Avatar edged out Sherlock Holmes and took the Christmas box office.
While The Blind Side is a film that both sides of the political aisle, right and left, are seeing in droves. Righties have decided that, despite Avatar’s being a Fox release, they’re going on the attack. Clearly Frank DiMartini over at Big Hollywood hasn’t seen Cameron’s Aliens, where the military is also ready to put human life in danger in order to procure the aliens for military purposes. But in this era of Obama as President and Americans eager to end the wars abroad and bring our soldiers home, this is the pablum that is being floated (after saying how much he loved the technology):
However, there is one thing about the movie that really upsets me. It is blatant anti-military and less blatant anti-American. Without giving away too much of the plot, the bad guys in the movie are the United States Marines. Apparently, in the future, the world has become one big country that seems to be controlled by the United States. The United States Marines are sent to the planet of Pandora to destroy the opposition to the New World Order’s acquisition of its substitute for oil which just happens to be located on Pandora.
“Apparently” doesn’t cover it. I try to stay out of politics on this site but when it bleeds into my territory, Oscar coverage, it is difficult to not speak up.
This is pure idiocy:
The glee with which the American Marines participate in this massacre is appalling and does not show the true feelings and concerns of the real United States Military. James Cameron should apologize to the American Military and should make a statement that he does not truly feel this way about them. He should also apologize to the American public for painting our young men and women that defend this country as cold-blooded killers.
It’s funny to me that he is going to see Avatar and hoping to see “reality.” The three strongest films going for Oscar all have to do with aspects of America as a misguided empire – The Hurt Locker takes the view that the soldier’s life is in harm’s way (and for what), Up in the Air takes on capitalism, marketing and outsourcing and downsizing — hits right at the heart of the American dream. And yes, Avatar takes on themes like global warming and military dominance.
The Na’Vi in the film are treated as “the other.” The soldiers are conditioned not to see them as anything but creatures who stand in the way of the resources on the planet. It is not just an American story; it is a human story. In fact, one might say, it is a nature story – the natural world fights to survive, kills off its enemy, steals resources on every level of the food chain, up to and including Americans. It is a universal concept. So it’s slightly irritating that we have loudmouths like this making the film into something it isn’t. There, my two cents. Cue the commenters who will say “stick to reading the Oscar tea leaves.”
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