Cameron's "Avatar" Insulting to the Armed Forces?

[IntelTrooper]

I'll never understand the popular stereotype of PMCs where fighting on behalf of a government = okay, but fighting on behalf of an economic interest, especially a private company = bad.

[Uboat509]

I saw this the night it came out with my wife and two children. We all loved it and, in fact, my wife announced that it is easily one of her top five favorite movies of all time. I am not even going to address the claims about racism. If you really want to be offended by something, you will find a way. As far as how the military is treated in this film, it was pretty clear to me that they were mercenaries. Yes mercenaries get treated badly in this film and for that matter and there are a number of other stereotypes but it was a science fiction movie, not Saving Private Ryan. It was just supposed to tell an interesting story. Somebody had to be the bad guys and the plot dictated that be a military or paramilitary force, so you get mercenaries. It's hardly the first time mercenaries have gotten a bad wrap in a movie, corporations are always greedy and ruthless and they always manage to find the most cold blooded mercenaries known to man. Everybody knows that. Just the same, I enjoyed it. As far as I was concerned it was a retelling of Dances With Wolves with the huge bonus that I was not subjected to Kevin Costner for two and a half hours.

Oh, and I wouldn't read to much into the wounded vet thing. As far as I could see it was just a plot device. He needed to be a former Marine so that he would have a connection to the bad guy and he needed to be a paraplegic so that a) the bad guy would have a huge bribe to offer him and b) to create the huge contrast between the crippled human and the healthy alien. Of course I could be wrong but I don't think it was some kind of swipe at the VA system, especially given that Cameron apparently thought this script up years ago, before OIF/OEF.

SFC W

[selil]

I'll never understand the popular stereotype of PMCs where fighting on behalf of a government = okay, but fighting on behalf of an economic interest, especially a private company = bad.

Personally I think PMC's are great. We don't use them enough. However, I also think the United States uses them wrong. Mixing PMC's and national troops in a theater is simply ill conceived. Especially if the PMC's are not beholden to the local commander. Using the PMC's as primarily shock troops is wrong too. For a variety of reasons starting with risk entanglement and ending with diverging goals of the local commander.

One place PMC's are not used to good regard is naval operations. If we had put to sea some good old privateers with letter of Marquis piracy outside of Somali would have ended. But, that wouldn't be politically allowable just successful.

[Adam L]

I thought some people might want to see this.

Adam L

[RJ]

I saw the movie and the troops were portrayed as former military mercenaries.

The hero a parapalegic former Marine ended up as the Hero of the movie and won the heart of the Princess and lived happily ever after.

It had a Cowboys and Indians slant and the Indians won becazuse they were connected to the essence of the planet.

Science Fiction at it's finest. Great special effects and a simplistic, straight forward story about greedy corporation types, cruel mercenaries and a lady doctor who dies defending the tribe and becomes one with the planet.

Bottomline,

The US Marines should get a slight up tick in their already swollen recruitmet stats because the hero beats the bad guys, unites all the tribes and leads them in a successful defense of their way of life.

The US military has broad shoulders and this flick will not cast a shadow on their reputation at all.


I'm predicting sequels ala Star Wars.