Joe Gerstandt | keynote speaker, freedom fighter, freak-flag flier

*** spoiler alert ***

A few key components of the Avatar plot will be discussed here.

My first and likely my only movie review. 

I generally do not write much here about the going-ons of pop culture simply because there are so many other people doing it and I am sure many of them do it much better than I would.  But I am going to make an exception on this day.

My wife and I saw Avatar earlier this week and it truly is beautiful visually, no arguments there.  The story revolves around the conflict between two cultures…an indigenous culture and an invading culture that is working to displace the indigenous people in order to acquire valuable natural resources. 

Before seeing the movie, I had heard some rumbling about the “liberal agenda” of this movie, but after seeing it I strongly disagree (though I am pretty sure I no longer know what “liberal” actually means if anything).  As a tree-hugging, dirt-worshipping, peace-lover myself, I would have greatly appreciated a powerful new message in this movie.  There is nothing new or progressive here, not in any real way at least.  Avatar is shiny new packaging for the same tired, supremacist story that we have been telling ourselves for a very long time.

Several of my tree-hugging, dirt-worshipping friends had been buzzing about the anti-corporate, anti-military messages of the story, but I didn’t feel that they were all that strong or very relevant.  The characters representing the corporate and military interests were far too simplistic…as if the worship of profit and war are simply the matter of a few bad or mean people.  This is not only inaccurate but a very dangerous message, because it lets everyone else off the hook.

But my real issue lies elsewhere.

At the end of the story, the invading culture is turned away, and who is it that leads the indigenous people in the defense of their beautiful planet?  Why, its one of the members of the invading culture, of course.  This is where the movie takes the path always traveled.  We see the invading culture portrayed as consisting of both good people and bad people…and we see the indigenous culture portrayed as good people (wise, kind, patient, in relation with their environment, etc.) but always less than the invading culture.  Always dependent.  They are either going to be displaced or destroyed by the invading culture, or they are going to be saved by some crossovers from the invading culture.

A point of clarity. 

I am all for taking action on behalf of others and I think that ally stories are important and needed.  But this is not an ally story, it is a savior story…big difference.  A member of the invading culture takes a 3 month crash course on the indigenous culture, falls in love and becomes the great leader…more indigenous than the actual indigenous people.

It kind of reminds me of this article from The Onion.

We have a very real tendency to be more comfortable telling stories about race, if a white person can save the day or at least play a prominent role in saving the day…we tend to be more comfortable telling stories about gender if a male can save the day, etc. And these stories that we tell (with very good intentions) have actually become a part of the problem.

Some will say that I should “lighten up”…it’s a movie and science fiction at that. 

Maybe. Maybe not.

The stories that we tell and pay attention to are important…they both emerge from our culture and help create our culture.  And I think that we are in desperate need of new stories, new archetypes, new models and new language.  Our language, our systems and institutions do not seem up to the challenges of the 21st century and it seems increasingly dangerous to cling to them.

Our stories, and words and metapors matter.  Especially today.

James Cameron has certainly broken some new ground regarding the technical aspects of movie making…but as far as the story goes, there is nothing new here…and I would argue nothing of real value.   

Be good to each other.