The conservative backlash against "Avatar"

[one...two...tree 2,762]

A right-wing nightmare: The free market has spoken -- anti-American lefty green propaganda sells!

By Andrew Leonard

A movie as big as "Avatar" deserves more than one blog post, and I'm afraid I just can't resist poking at the hilarious spectacle of conservative movie critics launching into thermonuclear hissy fits at the anti-American, greenie pagan leftist propaganda embedded in the politics of James Cameron's epic. The Los Angeles Times has a great story by Patrick Goldstein rounding up the outrage.

To say that the film has evoked a storm of ire on the right would be an understatement. Big Hollywood's John Nolte, one of my favorite outspoken right-wing film essayists, blasted the film, calling it "a sanctimonious thud of a movie so infested with one-dimensional characters and PC cliches that not a single plot turn, large or small, surprises. . . . Think of 'Avatar' as 'Death Wish' for leftists, a simplistic, revisionist revenge fantasy where if you ... hate the bad guys (America) you're able to forgive the by-the-numbers predictability of it all."

John Podhoretz, the Weekly Standard's film critic, called the film "blitheringly stupid; indeed, it's among the dumbest movies I've ever seen." He goes on to say: "You're going to hear a lot over the next couple of weeks about the movie's politics -- about how it's a Green epic about despoiling the environment, and an attack on the war in Iraq... The conclusion does ask the audience to root for the defeat of American soldiers at the hands of an insurgency. So it is a deep expression of anti-Americanism -- kind of. The thing is, one would be giving Jim Cameron too much credit to take 'Avatar' -- with its ... hatred of the military and American institutions and the notion that to be human is just way uncool -- at all seriously as a political document. It's more interesting as an example of how deeply rooted these standard issue counterculture cliches in Hollywood have become by now."

My first response to these nitwits is to wonder whether any of them went to see either of the "Transformers" movies, both of which kissed American military #### with about as much love as anything this side of John Wayne's "The Green Berets." There has never been a shortage of big budget Hollywood blockbusters aimed at making the U.S. look good. The only thing deeply rooted in Hollywood is a desire to maximize ticket revenue.

And that's what really got conservatives in a pickle. Big government socialism is not rounding up moviegoers and lining them in front of 3D-equipped theaters. Individuals, acting on their own desires, are plunking down their cash.

This is the free market in action.

Simplistic left-wing environmentalist propaganda, as realized by Cameron, turns out to be

spectacularly popular!

Ouch! That's gotta hurt. For right-wingers convinced that a cap-and-trade mechanism to restrict greenhouse gases is an affront to American values, it must be extraordinarily galling to see the explicit environmental message of "Avatar" embraced so heartily.

A cynic might point out that the real attraction of "Avatar" is not the politics, of course, but the spectacle. Just as I had little problem ignoring the military worship in "Transformers" and managed to have a lot of fun watching giant robots bash each other into smithereens, most moviegoers are probably more transfixed by "Avatar's" amazing CGI special effects than by the idea that the military-industrial complex is a natural born planet killer.

But what to make of the fact that a movie that portrays a very American-looking military in a profoundly unfavorable light is explosively popular with audiences all over the world?

The Wall Street Journal

reports that "Avatar" is already the most successful movie ever in Russia, and is drawing huge audiences from France to Brazil. "Avatar" has cleared $350 million in ticket sales in North America, but $670 million

internationally

.

Anti-Americanism sells --

everywhere.

Maybe instead of ripping their hair out at the tragedy of the mass enthusiasm for this "'Death Wish' for leftists" -- conservatives should be trying to figure out just how such a thing came to pass.

http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/..._against_avatar

Edited January 5, 2010 by Galt's gallstones

[Ban Hammer 13,403]

i plan on buying it when it hits dvd, so i guess i'm a leftie.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

i plan on buying it when it hits dvd, so i guess i'm a leftie.

Charles, don't wait to watch it on DVD! Go see it in 3D, preferably at an Imax. Watching it at home, on your HD TV, no matter how big it is, just won't come close to seeing and experiencing it on the big screen.

[Danno 1,228]

Anti-Americanism sells -- everywhere. Maybe instead of ripping their hair out at the tragedy of the mass enthusiasm for this "'Death Wish' for leftists" -- conservatives should be trying to figure out just how such a thing came to pass.

Hey Steve.... we know why.

B)

[SpiritAlight 1]

Charles! You just shocked me.

Good work.

I loved the movie, except for all my squirming around the violence and shtuff.

I am still reeling from the fact that so many parents brought young children to see it.

It truly is not for kids under, uhm, maybe 10.

The news is surprising in that it is as usual sensationalized...but then again so is the movie, plus anything to do with mass media.

