Cameron's "Avatar" Insulting to the Armed Forces?
Any opinions from SWC about the film Avatar and the portrayal of the Armed Forces, for those of you who have seen James Cameron's latest 3D film?
Ty Burr from The Boston Globe observed in his review of Avatar:
Quote:
Yes, “Avatar’’ is the latest high-tech entertainment to lecture us that technology is wrong. Human civilization, too. The movie’s cultural politics are childishly two-dimensional, at times insulting (especially if you know anyone in the armed forces). Squint at “Avatar’’ the wrong way and it starts to look like a training film for jihad - not, I’m guessing, what Cameron had in mind.
For those of you who loathe any serious discussion about all things Hollywood, if you saw the film, you probably couldn't help notice how the military is portrayed. I couldn't tell if the armed forces were actually military or hired mercenaries working for the corporation exploring the planet Pandora for a valuable natural resource. The military and the corporation showed open disdain for the scientists on their team, even though they knew they needed the scientists to help with their mission.
Anyway, there was a long National Guard commercial during the previews at the theater where I saw the movie, so I doubt if the film producers had any intention of portraying the military in a negative light. But do they?
Liberal analysis by the media...
I saw Avatar last week. The first thing that came to mind were political themes such as calling the native Navi "terrorists" and critiquing American foreign policy in general. There was also an opinion piece on yahoo criticizing Avatar as "racist" because of the portrayls of the Navi as African/Native American. What I noticed about all of the criticisms of the movie on political/racial lines is that they came from a liberal perspective. To me, this reveals more about the leanings of the media that criticizes the movie that the movie itself:D
Scientologists in space...
"Even in someone else’s society the American is the chosen one. He’s going to come in, lead your army, #### your princesses, and just generally save the day for you. Got it? This is how we do it."
I haven't seen it, and more than likely won't (can't stand Cameron and never watch anything that has been so hyped up that I feel like I've seen it already anyway) but...sounds a lot like Last Samurai (in Space)!!:wry:
The Military, celluloid and product placement...
Now I'm on my hobby horse....
I was struck by the "product placement" the military or the M-I-C manages to accomplish especially in recent films.
1. Die Hard 4 features an implausible chase sequence towards the end featuring the F-35 JSF (I had always favoured the Boeing model, if you were wondering, but scales of economy are as important I suppose)
2. In the rebooted Transformers Starscream in now as F-22 (previously an F-15 if I recall correctly) and in the final action sequence in the first film a group of squaddies or SOF operators desparately call for air support from an ... F-22 rather than A-10s which, IMO, would be perfectly adequate in the Transformer-busting role:D The SOF operators are also lavishly equipped with Milkor MGL-40s.
3. Similarly, I watched District 9 last night (IMO one of the best Sci-fi films I have seen in a long while). Yet, in the deleted scenes, there is a short segment, only 20 secs or so, where a PMC operator attached to MNU grabs a Denel-PAW20 20mm grenade launcher from his truck, oogles it appreciatively (or erotically if you're a gun lover), and then runs off to join the firefight with an alien "mech".