Yo. Why he gotta be blue?

I made a deal with a friend a few months ago that we wouldn’t see Avatar without each other. Of course, people being people and all, she went ahead and saw it without me. I still haven’t seen it. But you know what? I’m starting to think I won’t need to. A similar thing happened to me with both “The Piano” and “The Crying Game”. I waited patiently for them to hit the theaters, didn’t go see them the first couple of weeks after release, and by then was afraid to see them for fear of being tragically disappointed after the frenzied press and word of mouth build-up. Fortunately, the press about the film’s impact has been entertaining enough in itself. First of all, the obvious debate about whether it’s racist? OF COURSE it’s racist. James Cameron (a rich white man) first found success with Terminator, a continuing story about enslaved beings that seek emancipation and in each movie get beaten back down by their oppressors. Why would he walk away from his cash cow? If you haven’t followed the debate, this MSNBC piece gives a good gloss over, but for a deeper look, this Psychology Today piece points out that the film also reinforces sexual stereotypes and leans heavily on the messiah angle as well. And from a more political standpoint, while some are quick to point out that Avatar is real and that Pandora is located in Central and South America and Africa, others suggest that China’s moviegoers rally to it as a story about private property, not race. None of this should be surprising; it’s qualities like this that give a film resonance. Yes. We live in a world where one race dominates commerce, and will do anything to gratify its greed. If you didn’t know this, maybe you should go read a book like Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. What is probably more intriguing about the film is the pyschological impact it’s having on fans. William Gibson was one of the first to describe how lifeless one would feel after a virtual experience in his cyberpunk novels like Neuromancer, but did you know that there really are thousands of people who are depressed and pondering suicide after seeing Avatar because of this effect? The support forum is called Ways to cope with the depression of the dream of Pandora being intangible if you’re one of them. And there’s not only the tragic psychological effects, apparently seeing Avatar can get you shot. 

As of this writing it was interesting to note that two reader polls had dynamically different results when asking if Avatar was racist. MSNBC and Essence magazine – which I’m guessing have rather different demographics – were taking surveys. Here are the results:

Essence Magazine:
Yes, these “racial undertones” are ingrained in Hollywood -47.5%
No, it’s just a movie about fictional creatures. It has nothing to do with race – 52.5%
Take their poll here

MSNBC:
Yes, even if unintended – 13.8%
No, it’s just a story – 86.2%
Take their poll here