Avatar and the General Populace

All three authors for this week’s readings recognized Avatar’s shortcomings, like the fact that it took a white leader to successfully push out the colonizers.  I especially agree with Simpson’s assertion that Avatar tends to overshadow modern colonialism in a seemingly ‘post-colonial’ world; this is the biggest shortcoming of the movie in my opinion.   Simpson accurately points out that: “the narrative of the film, its form (3D), it’s the luminescence, its reorienting power, obscures the history of force, the recognition of that force, and the ongoing insurgency of force unfolding before us, the living history” (207).  On the other hand, the pragmatist in me feels that perhaps stunning luminescence (even better in 3D!) is necessary for communicating to a larger audience about the Indigenous perspective of settler-colonialism.  

We live in a nation where large chunks of the population still believe that Obama is a Muslim, that the former Iraqi regime had direct ties to 9/11 and so on while simultaneously not knowing the first thing about these issues etc.  I’m sure that similar disparities between belief and knowledge exist in relation to the U.S.’s history of settler colonialism.  So Avatar, at the very least, may have demonstrated to some people that land is an important thing for those who reside on it and that the colonization of another peoples land merits resistance.  Clifford makes a great point when questioning why the film was banned in most parts of China:  “Could it be that what makes this rather familiar romantic story of native virtue and civilized vice different (beyond the effects of its cinematic technique, which require a different discussion) is its lack of a tragic frame, the presumed disappearance of noble savages? (219).”  Therefore, in spite of its many shortcomings, I think that Avatar creates new spaces for dialogue regarding victorious Indigenous resistance and the validity of that resistance among the general populace.   

Finally, regarding Jean’s inquiry about other white vs. native movies, I liked the Spanish movie “Even the Rain” (click here to watch the trailer).  It’s concerning the production of a film about Columbus’s arrival to the America’s, which was shot during ongoing demonstrations by the native population against a government effort to privatize their water supplies.   Although it employs some of the romanticism we see in Avatar, I think it does a much better job of relating past histories of settler colonialism with a modern indigenous rebellion in Bolivia.