I think any conservative who sees this and immediately assumes that this MUST be a thinly veiled critque on the Iraq war should probably examine their own values. As a friend of mine was fond of saying, "It doesn't hurt unless it's true."

I and many others found the film to be way too reminiscent of DANCES WITH WOLVES. Still others felt it ripped off JOHN CARTER OF MARS. So should we assume that those works were pre-emptive critiques on Iraq?

There's also a pretty clear "killing Indians for their land" allegory here. Yet the conservatives immediately assume this is a jab at their policies in Iraq. Sensitive much?

I think their vitrolic response says MUCH more about them and their values than any critique ever could.

Say I write a scene that has a drunken alcoholic molestor as the butt of every joke, and my friend says, "Hey man, stop making fun of me!" I might assume that he subscribes to the same values as my villain.

If the armored mecha suit fits, pundits....

I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of these conservative media gurus were clinically depressed or heavily drugged or both.

While I don't think there's anything un-American about Avatar, it does paint a pretty simplistic view of the military complex as being this one-dimensional boogieman in a story where complexity of motive would've served it better.

The weakness of the story is that Worthington's decision to betray his own people is such a foregone conclusion by the end of the first act that the rest of the story is just him learning how he's going to do it. And while he's given many reasons why he should betray his mission (Love, a sense of belonging, use of his legs in the Avatar body) he's never faced with any internal conflict that would cause him NOT to do it other than this flimsy promise to fix his legs which is rendered completely irrelevant the moment he enters the Avatar body.

I know plenty of guys who fought in Iraq, many of whom believed Bush was the devil and the cause was pure bullshit. Whether or not Avatar is a metaphor for that conflict is irrelevant. The fact remains that there were plenty of reasons they chose to fight, many were not so black & white and none of which were explored in Avatar. And I think that's where the gripe is.

I mean, come on, did they even mention why "unobtainium" was so important? Could they at least have done that?

BTW, please don't take my playing the devil's advocate as an endorsement of the ideals of a bunch of chatter-box idiots.

Let me start with the preemptive "I'm not a conservative" comment. But both the far-right and far-left are crazy.

Maybe if Limbaugh and O'Reilly and Coulter were going crazy about about it, this would be a real issue. But the Huff Post and Goldstein are finding a bunch of nobodies. So basically...

There are crazy people on the internet. Who would have thought it?

But to me it seems like these guys on the left are trying to manufacture a controversy that isn't really there. Or at least say, "Look how stupid these conservatives are!" Which doesn't make them look any better than the neo-cons.

Obviously, most people, regardless of their political affiliation, know that it's just a movie. That it's not an experiment in propaganda. It's just supposed to be fun.

The same way that even though I strongly believe in due process and the rule of law and reject entirely G.W. Bush's preemptive doctrine, I'm the first one to cheer when Jack Bauer electrocutes some dudes testicles because THERE'S NO TIME! or Dirty Harry asks if there were five shots or six.

Just saw a version of this with the loopy neo-con wing of my own family this weekend.

I offered to take my nephew to see Avatar this past dull, dreary Saturday. His mother quickly recoiled and stated, "Oh I don't think so. I hear that movie is really liberal."

SCREECH! The brakes went right on. I did a classic slow burn her way.

"Excuse me, I think the sun was in my ears, what did you say?" I asked, eyebrows hovering an inch over my head.

"I heard that that film is all about a liberal agenda," she said.

Of course, my poor nephew is looking utterly downtrodden at this point - - I'm sure he's been excluded from various Avatar related conversations on the playground and in the lunchroom.

Then, insult to injury - - his mother suggests we go see Alvin and the Chipmunks: The SQUEEK-WEL.

Being the bigmouth asshole that I am, I instantly interjected, "Oh I don't think so, I hear that movie really pushes a moron agenda..."

We, um, opted for a PS3 game rental instead.

This is pathetic. Avatar is pro environmental, antiwar movie. It's clear as the sun. Those conservatives are pissed at the idea that someone would leave his race and be an alien.

The movie is an allegory on colonial ages and racism.

The way I see if humans are evil and greedy and the other creatures are peaceful and pacifists like the Navi's. I would rather be with them creatures. LOL

Hi Scott,

Great Post with so many contradictory viewpoints.

I'd love to post this on my facebook page.

Is there a link I can use?

Cheers,
Faiza

Not being a liberal in the social-democrat sense, and being pro-technology / pro-capitalism, I definitely picked up on Cameron's political message. I certainly didn't feel threatened by it, but felt some of the heavy-handedness to do the film a disservice. One thing, it wasn't anything I hadn't seen before -- allusions to other films abound, such as Dances with Wolves, Pocahontas, egads, even Fern Gully!

The Rousseauian tree-hugging sentimentality of a film like Avatar causes me to roll my eyes. But I can usually put up with it if the story is awesome. But, and I second kgmadman excellent comments, it isn't. (I ramble more on my disappointment with the film here, if anyone's interested.

But of course cons/neocons will find some allusion to the Iraq War and feel threatened by it. (I think it's there -- why not? It's part of our cultural experience now.) That's because they've gotten so touchy defending this useless and costly war for the past 7 years. They're tire of it. Wah-haa...

Anyway, the supposed political controversy (as these things often do) detract from reasoned criticism of the film.

I didn't like it. Not because of the politics. But I almost feel as if I have to defend my political beliefs when I argue w/ someone about the film's merits (or lack thereof).

Interestingly, my wife, who's views are fairly divergent from mine, also didn't like the film. From her perspective, it was that the natives ultimately had to rely on an outsider (human, Westerner, etc) to save them. She found that it demeaned the N'avi to be portrayed as helpless if not for the intercession of Jake Sully...

Why do these crazy people get any attention in the media? Half the things they are saying are an act to get exposure and ratings. Why do people eat it up?
I am a little put off by the fact that this conversation gets to take place here, but at the same time we need to discuss it because of the potential impact to our lives when minority lunatics have a voice in the media

I learned not to even bother to try to understand when pundits try to ascribe political messages to films. Especially by dogging on a film as popular as "Avatar," they're just after page views.

That said, James Cameron's rather uninspired use of the "White Messiah Complex" story archtype doesn't really help matters.