posted by Sam Richards
Admittedly I have not seen the film. The last time I visited a movie theater was in 2005. Before that it was sometime in the early 1990s. I just don’t get out much. And while Avatar does seem like the kind of film that ought to be experienced on the big screen, it’s highly unlikely that that is where I’ll see it given my track record.
Nonetheless, reading this op-ed by David Brooks makes me a bit curious about the movie. Not sure why, really, as it sounds a lot like just another film from a long list of other films that I was neither drawn to, nor do I feel somehow deprived as a result of not seeing. But Brooks makes some serious accusations about a film that is being widely and universally viewed that it does make me curious about this persistent theme that just won’t go away — about how it is up to white people to save people from disastrous fates that might befall them.
I supposed one could readily argue that Brooks is reading far too much into the film. But these conscious and subconscious themes that drive popular cultures have a way of landing in us and shape our minds and hearts and just because you didn’t draw his conclusions from the film does not mean that he’s not dead on. In fact, if you’ve grown up in this culture and you haven’t not critically restructured your thinking about gender and race and culture and imperialism, then it’s highly unlikely that you would come to his conclusions. It doesn’t make him “correct” or you “wrong”–but I’d give his ideas time to gestate.
Here’s what Brooks had to say: The Messiah Complex
I didn’t even take into consideration the fact that he might be of a different race. This is also true for members of different races. When I hear about a great play made by a professional basketball player, I often imagine a really tall African American male. This isn’t to say that there aren’t any good white males in the NBA, but without hearing a specific name, I would automatically assume that the player was black. Even though this concept of the white hero has been around for some time, I find it odd that so much controversy surrounds this movie. I don’t know if it’s because we’ve finally reached a point where racism and prejudice affects our everyday lives, or if people are just too strongly looking into it. Recently, Disney came out with the first African American princess.
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I think it’s sad that it took this long for an African American princess to come out. It’s even sadder that when I think of my childhood and the resemblance I had to many of the princesses, little African American girls did not have anyone who resembled them. I believe that America in particular is starting to realize that there is no generic code or makeup of what constitutes a hero. I believe we finally understand the concept that although we have preconceived notions in our heads on what the standardized person in questioning may look like; these are sometimes if not most of the time false. Anyone can be a hero, no matter who they are or what they look like. I think it’s time to start thinking outside of the box and imagine people doing things because of who they are inside, not because of what they look like.
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This past Monday, I went to the theaters to see Avatar. It was an amazing film that was a movie experience unlike anything else. Its 3D animations were so unreal that you felt like you were on Pandora with these Avatar creatures. All my friends raved about, as well as my parents, making the movie relatable to all generations. Also, the media attention it has been receiving lets one know how well appreciated this film it by all. It has been nominated for Academy Awards and did extremely well at the Golden Globes.
After watching the film, I sat and just thought about the concept of the movie and one of the ideas that came to mind was how similar it was to Pocahontas. My first reaction to the movie was “Wow, I have seen this plot a million times,” but still, I loved the movie. When discussing Avatar with my friends, they all had the same reaction. Why is it that the white man creates a problem just so another white man can come in and save the peaceful people? However, there is a lot more than can be mentioned about this movie and should be focused on. Its nod to the environment and future setting make it extremely thought provoking. The ideas that James Cameron had when making this film are beyond the imagination and he should be getting the credit he deserves for that, not for the plot. It’s a simple story that is surround by much bigger and better ideas.
I was excited to see this post and read the article “The Messiah Complex” by Brooks. I completely agree with his thoughts. This “white” hero comes to the Avatar’s colony to save them from evil and without them; they would not have been able to make it on their own. Why is it though that the man must be white? We see this similarity in many films and although some question its message, most of us don’t even think twice about it. Even Disney has used this exact plot in their version of Pocahontas, teaching this idea of “The White Hero” to children. We as a society are so use to this concept and every generation has seen this plot in a movie. It is a story that will continue to get passed down because it is something everyone knows and will sell to audiences.
Regardless, this movie is an experience unlike any other and deserves to be seen for is effects and technology, not for its plot. Seeing it in 3D and just realizing what technology is coming is life changing. Avatar is altering the way we see movies, and this business will never be the same.
