Unlike many people, I did not run out to the movies to watch James Cameron’s “Avatar”. I had heard that it was a violent movie about our Marines raping another planets riches. This was not a subject I wanted to waste my money on. Instead, I watched it online at H2O Theater. Here I was able to watch the non – 3D version, and to decide if I wanted to spend the 25 bucks at the local IMAX.
I did get the chance to read the review from D.M. Murdock/Acharya S. ’Avatar is amazing - and disturbing’
I found her review very interesting, and if for no other reason, I decided to watch the movie. As I watched, I could see clearly, many of her points. I could see the “anti-Americanism," "anti-capitalism," "pro-environmentalism" and "pro-Paganism” clearly throughout the movie.
I also read Roger Ebert's blog where he writes about Cameron’s Avatar creating a "new religion." Some would say that it’s widespread popularity was a creation in a move toward A New World Order.
I spoke to my father last week after he saw Avatar and he agreed that “Avatar" is full of messages, and depending on your state of mind, your perception, your level of awareness will you see them clearly, or none at all.
A New Bold Message - Anti-American, Anti-Military
The major message of "Avatar," obviously, concerned the destruction of a native culture by a group of alien invaders. As the obvious attacks on the American-military industrial complex increased in the movie. Sound familiar? (Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan.)
This insight was further evidenced by the hero Jake's observation that the (American) "aliens" or "sky people" didn't know the mountains like the natives did - the main downfall, it is said, of all invaders and occupiers of Afghanistan.
"Avatar's" critical commentary of American incursions into foreign lands in search of precious resources is lost on few sentient adults. Nor does it represent a cautionary tale we should ignore. Yet, even though the main goon is an older white male - the favorite villain globally these days, it seems - "Avatar" is careful to depict the Americans as multiethnic and both genders, which they truly are. As such, Cameron's statement is not really "anti-American" per se but represents a critique of any organized and well-funded incursion and invasion into other lands at the expense of the natives.
This point is well made and well taken, in that we as a human family can do far better than our past unremitting history of warfare and bloodshed.[source]
Part of us doing our best as citizens of planet Earth is also taking better care of our environment - and these two subjects go hand in hand. Instead of the resource exploitation all these years causing a massively disruptive and dangerous oil addiction, we could have alternatives such as hemp.
The story takes place in the year 2154 on Pandora, a lush, Earth-like moon of the planet Polyphemus in the Alpha Centauri star system. The RDA Corporation is mining a valuable mineral called unobtanium. RDA’s private security force, called Sec-Ops.
Pandora is inhabited by the Na’vi, a ten-foot-tall (3 m) blue-skinned species of sapient humanoids, who live in harmony with nature, worshiping a mother goddess called Eywa. To facilitate relations with the Na'vi and research of Pandora's biosphere, scientists grow Na'vi-human hybrid bodies called avatars that are operated via mental link by genetically matching humans. Jake Sully, a paraplegic former Marine, replaces his twin brother, a scientist trained as an avatar operator but murdered in a robbery. Dr. Grace Augustine, head of the Avatar Program, considers Sully an inadequate replacement for his brother and assigns him as a bodyguard.
As Grace, anthropologist Norm Spellman and Jake collect biological samples and data in the forest in their avatar forms, a thanator’s attack separates Jake from the group. Neytiri, a female Na'vi, rescues Jake from predators in the forest. This was the first violent scene in the movie, which took hold of emotions and didn’t let go until the very end.
Eywa, brings him to Hometree, where her clan, the Omaticaya, live. Neytiri's mother Mo'at, the clan's spiritual leader, shows interest in the "warrior dreamwalker" and instructs her daughter to teach Jake their ways.
My feelings were later validated as Eywa’s explains that death no matter what case, is very sad, and that his ignorance (our ignorance) is like a baby’s. We must grow up, and become more aware is the message here. All life has value, and should be treated equally.
In all of our recorded history, we have destroyed all of our natives land, just as in Avatar, when the Na'vis' home tree was destroyed by the greedy, blackhearted aliens (US Marines/Big Corporations).
The environmental and spiritual message of "Avatar" was clear: The true stewards of the world are the natives who live close to the earth.
Cameron’s passionately displayed his environmentalism, however none of it would have been possible without a serious "carbon footprint," from the moment Cameron conceived the project to the day it was released into theaters. And then add all the energy needs of getting the individual films created and distributed, and all the people traveling to the theaters, which themselves would need to be powered, etc. Obviously, at this point in time we cannot have huge global releases of megafilms like "Avatar" without a significant cost to the environment.
Homosexual Symbology?
Here is a deeper layer of Horus symbology encoded deep into Avatar.
"Oneness with nature" is a concept the Na'vi embrace. Their environment appears to be spiritual at first, then becomes sensual and eventually sexual - not necessarily an objectionable concept in and of itself.
Except when it comes to the forced bonding between Jake and "his" ikran, the flying dragon-pterrodactyl creature that has "chosen" the earthling. Jake is told by his future Na'vi lover that he will be able to determine which ikran is to be his when it attacks him. One creature eventually does, and the two engage in a battle. After a short time, Jake wins, at which point he leaps upon the ikran and forces the bonding fibers in his "queue" to intertwine with those of the beast.
The scene between Jake and the ikran was an act of homosexual rape - the ikran is a male - as well as a beast (beastiality). One myth is that of the Egyptian story of Horus and Set, where Set sodomizes Horus and then brags he has "done a man's deed."
The myth is that Set invites Horus to his home to, um, bury the hatchet during the endless contests the Ennead force them to undergo. Horus cheerfully agrees, thinking he was in for some light mano a mano action, but is shocked when Set tries to rape him in hopes of proving that the young god was insufficiently masculine to rule Egypt. Which tells us a lot about Egyptian attitudes towards sexuality.
I admit, it’s a deep layer, but validated by the multiple mythological references and other cultural artifacts that reveal themselves in "Avatar" - the Na'vi homeworld is called "Pandora," meaning "all gifts" and straight out of Greek mythology - it cannot be said that James Cameron is an ignorant man, so it would not surprise me if he was aware of the Horus-Set myth.
A friend of mine, Neil mentioned that it had a sexual homoerotic message to it. As I waited for any indication of any homosexual rape scenes, written about in the the review by Acharya, where she writes,
"I had thought the Na'Vi were using their tails to bond, which made the scene objectionable for its somewhat overt sexuality. In fact, the bonding organ - called the "queue" - actually is a long, external extension of their nervous system that comes out the back of their heads and looks like a braid. In this regard, the bonding seems to be more mental, like a Vulcan mind meld. However, according to the James Cameron/Avatar Wiki, the queue is used for sexual expression - indeed, the bonding is "highly erotic": "The intertwining of queues is both highly erotic and profoundly spiritual, but does not in itself lead to reproduction."[source]
Another validation by the addition, at the beginning of the film Sigourney Weaver's character tells Jake not to play with his braid/queue too much or he will "go blind." So, right from the start we are told that the intertwining has a sexual connotation.
Cameron’s powerful message about the loss of our connection to nature - not to mention his incredible visuals illustrating the point through Avatar is fascinating and succeeds on many levels.
The movie opens with a marine opening his eyes, and it ends with a marine opening his eyes. I think the message is quite clear. Open our eyes!
Or is the message more simple?
Wake up.
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Or is the message more simple?
Wake up.
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Interesting interpretation.
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