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Article Information
- Added March 2nd, 2010
- Filed under 'Articles'
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Avatar connections.
By Aelred Edmunds in Articles
Considering some of the reactions to the film Avatar.
In a recent CONNECTIONS article I made reference to the film AVATAR, and to the agitation it is causing among Fundamentalist Christians in the United States (and probably in other countries as well). I can bring you up-to-date on this. A well-informed friend of mine in that country writes:"...the Neo-Puritans who in their fear of the human form, want to characterize the film as unfit for Christians to see because of the near-nudity of the primitive human-like peoples on the planet Pandora. Some Neo-Puiritans don't like the film simply because it is so visually sensuous. I even read one Fundamentalist critic who actually complained about the stunning colours in it, saying that the planet Pandora's colours reminded him of the dyed clothes of the hippies during the 1960's!
...[The film is] a critique of predacious imperialism and the genocide of 'primitive' indigenous cultures by natural-resource wealth-hungry technologically advanced invaders [from a dying, devastated planet Earth]. Neo-Conservative Protestants are claiming that this theme is exclusively an attack on the founding of America...
...The Iraq war. Most of the Neo-Con reviews that I have read describe the film as a big orgy of anti-American Liberal Bush-bashing.
...[In negative reference to missionary activity on Pandora] The Neo-Cons are seeing this as an affront to Christianity...."
And so on. How could you resist seeing the film after all of this?
So far as the "affront to Christianity" is concerned, I think that what is upsetting them at a deep level is that the film can be seen as attacking the orthodox understanding of the GENESIS myth - Adam & Eve, the Garden, the so-called dominion over Creation given to mankind, the expulsion from the Garden. Question for you and me: "WAS man given dominion over all of Creation? Did Yahweh intend him to be master-dominator, or merciful guardian, of His Creation?" Look at GENESIS 9: 1-4. Obviously, contemporary "dominator" Christians are in no doubt as to how to read these verses. Those (and there are many of them) who advance another "conservationist" theology of Creation, based on the first or earlier Covenant, are seen as the real enemy by the Neo-Cons. We are left in no doubt as to which line the film's creator, Cameron, is implicitly taking. And I do think that there is a GENESIS connection because the film even has a Tree of Knowledge!
There is even a "Christ" or "Saviour" figure - the wounded soldier Sully. Whether or not Cameron saw this direct connection, Christians (liberal or conservative) will see it.
Sully campaigns fiercely, along with the devotees of the planet's Goddess, to save this pristine Paradise from the invading imperialists from planet Earth. Those who lead the imperialists do indeed look like some contemporary American leaders and military figures! Ultimately the fight of the "tribals" is successful, and the imperialists leave Pandora. Defeat for a particular view of America and its "Manifest Destiny"? I think so.
Aelred Edmunds
Published as a Connections article in the Parish Weekly Bulletin, February 28, 2010.
