300 words on Avatar

A disclaimer: I’m a sucker for panorama, spectacle, and sheer wonder, so it took me some time to wake up from an immersion in the Avatar ride. The technical magic and imaginative splendor are beyond my abilities to review. How appropriate that this film ends up first on the list for Into the Dark this year because on one level the film concerns the discipline of seeing. Before you judge the film with instant likes and dislikes, loves and hates, take some time to consider how it sees the world and what it says. If memory serves, early on in the film Jake gets a lesson from Norm on the nuances of the verb “to see” in the new language. To Jake, saying “I see you” is simply recognition of an object: like a “yeah, you’re there.” But to the world he is about to enter, “I see you” plays on different levels of “seeing:” discerning, knowing, grasping, comprehending, seeing from deep inside. That verbal shift hints at the clash between two cultures at the heart of the film: one mechanical, imperial, individualistic, and thoroughly modern – another spiritual, tribal, communal, primal and pre-modern. The former can’t see anything but an object to mine; the latter “sees” the living connection at the heart of all things (and the latter are Na’vi – “prophets” in Hebrew, “seers” even). The point is that we all need to wake up to what we’re doing and what we’re missing. It’s a fair criticism, even if I don’t share the pantheism at its heart.* Nor do I share its polarization.** Jake’s musing narration doesn’t diminish the fact that Avatar tells its story with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. But again – I loved it.

grace and peace - Andy

* That’s a whole other post; holler if you are interested.
** That’s also another post. Suffice to say, reality is a lot messier and we’re all complicit in the way “we” live.