Many of you may know the movie avatar. The movie takes place on a distant planet that is populated by aliens called “Na'vi”. The Na’vi are blue skinned and have no idea about human technology. A disabled Marine, played by the Australian actor Sam Worthington, is sent to study their ways until he develops feelings for them. He then helps them fight against the “White invaders”. The members of the Na’vi tribe are played by black actors such as Zoe Saldana and Laz Alonso.
A columnist writing in the New York Times, David Brooks says "Avatar is a racial fantasy par excellence ... It rests on the stereotype that white people are rationalist and technocratic while colonial victims are spiritual and athletic. It rests on the assumption that non-whites need the White Messiah to lead their crusades. It rests on the assumption that illiteracy is the path to grace.” Some people compare the ruthless treatment of the Na'vi has been interpreted as a metaphor for the plight of American Indians.
In the 1970s a movie that also had the “White Messiah” lead actor were big. The movie was called “A man called horse,” which is about a man captured by souix Indians and becomes their leader. David Brooks says that this movie and Avatar have the same racial concept, that the colonial victims need the white mans help.
Annalee Newitz, editor-in-chief of io9.com, a sci-fi website, said: "The main white characters realise that they are complicit in a system which is destroying aliens, aka people of colour ... then go beyond assimilation and become leaders of the people they once oppressed. When will whites stop making these movies and start thinking about race in a new way?" Cameron denies any racism saying his movie “Avatar” "asks us to open our eyes and truly see others, respecting them even though they are different, in the hope that we may find a way to prevent conflict and live more harmoniously on this world. I hardly think that is a racist message."
The movie still managed to rake in 1 billion dollars in tickets the first 17 days and became the second highest grossing film of all time behind “Titanic”
Question- Do you believe that this movie has a racist message? By that I mean, do you think the lead actor is a "White Messiah" and the Na'vi are almost like the Native Americans? Why or why not?
Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/6968020/Avatar-hit-by-claims-of-racism.html
I dont think that this movie was not a racist thing at all. The reason why is because we have all ways had movies with bad white actors. so it really is not really a difference. and for one thing the Navie i doont even consider to be Native Americans because they are BLUE. so this movie is not a racist movie and it was a good movie as well!
ReplyDeleteI don't think that this. Live was meant to be racist or represent racism in any way. Looking back at the comments on the original article, I noticed how many of the movie viewers didn't originally notice racism being portrayed. They were mentioning that, due to this article, they had to re-watch the movie, thus looking for the racism. I find that this whole argument about racism of this movie is profoundly coincidental. The writer of the movie was probably just thinking in a sci-fi manner, thinking of an interesting human vs. species plot. Many were complaining about racism in this movie being human superior vs. Native Americans, where the natives look for the white superiors help. In Avatar, the Na'Vi don't know of the human technology and look for help from the white messiah, who is fighting against them. The plot of this movie is made to be different and bringing in a high amount of income. I do see how the Na'Vi vs. White Messiah can be seen as white vs. Native Americans, although it isn't like that at all in my perspective. Native Americans were humans like the Whites. In this case, the Na'Vi are of an alien species, and the White Messiah are humans. So I don't believe that this is a racist movie or based off of race. It is just another human vs. alien sci-fi movie that has a viewer engrossing plot.
ReplyDeleteI do not think that the movie Avatar is a racist movie at all. I had seen this movie and as a viewer I did not notice any racism being portrayed in it, and also agreeing with what Josh said, most viewers that watched this movie did not originally see any racism and they had to go back and watch it again. I just think that like many other movies that we have had it is about the human species and the alien species fighting against each other and some working together to help the Na'Vi tribe. I guess that some people could see that if you really thought about it and looked into it you could pull out from it that the Na'Vi tribe is like Native Americans seeking help from the "white man" but I do not think that this was the writers intentions in making it. And in the end this was a very good movie and made made 1 billion dollars after 17 days, and became the second highest grossing film after the Titanic.
ReplyDeleteThe movie avatar i don't think is racist. The movie is meant to be stunning to the viewers as they experience a fantasy world. For people to argue that it is raciest is just plain ignorance. Even if there are some elements of racism in the movie, the main goal of the movie was not to express it. People are simple over analyzing the film and looking for some reason to dislike it. I can see where those who think this come from. The fictional Na'vi do sort of resemble the Native Americans with there attire and customs, but it was only to speak out in an image that people would better understand. As for the white messiah character i think it is ridiculous to accuse the image as being racist. In my opinion the movie is fine the way it is and people need to chill out and enjoy it for what it is worth.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone else, I don’t think that the movie Avatar has a racist message. There are many movies based off this same plot that one species tries to defend against another, regardless of where they reside or what they look like. Avatar should not be the only movie blamed for having a so-called racist message when there are plenty of other movies that depict racist clearer. However, I can definitely understand how it would look that way with a person of white race helping to protect others of a different “race”, but I don’t think it should be viewed as a White Messiah helping Native Americans (or in this case, the Na’vi). Yes, they may be close to nature, resemble noble savages, and have a close society that’s cautious towards strangers, but that doesn’t mean they can be directly related to Native Americans. It’s sad that people can’t just appreciate the real message of the movie that humanity has a great capacity for destruction and that seeing reality from a different perspective can make someone switch loyalties.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the movie was racist. Although I didn't get a chance to hear this current event and I am basing my opinion off the description, I think people are making too big of a deal. I think there may be many raciest movies made throughout time, and Avatar is not one of them. I think there's always someone who has to point out the negative in movies. People are making too big of a deal of a a well animated movie. There are plenty of other movies that people could accuse of being raciest.