Perhaps some self-filtering is in order.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I will say this - the evil Colonel (or General) in the movie was a cartoon of a character. So blatantly over the top, that to me, it felt a bit preachy in the same way that Mel Gibson directs his on screen villains. Also, these were private mercenaries, former military personnel, hired to deal with the locals for a mining company. That's not too far reaching. I didn't mind the basic elements of the story, but some of the lead characters were just silly. Sam Worthington, however, gave a good performance. That guy is going to be the next big star.

[Ban Hammer 13,403]

Charles! You just shocked me.

Good work.

the timbits that carla sent me did it

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Hey Steve.... we know why.

B)

How about sarcasm? Do you know what that is?

[alienlovechild 75]

My first response to these nitwits is to wonder whether any of them went to see either of the "Transformers" movies, both of which kissed American military #### with about as much love as anything this side of John Wayne's "The Green Berets." There has never been a shortage of big budget Hollywood blockbusters aimed at making the U.S. look good. The only thing deeply rooted in Hollywood is a desire to maximize ticket revenue.

I don't remember the U.S. military part much in Transformers. I thought the good robots were the heroes in that movie.

Avatar was a poorly written propaganda but nice special effects movie. Just insert evil military industrial complex with mostly white guys (minorities don't leave the Earth much in the future) against blue-skinned natives literally attached to the natural world and living in a huge tree and you've summed up the grade school plot.

Anyone notice the big flaws in the megaproduction (spoilers)? Here's my short list and add your own:

Arrows that can't break glass do so later.

No explanation to Navi why the sky folks want their tree.

No explanation about the use of avatars when the locals know they aren't real locals.

Floating mountians?

Missiles that destroy the mega tree but can't destroy a much smaller tree later

Helicopters- so advanced for the 22nd century.

[nowhereman 1]

It's an awesome movie & the last thing I was thinking about while watching it was politics. Sure the Lieutenant Colonel & businessman were portrayed as total douchebags & everyone was rooting for the Pandorians, but I saw the movie as a form of entertainment (nothing more).

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I don't remember the U.S. military part much in Transformers. I thought the good robots were the heroes in that movie.

Avatar was a poorly written propaganda but nice special effects movie. Just insert evil military industrial complex with mostly white guys (minorities don't leave the Earth much in the future) against blue-skinned natives literally attached to the natural world and living in a huge tree and you've summed up the grade school plot.

Anyone notice the big flaws in the megaproduction (spoilers)? Here's my short list and add your own:

Arrows that can't break glass do so later.

No explanation to Navi why the sky folks want their tree.

No explanation about the use of avatars when the locals know they aren't real locals.

Floating mountians?

Missiles that destroy the mega tree but can't destroy a much smaller tree later

Helicopters- so advanced for the 22nd century.

Watch the Transformers movies again.

I wouldn't go as far as calling it propaganda, but the depiction of the characters, IMO, made it seem preachy. Mel Gibson is notorious for doing the same thing in his films....the villains are always so easy to pick out and despise. I don't think either Cameron or Gibson are trying to challenge anyone's views. They seem to thrive on emotionally evocative, simple plots and characters.

It's an awesome movie & the last thing I was thinking about while watching it was politics. Sure the Lieutenant Colonel & businessman were portrayed as total douchebags & everyone was rooting for the Pandorians, but I saw the movie as a form of entertainment (nothing more).

Yep. I think that's what the filmmaker's aim was.

[chri'stina 190]

I haven't seen it yet and had hoped to see it in the theaters, but I'm not sure I will be able to. I have heard a lot of good about it. Though the way the characters look seems a little cheesy to me. But that's ok.

[alienlovechild 75]

Watch the Transformers movies again.

Don't want to because it was on a cheap pirated DVD from the Philippines. So the the good robots in the movie didn't exist and the movie was a recruiting tool to get young folks to fight evil robots from outer space. Ok, sure.

[nowhereman 1]

I don't remember the U.S. military part much in Transformers. I thought the good robots were the heroes in that movie.

Avatar was a poorly written propaganda but nice special effects movie. Just insert evil military industrial complex with mostly white guys (minorities don't leave the Earth much in the future) against blue-skinned natives literally attached to the natural world and living in a huge tree and you've summed up the grade school plot.

Anyone notice the big flaws in the megaproduction (spoilers)? Here's my short list and add your own:

Arrows that can't break glass do so later.

No explanation to Navi why the sky folks want their tree.

No explanation about the use of avatars when the locals know they aren't real locals.

Floating mountians?

Missiles that destroy the mega tree but can't destroy a much smaller tree later

Helicopters- so advanced for the 22nd century.

ALC I think you took the movie far too seriously. As I stated earlier the LTC was portrayed as a douchebag of cartoonish proportions but as a military officer this didn't offend me (heck I've known some officers who were douchebags of cartoonish proportions ).

[one...two...tree 2,762]

ALC I think you took the movie far too seriously. As I stated earlier the LTC was portrayed as a douchebag of cartoonish proportions but as a military officer this didn't offend me (heck I've known some officers who were douchebags of cartoonish proportions ).