Breaking box office records for over a month now, I finally decided to
conform and pay the $12.75 to see the movie Avatar. I sat through the
almost 3 hour movie glued to my seat and unexpectedly could help but
expose all my emotions to the plethora of strangers surrounding me.
Over 2 weeks have passed since I’ve seen the movie, however, the vast
messages still linger. It’s not enough to simply applaud the
inconceivable special effects in Avatar and the unoriginal plot line
that we all love so much. Avatar goes further and deeper and
discusses the themes that have been central to most discussions in
Thane Rosenbaum’s course – Human Rights, Holocaust & the Law.
For those who have yet to see the movie, here is an abridged synopsis:
The movie takes place in the year 2154 and the protagonist – Jake
Sully, has been assigned to the planet Pandora following the death of
his twin brother. Apart from the lush rainforests, floating mountains
and incredibly mesmorizing life forms, Pandora is home to a affluent
deposit of a rare mineral called unobtainium. Jake Sully is
instructed to befriend the Na’vi tribe, whose homeland rests on the
sought after mineral-enriched land and figure out how to get them to
relocate.
However, what I found the most fascinating about this movie was the
tree of souls. Here, the natives are able to make a connection to
their most sacred leader, Eywa, but also listen and feel the preserved
memories and experiences of ancestors. To remember is moral and
Avatar on several occasions draws heightened attention to that point.
Revealing themes of imperialism and colonialism, war and militarism,
anti-patriotism, state versus citizens, religion, spirituality and
racism – all of which are quite present in our lives, it’s no wonder
people has responded with a predilection to this movie.
As children our parents let us watch movies that shape our morals and
help guide us in order to distinguish the differences between right
and wrong. James Cameron does precisely this – he didn’t simply make
a movie about high tech visual effects, he takes us back to our youth
and made a movie with a message – a current day Aesop’s fable.
- Anna Korzhenevich
