‘Avatar’ is a sci-fi action feature length film directed by James Cameron. It has been argued that ‘Avatar’ presents the message of the greed of capitalism against the people who want to live in peace and preserve their culture. The blockbuster hit, ‘Avatar refers to a major element in American history – the Invasion of America. The science-fiction film has relevant similarities to this historic period; in ‘Avatar’, humans from Earth go to the planet ‘Pandora’ to disrupt the peace for a rare mineral – the unobtanium. It is further suggested that the ‘unobtanium’ could symbolise oil.
In the extract, representation of disability is shown through the fictional character, Jake Sully. The beginning of the extract shows the extreme close up shot of a pair of eyes followed by a close up shot of a hand on a wheelchair wheel. It can be argued that including these shots into the trailer connotes that this particular information is important to the story. Later in the extract, the character Jake Sully converses in conversation with what the audience considers as the ‘villain’ of the film. Their dialogue consists of the ‘villain’ saying that he will get Sully his “real legs” back.
This particular language could suggest that the protagonist of the film would do anything to get his legs back. This portrays a very negative ideology onto the audience – which people are not whole without their entire body working functionally. Furthermore, it is interesting how the captain says “we’ll get you your legs back… your real legs” when he is not in his real body at all – he is in a robot suit. Perhaps he is contradicting his previous statement? During this scene, there is a sense of authority that is displayed especially in the medium long shot during the dialogue.
The audience sees that the ‘captain’ is in a tall robot suit and Jake Sully is in his wheelchair which is extremely shorter that the robot suit. This establishes dominance and power, the fact that the captain is the tallest signifies that he is the most important and the most powerful. Furthermore, the sheer fact that he is in a robot suit signifies a great level of wealth and authority over Jake Sully in his wheelchair. Overall, the captain has literally made himself bigger that Jake Sully and all the other characters.
Moreover, Jake Sully says later on in the extract that “the strong prey off the weak and no-one does a thing”. The character could be referring to himself or the Na’vi people but this is said over a shot of himself which we could argue means that he is the “weak” and the ‘villain’ is the “strong” that preyed upon him. This refers to how the captain used Jake Sully to gain information on the inhabitants of Pandora. Furthermore, this could be implying that Jake Sully is weak because he is disabled which is sociably unacceptable yet it is included in a popular film that was seen by many.
The ‘Avatar’ trailer represents humans as inconsiderate entities that would do absolutely anything for money and power. This comes across when a character says that the only reason why they are on the planet Pandora is because a piece of rare mineral is worth a great deal of money. This further signifies that the representation of humans is a negative one and that they will go to great lengths to get what they want. Additionally, the humans could be represented as disrespectful towards nature and extraordinary wildlife.
This is because during the extract the viewers see a crane shot of deforestation which further emphasises the lack of compassion in humans. Moreover, there is a lack of positive representation of ethnic minorities. During this 3 minute and 31 second long extract, there is absolutely no representation on the ‘human side’ of different races. It has been argued that this is extremely conflictual. The only representation that the ethnic minorities have in this award winning feature film is subliminally negative – the inhabitants of planet, Pandora.
The Na’vi have similar appearances and cultures as the Native Americans which has led many people to believe that the Na’vi are based on the Native Americans. This signifies that they are represented poorly in James Cameron’s film, ‘Avatar’. This can be argued because a white human character states, through a voiceover, that “those savages are threatening” their whole operation. We could argue that this character is referring to the Na’vi as during the sound bridge the camera straight cuts to a shot of the inhabitants of Pandora. The word “savages” means a group of people that are considered primitive and uncivilized.
This word could connote that the Na’vi are looked down upon and disrespected – this is further emphasised by the humans’ lack of compassion for the Na’vi as they destroy their home that they value so deeply. Additionally, the humans value the minerals of the planet, Pandora, but not the inhabitants that live there. Furthermore, the Na’vi are considered ‘aliens’ as they are from another planet which enhances the racist subtext within ‘Avatar’ especially when the majority of the Na’vi characters are voiced by black actors (Zoe Saldana, C. C. H. Pounder, Laz Alonso and Peter Mensah).