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I agree with what you are saying. I went to watch Avatar because it seemed different. The animation was nothing that I had seen before. After reading what Brooks said, I understood him. Mostly all of the movies are about a hero and him or her saving mankind. The Hero just so happens to always be a white person. Americans are used to putting negative connotations with a white leader. They think that the leader is the leader because he is white; in some instances this may be true but not in all of them. Some white people have fought for what they are and what they have. FYI I am no a white person but I do understand their position.
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Well, I just believe Avatar is overrated and taken to extremes! I happen to watch the movie at the movie theaters because I was forced to by my girlfriend because it had a romantic/thrill side to the movie and all the advertisements leading to movie a month before its release, which had an expectation to be the best movie of the decade. Oh, I didn’t watch the 3-D version because they sold out, which I heard it had an even more overwhelming and stunning experience. Overall, it was a good pass time but an extremely long movie with all the talking and planning leading to the great attack. I personally enjoyed the integration of real life human to the anime Avatars, they looked very authentic. Now with all the talk about this being a movie of a white man’s burden or an attack on religion, etc… I find it to be nonsense! I understand movies can be a platform to unite people in a readily media available to everyone and share ideas through Hollywood, but it’s a movie. To me Avatar seems to be a repeat of an occurrence of past history and even a remake of Pocahontas with a twist of a modern real-life version. Didn’t the greatest and biggest genocide of human life occur on American soil by the Europeans; according to Sam? Who wanted the land of the Native Americans for their resources? So what’s the problem in creating a movie with a twist of past history? Oh that’s right the white man doesn’t want to hear of what their ancestors did to gain control and make this land into the greatest nation in the world. Were off to blame Germany for having the worst genocide known to human kind but ignore our bad history and don’t talk about it. It is a movie that makes an inverse in the event if the Native Americans would have defeated the European white man from taking their land and it’s the story everybody wants to hear with that happy ending. I want to know if the same reactions were to happen if it was a black/African military trying to invade the avatar community? Of course not, it probably wouldn’t have broken the box office sales of all time. As everyone know we all are racist in a sense of where we stereotype and generalize by race, gender, etc… its how most of our society reacts to certain features and connected it to history. Why didn’t Pocahontas get the same reaction? It was base on the same idea. this is just a movie, enjoy it, form your opinion and thank Cameron because who knows if we would have a director/producer with his kind of ability in our lifetime.
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I do not think that his interpretation is exactly correct, but I do not believe it’s far off either. I have not seen the movie, but have seen some of the movies he mentioned in his article, and its true. The other culture, which the white man knows nothing about, is always in need of saving, but if you think about it when did they ever ask? The Native Americans, Africans, and Iraqis did not ask for Americans or white peoples’ help but for some reason America decides they need it. I think this is all to glorify the white race in many ways, I’m not saying that all white people are like nor am I saying a majority of them are, but some are. They hold on to the belief that after the strip these people of their culture that they have helped them. When in fact there was nothing wrong. I do not understand how you can put a democratic government in a country that is based on religion, and say you are doing it to help them when your country, not theirs is benefiting from it. Nor do I understand why Native Americans were seen as savages for following their customs and beliefs and forced to abandon them. This has been the case so many times before.
