Please be aware, plot details are given away. I’d hate to spoil it for you if you haven’t seen it.
The recent moviegoing extravaganza known as “AVATAR” has had some interesting feedback. One of the common notes being stated is that the story line is familiar. Comparisons are drawn to the likes of “Dances With Wolves”, “Shogun”, “The Last Samurai”, etc. Basically, colonizer comes to new land, tasked with gaining control (whether through overt force or manipulative tactics) of the local population, gains an affinity for said peoples and sides with them in their struggle against the injustice of tyranny to maintain identity and independence.
There was something really unique about this story, however, that made this film, although familiar, an altogether different experience. And no, I’m not talking about the incredible 3-D graphics. Because although they were amazing, I didn’t feel they distracted or overcompensated for something not there.
What made this story unique was the use of the “avatar” itself. What the avatar did was change the dynamic from “”white man learns the ways of the Native Peoples, becomes accepted as one of them, saves them by fighting the oppressive whites” to a reflection on the conflict between our dual natures.
On the one hand we have our nature that speaks to being together, being in harmony, being as one with everything and everyone around us, which denotes a very powerful oneness with that spirit that IS everything, as the creator of all, God. On the other, our nature that drives to serve the self, the ego. Which perhaps is an act of desperation to fill the hole or void of not feeling that connection.
What I feel really allowed the telling of this story to be taken to that depth (which is what makes it different from its incarnations of the past) is Jake Sulley’s character and this Avatar technology. The angle of having this Avatar, that Jake becomes a part of, makes him a part of BOTH worlds/races/sides. Jake the human being and Jake the Navi are still Jake. He is the living breathing example in our story of “oneness”. When he’s with the Navi he’s more often than not trying to calm their anger towards the humans. When he’s with the Humans, he’s trying to dissuade them from their destructive path. He’s caught in the middle of both, while still a part of both. He tries to do it, right to the end, rather peacefully.
He hits his edge and says thats it,when things all of sudden fall severely “out of balance”. He has come to that place where in order to continue growing closer towards his true sense of oneness, his defining sense of purpose in life, he must step beyond the cocoon of comfort. That is when he resolves to strike. To take action.
As he said upon first meeting Neytiri’s mother “I’m an empty cup”. At a soul level, he has come to zero in his life. A place of total acceptance and most importantly, openness to whatever life unfolds before him. To discover his greatest destiny, true to his gifts. From here he can begin his journey through the struggle of his “dual natures”. Finally, he goes to battle against the one side that would destroy all that he knows to be sacred, beautiful and real.
This is the heart that I see lying at the core of this beautiful film, whether it was done on purpose or not. Probably why so many connected to it so strongly.
Should you find yourself stuck, in a rut, overwhelmed with inertia and exhausted from the “fight” to overcome it, maybe it’s time to take a step back. Let go and come back to zero. Empty your cup and open up to whatever you encounter along your path, even if it feels completely foreign. Give yourself to the opportunity’s, to the discovery’s of all that is sacred, beautiful and real. There will the strength, confidence and meaning for the fight be found.
Then will you be ready for the battle. Ready to become one.
Dare to Evolve,
s.
Thank you for sharing the thoughts.
Those who chose to take nothing away from the film had nothing good to say and that was that. There was a large crowd in the middle who didn’t connect but who wished to find a redeeming quality regardless given there were some very good obvious qualities to the film. They focused on the technology side of the film and generally allowed for kudos of some sort in this regard.
I, too, felt there was something being missed in the considered words of many relative to this film and it’s story. It was not simply that it was a special effects extravaganza. It was more than simply a regurgitation.
I’d be willing to bet that it was more and I believe the numbers on it (world wide revenue) will demonstrate that as more 3D movies come out and do not even come remotely close to the revenues of this film.
Any good film connects on a personal basis with the audience. It does so in a plethora of obvious themes and subject matters depending on the storyline and the audience.
A great film “connects” at a personal level and that connection can always be associated with one of the very real and very intimate aspects of those elements of our human journey we each experience in a distinct way but hold in common as a general rule.
The association with other films and their similar story lines is generally seen through the eye of that “common thread” but you have keyed in on a distinction of metaphor that, whether intended or not, was a wisp of creative and artistic genius that is at the core of why the film is – different and distinct.
It’s not always the message – sometimes it’s the – medium and, in this particular case, perhaps – the vehicle.
Very well put and poignant!
Thanks for sharing Dad:).
s.
To me Avatar is like going to Cambodia. You arrive in a big airship to a land that seems lost in time, that has suffered in unthinkable ways, but when you allow your spirit freedom to mix fully with the people, it gets carried away, forgets about the land from which it came and longs only to stay.
There are a lot of NGOs and businesses going to build the economy, but there is nothing like tasting the sweetness of the soul of the Cambodian people.
A lot of people don’t get to taste that sweetness just like they don’t like Avatar.
What an amazing example, Ricardo!
s.