Story of conquerors seeking redemption
Avatar, the latest blockbuster from Hollywood, has attracted moviegoers and critics alike. One critic has written in Oriental Morning Post, reviewing the film from the perspective of history and civilization. Excerpts:
A new, expensive member has joined the family of Hollywood movies. Avatar, the fruit of four years of hard work, has been drawing filmgoers across the world.
In one sense, Avatar is only another product of "Hollywoodism", or "love saves hero, hero saves the world". The story is so typical that the end can be guessed after seeing the beginning. Some critics even call it the E.T. version of Brave Heart.
But from a philosophical point of view, the film can be seen as a review of civilization and history. From history's perspective, it is a tale of colonial conquest.
The Na'vi people, the natives of a moon-like planet called Pandora, have almost all the features Westerners attribute to savages: a long tail symbolizing their inferiority in evolution, the plaits of males that remind us of several ethnic groups and the gods they worship are similar to Shaman deities.
The entire logic of colonial conquest was based on "the enlightened liberating the savages". In the film, Westerners violate the peace of the Na'vis, who have to adopt Western technology and even lifestyle to fight the invaders.
Colonial history is interpreted as a chain of production, consumption and expansion in the blind pursuit of profit.
The advanced civilization on Earth is now stretching its greedy hands over fictitious Pandora. That's why Avatar is a tale of colonial conquests.
The human hero (and one of the invaders) does join the Na'vis. The Na'vis do win the war against the invaders. But the fact that they use machine-guns to do so makes their subservience complete. They are free of human shackles, but conquered by human technology. The director emphasizes this by granting them victory but destroying their mother tree.
The film faithfully portrays the evils done by conquerors and praises the beauty of native people, but that at best would make it a narrative of conquerors seeking redemption.
(China Daily 01/13/2010 page9)