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I can only agree with Mr. Brooks when it comes to the white man's burden. After seeing the movie Avatar twice now, it really raises the questions; why is the hero almost always white? and, why does it seem that the people in need are helpless without out his expertise? Another example of the white man's burden, might be the new movie Cop Out. I have not seen this movie, but however in the previews, it portrays Bruce Willis as the lead role, only by a little bit, and it portrays Tracy Morgan, Bruce Willis's partner as the funny aspect and not as the tough cop. There are plenty of other movies with the white man's burden, saving the world. I think one of the main reasons of why this has grew upon or generation is because the top revenue movies usually use white people as the lead role characters taking on the world by themselves. A good example of two movies one with a black lead role character and one with a white lead role character, is that of Bad Boys and Lethal Weapon. The original Bad Boys came out in 1995 and made 141 millions dollars gross. Lethal weapon 2 and 3 came out right around that time to and both of those movies made almost 100 million more. Is it really what everyone wants to see or is it just the white community dominating the movie trade. Both of these movies were following the same concept a cop trying to catch the bad guys. Another thing I found while looking up the box office revenues between the two movies was that 55% of the revenue for bad boys came from foreign countries. While 65% of the revenues from Lethal weapon 2 was from within the country. After point this out it seems that the movie businesses have decided to rely on this white man's burden concept because that is what is getting them money. A movie to watch this summer and see how much it makes to Avatar is the Book of Eli with Denzel Washington. That movie focuses on the concept that the future of the world lies in Denzel's hand. It has the same concept as those movies with Will Smith and him trying to save the world. From all my friends even those of dark skin said that those were horrible movies. I am quite interested to see how the Book of Eli turns out because it looks like an incredible movie. I have no idea how long this white man's burden thing is going to last, probably after everyone gets fed up with seeing the same type of movie one after another, but as long as the movie industry keeps seeing mass amounts of revenue from these white man's burden movies. It does not seem likely that it will com to an end anytime soon.
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This is somewhat wierd because David Brooks is a white guy against the whole "white man saving the day", and im a black guy and i accept it. Im not happy to see it this way, but nontheless I accept it. America is white. White people run shit. Look at anything you want from the movie industry to teachers to farmers, law enforcment. Everything. Even pro sports. Alot of people would say nope, not basketball, blacks dominate that. Well.. we dominate the game on the court but the guys in the head office: coaches, general managers, scouts, owners, team presidents. Those guys are 97 percent white in all four major sports. And they make much more money on average then the average pro player does. The bottom line is America is white.
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So… James Cameron needs to appeal to his audience. He needs to make the hero white just like the people who are going to pay to watch his movie. Making the leading character white helps white viewers to relate This is somewhat wierd because David Brooks is a white guy against the whole "white man saving the day", and im a black guy and i accept it. Im not happy to see it this way, but nontheless I accept it. America is white. White people run shit. Look at anything you want from the movie industry to teachers to farmers, law enforcment
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I have not seen this film either, but I feel it is one that I must see given the hype and revenue this movie has accumulated. I don’t know how fair it is for me to comment on this topic since I haven’t personally seen the film, but my roommate saw it twice (the first time for enjoyment and the second because he found out about the controversy surrounding the film and wanted to look into it for himself) and I will be speaking on his behalf in some cases.
As to what I understand, there is a main character in the movie, which is white, and the other characters, the avatars if you will, are colored blue and voiced over by people of other races. The fact that the main character is white is causing a stir because he is the powerful one throughout the movie.
Now, I did see Sam’s video post and I too am white, so maybe I am not seeing the big picture here, but when it comes down to it, I don’t see the big deal with this. I think the whole controversy is blown out of proportion and I do not think the media should be making such a big deal over this. I can understand that the fact that James Cameron is white is reason to get upset because he made a character of his own race the powerful one, but I really don’t think Cameron tried to harm anyone or degrade anyone’s race. To me, this is just another Hollywood story that the media is going to ride because it is such a successful film and they are going to make their share of money off of it as well.
I spoke with my roommate about this issue to see if he thought differently but he feels the same way. I should mention that my roommate is half black and half white, so I though he might have seen it form a different angle. He said that the use of white characters as the “blue” people in the film would have ruined the movie. He is not obliged to the possibility of there being a new main character of a different race, in which case white people would have fit the vocals perfectly. He said that every race has its own distinct voice, while there may be different accents, the base of the vocals is the same, and we both agreed that the use of people of the same race, voicing over characters that are supposed to be a different race would have made the film sort of boring and would have taken away from the fantasy world that was created for this movie.
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I think that it is so crazy how well the plot of Avatar fit into the plot of Pocahontas. And I also think of how crazy it is that so many movies have used this same plot line, yet us viewers are still going buck wild over them. I agree with David Brooks. Why are white people always the only ones who are rationalist and technocratic? Why are the colonial people always victims, why do they always need this one (white) leader? Why are they always spiritual and how is every single one athletic and skinny? Who decided this was the way it had to be? And who decides that this is the way that it is going to stay?
