Dana Abou Abbas
English 1C
May 18th , 2018
Avatar Race Distraction
Avatar, a tremendously successful movie produced by James Cameron, Jon Landau. With its popularity and mass appeal, it has also acquired a considerable amount of disapproval from a variety of sources, pointing at a variation of topics of the film, from its demonstration of alien natives and a colonial corporate military, to race problems and a representation of cigarette use. The movie Avatar can be analyzed in many different types of ways which include post- colonialism, and feminism. This essay will survey main elements of the movie, examining criticism, and offering its own analysis and deconstruction. It will retain analytic critique, as well, analyzing how Avatar is
…show more content…
Pandora is colonized with fantastic creatures like hexapede which is a deer-like creature with a fan-like cranial structure, and an ethnic race of tall blue extra-terrestrials called the Na'vi. The film is presented in 3D, a skill that has been around for some time but this is the initial time it seems to be used deprived of the reference to innovation. In this way Cameron and Twentieth Century Fox created a film, or rather a capability, that cannot be plagiarized; a substantial quantity of its income is from audiences paying more to watch it in 3D, unquestionably several times, on a huge IMAX screen. Article titled The 3-D aesthetic: Avatar and Hyper Haptic Visuality by Miriam Ross states that “Avatar (James Cameron, 2009) was heralded for its sophisticated use of stereoscopic technology” however other reviewers like Meryl Gottlieb who is a social video editor at Business Insider States that “I believe if a movie is truly so stunning, its greatness shouldn't be limited to a format. 3D shouldn't make "Avatar." Storytelling and cinematography should make "Avatar." from my perspective what Gottlieb says is true if the only think that made avatar the most successful movie ever made is its representation is 3 dimension then it is not truly the best movie ever
These are just a few of the various examples of how the movie “Avatar” and chapter 12 of “Creating America: A History of the United States” by McDougal Littell are each greatly alike and different from the other in several ways.
...ome to us at an interesting time, before the Revolution, 40 percent of Tehran movie theaters were showing pornography. The function of this office is purification as well as promotion for the arts.” The first part notions the Western stereotype of the Orient since the same as the time when it was discovered, but now the people of the Orient realize the stereotypes and are changing the way they see themselves because of these stereotypes. It is only by correcting these assumptions, stereotypes, and misconceptions of the Orient at the heart of society today, the media can Orientalism be fixed. The Eastern people must be allowed to sympathize in movies and films to humanize them and have intimate interactions. Otherwise, the Orient will be continued to be known incorrectly as a place with people who are without reason, screaming, protesting, and in swarming mobs.
Avatar was directed by James Cameron, and was released on December 18th, 2009. In short, humans from Earth travel to a far-off planet, Pandora, specifically to mine a mineral called unobtainium, which is a superconductor. Given how humanity treat the Na’vi as a lesser
Avatar the motion picture throws you into a rich world, with diverse characters who clash over cultural and socio-economic issues. At the heart of the story is a former Marine named Jake Sully, who falls in love while on an alien planet with a woman from a race of people called the Na’vi. The character whom he falls in love with is an alien for which he sacrifices his whole way of life to be with. By way of his experiences with the Na’vi, he begins to adopt a new worldview, which can only be described as Pantheism.
Movies, one can argue, are one of America’s greatest pastimes. Unfortunately, after 9/11, films have become increasingly prejudiced against American Muslims. In movies Muslims are frequently portrayed negatively. According to James Emery, a professor of Anthropology, Hollywood profits off of “casting individuals associated with specific negative stereotypes”. This is due to the fact that viewers automatically link characters with their clichéd images (Emery). For Muslims, the clichéd image is of the violent fundamentalist, who carried out the terroristic attacks on 9/11. As a result, the main stereotypes involved in movies display Muslims as extremists, villains, thieves, and desert nomads. An example of a movie that has such a negative character role for Muslims in film is Disney’s cartoon Aladdin, depict...
In Shohat and Stam’s article, Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the media (2013), they discuss the issue of racism within the media and entertainment industry, such as Hollywood films. More importantly, Shohat and Stam’s discuss the assertion of racial politics in casting within the Hollywood films industry. The interesting idea to their argument is that they suggest that for a film to become financially successful, the casting of the protagonist must consist of a white star as they are seen to be ethnically universal (Shohat & Stam, 190). They further suggest that the ethnic minority have been limited to designated roles which ultimately perpetuate their ethnic stereotype (Shohat & Stam, 190). They concern this issue by critically analysing and contrasting western Hollywood films against other ethnic films.
