Avatar director James Cameron: His film has been nominated
for
nine Academy Awards, including best picture and director.
Vedomosti, Russia
Avatar's Appeal: We Know We've Been Bad, But Want to Be Good
"People go to see Avatar
for a third time, not for the shimmering cat world they love, but for the mind's
suddenly-awakened capacity to make moral choices. They are lining up - not to
stare at the special effects - but because deep down in their souls, they want
to recognize the evil of their cruel world, including within themselves."
A testament to the moral questions raised by Avatar are the causes that are using the movie to promote their missions: Above, a Palestinian demonstrates against a wall being build between Israelis and Palestinians.
More and more people are
standing in queues. Cinemas are full. People who have seen Avatar once go
and see it again. And having seen it without 3D-glasses, people go and see it with
the glasses.
And well, yes, of course, there
are the amazing computer graphics and the unprecedented accuracy with which the
characters, flowers and animals are rendered. Well, yes, of course. it's a
technological breakthrough ...
But for some reason, no one discusses
the subtleties of this technological breakthrough. The perfection of the new
technologies in Avatar are simply stated, but no one dwells on them - and neither do newspapers, blogs, nor your neighbors, if you listen
to the conversations in the cinema.
They talk about the fact that
the renderings of people in the film are too superficial and un-nuanced (translation:
"Are humans really such scum?"). They say they don't want to leave
the wonderful world of man-cats (translation "After all, we could be friendlier!").
They talk about whether betrayal is permissible (translation: "I'd like to
betray!"). In short, in connection with the movie Avatar, people talk
about moral issues.
At the same time, Avatar
is a fairy tale for children. My nine-year daughter left the theater with her
eyes shining with delight. Very beautiful and exciting. Flowers bloom, lizards
fly ...
It is also very cut and dried.
It's very clear where the good and the evil lay. And there's one moral question:
Is it possible to take the side of good, even if you were originally part of
the evil? And people like that.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
The fact, I suppose, is that
people tend to make moral choices. That's the general purpose of man. Man is
born to choose between good and evil. Except that man
doesn't like to think - he's too lazy to understand the intricacies of a world created by
someone far more artful than even James Cameron. But the
need to make moral choices exists, and the undercurrent of feeling that one is
born to distinguish good from evil isn't going away. So people go to see Avatar
for a third time, not for the shimmering cat world they love, but for the mind's
suddenly awakened capacity to make moral choices.
As the cat-girl rightly
observes at the beginning of the film, as children things need to be greatly
simplified so that life is filled with meaning. And so we go to the movies. There,
bad men drive a huge metal bulldozer to destroy a living and glowing tree, within
which lives an entire magical race. And the bad men feel sympathy for no one. They
go just because they need to go - and spit on anything that lives to get what
they want. This is evil, right? So the audience chooses right, and happiness
spreads within their souls - happiness stemming from the fact that for once
they've done what they were born to do.
Religion, philosophy and art are
there to help the individual make moral choices - but that's too complicated. Advertising,
marketing and propaganda all work against making the moral choice - and they
are too powerful.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
Nevertheless, the need to choose
between good and evil remains in our blood. Man wants to make the moral choice.
Moreover, he wants to realize his own sinfulness, because there's no other way
to salvation. He wants to say to himself, “people are scoundrels and I'm one of
them - I am as much a villain as they are.”
Then it becomes easier. The
world becomes brighter, as if the plastic wrapper of consumer indifference has
been ripped off. And that's why people are lining up at theaters. Not to stare
at the special effects, but because deep down in their souls, people want to
recognize the evil of their cruel world, including within themselves. And they
want to see the betrayal of this world as a good thing.
And then, what do you know, they're able to do so.