It can be argued that if one considers that the Na’vi are essentially aliens then that has an extremely racist subtext – this is because it is believed that historically in the early 1900’s and possibly earlier, black people were referred to as ‘aliens’ as they were considered ‘not human’ or ‘not equal’. This was the result of a xenophobic and racist ideology in the early 1900’s and earlier. The racist subtext in ‘Avatar’ has been argued by many and therefore not catering to the audience’s desires as people don’t tend to want to be offended whilst watching a major motion picture.
Additionally, in the extract, we see various shots of the Na’vi as they are the main characters in the film ‘Avatar’. In these shots – which include medium close ups and medium shots – we see a particular costume that the Na’vi wear. The audience assumes that this is part of their culture. Furthermore, the Na’vi’s costume is similar in some respects to the clothing from the Native American culture. This brings us back to the idea that ‘Avatar’ is loosely based around the Invasion of America. Additionally, the use of bead jewellery further refers to the Native American culture.
This could show that the ideology that James Cameron is trying to present is the idea that the Native Americans fought for their rightful country and many were massacred in the process much like the parallels in ‘Avatar’. In addition, the Na’vi’s costume consists of dreadlocked hair which is a fairly stereotypical portrayal of the black community. The character design of the Na’vi is arguably interesting as they have blue skin. This is particularly intriguing because it has connotations of the coldness, sadness, loyalty and wisdom. Moreover, the colour of their skin ties nicely into the setting and scenery.
The scenery is very natural and we see this from the beginning of the extract – we see a possible crane shot of the surrounding nature. The natural environment links to the Na’vi’s skin colour as the blue tone could represent the colour of the rivers, skies or seas. Therefore, enhancing their representation of being environmentalists, much different to the perception and representation of the humans. Furthermore, during the extract and particularly in the full length film, we see many scenes where the Na’vi connect to their planet and their wildlife and quite intimately too.
This can signify that the Na’vi are represented as highly spiritual people which further links to the idea of them being based on the Native Americans and so forth. In addition to this, their blue skin could be referring to the religion of Hinduism. This can be argued because the Na’vi are somewhat similar to the 2nd Hindu god, Vishnu. This supreme being is conceived as the ‘Preserver’ which links to how the Na’vi fight to preserve their planet rather than letting the humans destroy it for a piece of rock.
Additionally, in the extract, the audience sees a shot of a Na’vi using sign language whilst talking to try and communicate with the main character. This action signifies that the Na’vi race are very intellectual and could also reference to the idea that they are hard of hearing. One may argue that this extract, the trailer of ‘Avatar’, presents the audience with the intentional representations of ideologies and views of the director, producer, writer and co-editor – James Cameron.
This could be suggested by how Cameron is involved in most of the pre-production and production processes; this means that he controls the majority of the aspects, especially the script as he was the one that wrote it. Therefore, this suggests that Cameron had the ability and opportunity to pass his ideologies and views across to a wider audience. Furthermore, Cameron’s films are largely based on the military and ‘Avatar’ is no exception. It could be argued that Cameron presents the audience with a war based ideology that everything will result in war and destruction.
An alternative interpretation could be that ‘Avatar’ displays a constructionist approach to representation within media. This is due to the way ‘Avatar’ presents the context of society – in this case is the historical context of the Invasion of America. Adding to the fact that ‘Avatar’ is an American film further emphasises the possibility of it having context towards the Invasion of America and Native Americans. Furthermore, ‘Avatar’ shows the opinions of people who are doing the representation – for example, James Cameron. In addition, ‘Avatar’ could be an example of a reflective approach towards representation.
This is due to how similar the film is to the Invasion of America and Native Americans. ‘Avatar’ is representing this historical event and taking its true meaning (which is greed of capitalism and preserving culture) whilst trying to create a replica of the event in the mind of the audience. In this case, the replica is where the humans go to Pandora to mine for natural resources. However, the inhabitants refuse which results in a war. To conclude, it is possible to say that the majority of representations and ideologies that are presented in the trailer of ‘Avatar’ are very negative towards culture, history, society and the audience.
This can be argued as the trailer does not represent a wide range of different ethnic groups and when it does, it’s done offensively and negatively. This has a major impact on the audience watching as they would get offended if their culture/religion/ ethnicity is mocked and represented inaccurately and stereotypically. However, the negative representation is done very subliminally. As well as the unequal representation, it presents unideal ideologies that are racist and possibly displaying aspects of ableism.