In the film “Avatar” directed by James Cameron, wide shot, close up shots, gesture, lighting, sound, facial expression and dialogue are used to help the audience better understand the themes, good vs evil and respecting the environment which is expressed in the film.
The themed area boasts tall mountain-like forms, with pathways and plant life below. Along with the impressive landscaping, Pandora offers guest two attractions, Na’vi River Journey, a water based dark ride, and Flight of Passage, a three-dimensional simulator similar to the famous Soarin’ attractions at other Disney owned parks. Joe Rohde, who led the design for Pandora, said during a 2017 conference that they didn’t want to focus on “detail manifestation”, and instead looked into the underlying ideas and values of the film, which is the “dangers of turning your back to the systems of nature” (Rohde, 2017). Instead of recreating scenes and objects from the Avatar (2009) film directly, Imagineers looked deep into what the film represented if you remove all characters and their plot lines, and instead focused on the environment and landscape of Pandora itself. The design of the area fuses vibrant extra-terrestrial plant life with harsh, almost brutal, architecture and concrete, with the former taking a metaphorical back seat.
the Gaia theory was also well put into the film.It showed that all species in the movie had an equal share in what the pandora had to offered.It also showed that they all had an equal responsibility for its safety and health.That showed when the whole jungle of the pandora started fighting
The culture and philosophy of Ridley Scott (pp. 231-243. United States: Lexington Books, Inc. Pramaggiore, M., & Wallis, T. (2005). Film: A critical introduction to the film.
The American science fiction film ‘Avatar’, directed by James Cameron is about Jake Sully, a paralysed former marine who becomes an avatar to take his place on a mission on the distant world of Pandora. There, he meets the Na’vi people and gets attached to living in harmony with nature, where he must save their land when being attacked by humans. The story line of Avatar follows closely with ‘The Hero’s Journey’ which focuses on how the main character is experiencing a change from his ordinary world, turning into an avatar to explore a new world. Primarily, Avatar captures a call to adventure to begin the hero’s journey. The film also explores a new approach with crossing the first threshold of the hero’s joinery which is conveyed through a range of cinematic techniques. Furthermore, Sully experiences a major ordeal followed by a reward shown in a variety of dramatic shots.
Also, the film revealed women empowerment and how superior they can be compared to men. While demonstrating sexual objectification, empowerment, there was also sexual exploitation of the women, shown through the film. Throughout this essay, gender based issues that were associated with the film character will be demonstrated while connecting to the real world and popular culture.
Since the creation of films, their main goal was to appeal to mass audiences. However, once, the viewer looks past the appearance of films, the viewer realizes that the all-important purpose of films is to serve as a bridge connecting countries, cultures, and languages. This is because if you compare any two films that are from a foreign country or spoken in another language, there is the possibility of a connection between the two because of the fact that they have a universally understanding or interpretation. This is true for the French New Wave films; Contempt and Breathless directed by Jean-Luc Godard, and contemporary Indian films; Earth and Water directed by Deepa Mehta. All four films portray an individual’s role in society using sound and editing.
While watching movies, have you ever noticed that the villains in almost every single Hollywood film are of Middle Eastern or European descent? In a reoccurring theme of Hollywood, the villains in these films are almost always foreigners or people of color. This is a stereotype. On the other side of the spectrum, we often see that the heroes of these films are most often than not white males. This is another stereotype. Within the last few years, we’ve seen actors such as Will Smith, Morgan Freeman, and Zoe Saldana take the lead roles, so it can’t be said that there are no non-white heroes, but there certainly isn’t many. Hollywood action movies, moreover than other genres, are typically loaded with an abundance of stereotypes. The way these movies are composed and structured can tell us a great deal about the views held within the American psyche and who holds the social power. The harsh reality is that the media ultimately sets the tone for societal standards, moralities, and images of our culture. Many consumers of media have never encountered some of the minorities or people of color shown on screen, so they subsequently depend on the media and wholeheartedly believe that the degrading stereotypes represented on the big screen are based on fact and not fiction. Mary Beltran said it best when she stated in her “Fast and Bilingual: Fast & Furious and the Latinization of Racelessness” article, “ultimately, Fast & Furious mobilizes notions of race in contradictory ways. It reinforces Hollywood traditions of white centrism, reinforcing notions of white male master while also dramatizing the figurative borders crossed daily by culturally competent global youth – both Latino and non-Latino” (77). This paper will specifically look...
I watched the film Avatar directed by James Cameron. The main actors in the movie are Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana and Sigourney Weaver. Set on the planet Pandora, Avatar is a sci-fi story of a mercenary-backed corporation’s attempt to steal and mine the land where humanoid aliens known as the Na’vi live.