the imperialists, in a scene reminiscent of the last days of the American Embassy in Vietnam, are marched, guarded by the now well- armed indigenous inhabitants, through the airport to a waiting plane to be shipped back to earth. And all of this in 3-D. Wow!
But can all of that political stuff. This movie is really just an old- fashioned “boy meets girl” story that Hollywood has been cranking out since the dawn of film. It just so happens that the indigenous person who “finds” the avatar is a girl, a rather sprightly girl at that, with a mind of her own and a certain surface contempt for earthling ways, or maybe ex-Marines. Moreover, she is assigned to teach our avatar the native ways, up close and personal. And the long and short of this story is that they fall in love, a seemingly chaste love that will conquer all Pandora’s enemies. And it does. I once read in a survey of Western literature that there were about ten basic story lines that had evolved throughout the whole existence of that literature. If there is any truth to that cut it in half to get the number of basic story lines from the film industry. “Boy meets girl” is still a top drawer though. Hey, and they won too!
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