ReplyDeleteI have a hard time that during the making of the movie a racist message was meant to be sent out. I do think it relates to the Native American stories that you hear and is a similar concept. Still even if it was I do not think it was a bad message, it was just a fictional movie so it shouldn't really be something that is argued about. Also like a lot of you had already said there has been many movies with similar plots so this movie should't be singled out just because it was one of the most successful movies ever.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe that the movie "Avatar" has an internal racist message. To the contrary I believe that the movie encourages the unification of different racial ethnicities, and that we should value our differences rather than perceive them as inferior. I think that this is what the main character, Sam Worthington, comes to realize as he associates with the Navi species. I think that the movie was trying to embrace cultural relativism and the importance of different cultural values. I do not think that the writer of the movie was not trying to add any racist viewpoint, instead he was trying to eliminate the rationality of racism.
ReplyDeleteI do not believe that the movie Avatar is meant to be racist although I can understand how it may come across that way. I do think that the lead actor is similar to a "White Messiah" because the messiah leads the crusades just like the lead actor leads the Na'vi people. The Na'vi can be depicted similar to the Native Americans because the whites were viewed as being superior to the Native Americans and resorted to the whites for guidance of sorts. This is a racial view seen through this movie but I think it was done in an innocent way. I also agree with Rachel that this should not be the only movie to blame for having the plot line of a white race protecting others of a different race.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that the movie Avatar was meant to be racist. I do understand why some people might think it is because the white man comes into the Navi village and is viewed as a superior, but i don't think the director wanted to put a off a racist message. He wanted to show the two cultures coming together and disregarding their differences. I think Matheus brings up a great point saying it is trying to show the importance of different cultural values. There are many movies that have plots similar to this where the white men comes to protect another race, I don't see this as any different. Avatar is not racist in any way and those who think so are analyzing it too much.
ReplyDeleteI don’t believe that this movie was supposed to be racist thing at all. The movie is supposed to be interesting to the viewers as they experience a fantasy world. Most people who watched the movie did not see any racism portrayed in it. I could see how some people, if you really watched the movie and thought about it, it could have a racist viewpoint but I don’t think to other people it did. Like Melissa said, if you really looked into it, you could see that the Na’Vi tribe is like the Native Americans seeking help from the white men, but I don’t think this was the writers intention for this movie.
ReplyDeleteI do not think that this movie is Racist. By saying that African Americans are being represented as a race that needs a white leader to free themselves is just as racist as what you are representing the movie to be. You could take the basic idea of almost any movie and make it racist by twisting the real meaning of it. The movie Avatar is simply a fantasy movie that is trying to get the viewer interested. Their isn't a secret racist belief behind the storyline. The main idea of the movie is to get the viewer to see that no matter how different you look from someone else, everyone is the same on the inside and has the same feelings, wants and needs as you do.
ReplyDeleteI don't think this movie has a racist message at all. There are plenty of other movies in which a leader of a group of some sort is white. There is no racist message behind this portrayal. I feel like people look to point out negatives in all situations possible. Avatar is a great movie and I believe there is no racist message behind it whatsoever.
ReplyDeleteI do not think the movie Avatar is racist nor meant to send a message of racism. This movie was meant to be interesting and I personally do not think it had any intention of portraying racism. When I saw this movie, racism did not cross my mind. I did not even think it could be considered racist until this current event. As many other people have said, I can see how the movie could be considered racist because it so happened that all the Na'vi actors were black and all the main military actors were white but overall I do not think the movie was racist. The casting agent and director could have done this because out of pure coincidence or because he wanted to portray a deeper meaning like the conflict between Native Americans and the European settlers but overall the movie was not rasict. If anything the movie could have wanted to reanact the conflict between Native Americans and European White settlers in a different setting which is not considered racist. Avatar is a good movie and I do not believe racism was ever meant to be incorporated into it.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the movie has a racist message. I can understand why people could twist it to think it is like that, but I feel like it is a little far-fetched to be saying that the movie intentionally portrays racist messages. When watching the movie, no thought of racism came to mind, and from seeing other comments other people did not see racism when they saw the movie. Whoever brought the idea up I feel like was looking a little too deeply into the story and picked out that idea of racism. I don't feel as though it is racist, and it might be going a little too far to say that it is.
ReplyDeleteAvatar does not have a racist message. The ideas in the movie I believe were put into the movie because it would cause a lot of attention in which it did with its amazing movie reviews and money made from the first day or week. It can easily be mistaken because the humans were basically kicking the avatars out of their homeland just like what happened to the Native Americans but that movie was not made to reenact anything or meant to be racist in any way. Somebody just so happen to make that assumption and was made to easily look like that because the movie and the actual event have a few similarities.
ReplyDeleteI really don't think this movie has a racist message at all. I have seen this movie, and I did not see any racist messages at all. It was just an enjoyable movie that should not have been put into this much thought. Like Maddie, I feel like someone must have been watching very hard to try and find something wrong with this movie. I can understand where this person is coming from that it could be like the Native Americans getting kicked out, but it was really just an enjoyable movie.
ReplyDeleteAre you people serious? The marine General said "You betrayed your race!" In the movie! Shouldn't it have been species? The reason you probably didn't notice is most of you believe racism can not be enacted upon whites, and you are wrong. We are portrayed as the enemy as usual. Find me on minority villain in a Disney movie. Can't huh.
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