In the movie Avatar,
a large portion of the human upper class is turned into a monstrous figure by
its overwhelming greed and consuming addiction to wealth. The premise of the
movie is that humanity has begun to explore other planets, and on one specific
planet they found an incredibly rare material named Unobtainium, which could be
sold for unbelievable amounts of money. Unfortunately, the human mining colony
encounters a problem – the main source of the Unobtainium on the planet is
located underneath the Hometree, the main home of the planets native race. The
human colony is split into two groups because of this conflict. The scientists
and humanitarians want to develop relations with the natives and work out a
compromise to obtain some Unobtainium, while the military and company officials
want to just force them off their land to claim the resources they travelled
for.
As the
movie progresses, we can clearly see the large companies and military portrayed
as monsters because of their insatiable desire for the Unobtainium. After some
attempts at developing a symbiotic relationship with the natives, they grow
impatient and begin to move in with massive vehicles, destroying both the
natural life and any natives who stand in their way. They remorselessly spread
death and destruction as they pursue their chance at obtaining endless wealth.
In this scenario, it is pretty clear that the promise of money and wealth and
recognition creates a monstrosity that is almost unstoppable. The movie
contains a very memorable scene as the humans bombard the Hometree with
missiles, knocking it over as countless natives fall to the flames on the
ground below. Eventually, they are able to fight back and defeat the
militaristic humans, however not before an immense amount of damage was
inflicted to the planet by the monster of greed.
I have to be honest, the first time I watched Avatar I fell asleep. I was in high school and did not have much interest in alien movies at the time. However I do remember certain parts of the movie and the scene of the Hometree invasion is one of them. I love this example as it shows exactly what you stated: money hungry extremists who succumb to their greedy desires and perform unthinkable acts in oder to fulfill them. The effects of the capitalistic mindset of the military and company officials are bluntly shown in the scene described and can relate to real life capitalist monsters in some effect. The natives tied to the desired material are severely impacted by the outsider's actions, as are many people impacted by the greed of "outsiders" in real life. Your analysis and connection of these concepts make me want to go back and watch the full movie, as I can now have a more educated view on the plot and a stronger interest in the movie as a whole. I better bring some popcorn though to keep me entertained just in case (:
ReplyDeleteWhile the parallels in Avatar to colonialism are pretty blunt, I think it's fairly realistic in terms of how capitalism in a space that isn't properly governed, which often happens on new frontiers. It's slightly different from a critique strictly on capitalism, however. Capitalism is definitely is an aspect, but the public sector (the military) is also involved in the invasion of Pandora. The government as well as corporations in Avatar are monstrous in that they make self-interested decisions. The government in Avatar has a vested interest in corporations being able to mine in Pandora. Although straightforward genocides by large countries have been rarer in recent history, large countries have deliberately harmed people in the interest corporations in their country; the United Kingdom's involvement in Iran to the benefit of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (Now BP) is an example of this.
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