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Like many moviegoers, I was excited to see the highly anticipated film Avatar. I succumbed to the hype and paid my two extra dollars to see the film in 3D. Though I was too entranced by the impeccable graphics to notice white supremacy, I do see the point that David Brooks was trying to make with the Messiah Complex.
The basic premise of the story is that there is a planet called Pandora that is plentiful with resources in which America could benefit greatly from. As result the United States military infiltrates their nation with the intent of bull dozing their land and taking what believes “rightfully” belongs to them. I believe that the struggle lies a bit outside the realm of race and is focuses on America’s corrupted view of Third World Nations and appropriate actions.
Like many movies, the white man is set in a position where he has to save a developing nation of people (questionable term) who do are not even in need of salvation until the white man takes over their land. In the case of Avatar, however, I believe it can be argued that James Cameron was trying to make a point against white modernization.
NOTE: When I use term “modernization” I am referring to the ideology that white upper class America can modernize developing nations by presenting them with technological advances and western ideals. This in turn, increases a developing nations dependency. America gets to remain on top, all while being able to take Third-World resources.
I thought it was making a stance against the Bush Administration and it’s Cowboy mentality when it went to war against the better judgment of the United Nations. The brash decision to promote western democracy in another Nation has had disastrous effects and has cost many American lives. Based on the decision of a few wealthy and powerful individuals, the lives of millions were changed. This is a direct parallel to the plot of the movie Avatar and the white Americans struggle to try and remain dominant and on top.
With the exception of the main character, the white people actually are presented as the enemy. They selfishly take what is not rightfully theirs and are presented as monsters rather than saviors. With that said, Cameron is still pointing out the differences is in race throughout Avatar. Whether one is seen as subordinate is up for debate. If anything, I would say that the conflict lies within maintaining their current way of life.
In summation, in addition to its sub political context, Avatar was an amazing movie that would be worth seeing despite a long hiatus from the movie theater. The white man is not always the Messiah, despite the fact that American cinema tends to paint them as such.
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I do not agree at all with this. The movie Avatar, in my own opinion, was just to show the people what kind of new technology is available for layering into a movie screen. The 3 dimensionality of this movie is almost incomprehensible and is entirely breathtaking to think how far we have come, and this movie is the first of its breed. I think he read way to into the story line, where-as I believe the producers and directors of the film just wanted to basically create a visually stimulation experience for the techno-geeks of the world. This movies plot was lacking, but the special effects feast kept eyes salivating and wanting more. If I were a critic I wouldn’t complain to much about the story line as I would be praising the time, effort, and money thrown at this technologically advanced for-our-time project. Two thumbs up.
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Everything. Even pro sports. Alot of people would say nope, not basketball, blacks dominate that. Well.. we dominate the game on the court but the guys in the head office: coaches, general managers, scouts, owners, team presidents. Those guys are 97 percent white in all four major sports. And they make much more money on average then the average pro player does. The bottom line is America is white.more to the movie. By large most of the revenue generated by Avator came from white viewers. James Cameron needs to make the viewers who are paying as comfortable and attentive to the movie as possible. And thats done by making the leading actor, the hero, the "messiah" white. So when little Eric sees the movie he feels like he can be the character, and little Erica feels a higher sense of attraction to the leading hero because he's white like her. What James Cameron did was not racist he only wants to make money
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Alot of prestigious black directors make their leading hero actor white as well. Think about it when we watch sports we often cheer for the guy we most identify with. Thats why white pro basketball players are beloved by white men. They feel like yup if he can do it, go pro, so can I. He looks just like me. Same thing for black athletes. For instance a big reason Jimmy Rollins is a fan favorite amongst blacks is first because he is very good but also because he's black. Also thats why alot of white fans like Chase Utley because hes very good as well but because hes white. People feel like seeing someone of their race out there on the field or on the big screen is somewhat like they themselves are out there too. Its not being racist. Its being human.. Isnt it??. Its wierd tho how im black and I see this completely different then a white guy. Its kind of like we're both arguing for the other team. It probably does have alot to do with me being born in a white world and just simple accepting the way it is. Kind of what Sam Richard said about being fish in water. Or something like that.
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