Does `Avatar` Contain Hidden Messages?
by Brett Michael DykesSome prominent members of the media who screened the film certainly took note. In a glowing review for the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert noted that "Avatar" "has a flat-out Green and anti-war message" that is "predestined to launch a cult." Meanwhile Ben Hoyle, writing in the Times of London, noted that the film "contains heavy implicit criticism of America`s conduct in the War on Terror." Further, Will Heaven of the Daily Telegraph said that the plot line involving people of color who wear "tribal" jewelry while sporting dreadlocked hair, being saved by a noble white man gave the film a "racist subtext" that he found "nauseatingly patronising."
But are these hidden messages really all that hidden? James Cameron himself hasn`t been shy in publicly proclaiming the fact that he`s an environmental activist who believes that humans and "industrial society" are "causing a global climate change" and "destroying species faster than we can classify them." In a recent interview with PBS` Tavis Smiley, Cameron admitted that he made "obvious" references in the film to Iraq, Vietnam and the American colonial period to emphasize the fact that humans have a "terrible history" of "entitlement" in which we "take what we need" from nature and indigenous peoples "and don`t give back."
Further, one of the film`s stars Stephen Lang told CNN that he is "not surprised at all" that some people have taken note of the film`s political messages, mainly because the central theme of humans "destroying" a "pristine world" out of "blindness and greed" is so "overt."
Read the whole story here: http://ca.movies.yahoo.com/feature/hmg- … sages.html
Share your thoughts in our discussion forums.