viernes, 25 de diciembre de 2009

AVATAR


Before celebrating our family Christmas dinner some members of the family: my son, daughter in -law, a son-in-law and four grandsons went to the movies with me, to watch AVATAR, in 3D at a Virginia theatre. This is a very beautiful film, one that can be interpreted in several ways. One way is the straightforward adventure film, “good meets evil, good finally prevails”. Another way is to listen to the humanistic message in the film, “no material gain can be justified if it is at the expense of genocide”. There could even be a political message here: a big corporation goes into a “planet”, or a small country, to get valuable mineral wealth, no matter at what cost to the environment and to the life of the natives. The natives fight back and prevail, although at the cost of severe destruction and losses. The film is a call for the protection of the environment and, perhaps, a critical view of the work of big corporations in underdeveloped countries with fragile ecosytems.
The visual power of the film is tremendous. Most of it is computer generated, the native people, the wonderful foliage and the fauna, a combination of delicate creatures and ferocious beasts that, at the end, side with the natives against the invasion of an army led by a ruthless, former marine who had been, he said, in a previous mission in Venezuela, where the going had been pretty rough” (was he referring to a U.S. invasion to grab Chavez?).
The plot is simple, almost primitive, a sort of interplanetary “Dance with the Wolves”. My son said it reminded him of Pocahontas. The main character in the film is sent to interact with the natives, to gain their confidence so that he can persuade them to abandon the area, to allow the Earthlings to mine their mineral resources. He lives among the tribe through an avatar, a projection of his person made in the shape of a native and slowly but surely becomes identified with the people and the forest and falls in love with one of them, eventually becoming their ally in the fight to preserve their world.
The film can be very moving, as the spectator watches the destruction of wonderful trees and the death of beauiful people. Some of the construct are specially wonderful: floating mountains, great Angel-like waterfalls, colorful and delicate flowers and very elegant sea anemones-like creatures dancing around the screen.
Go and see it when you can.

3 comentarios:

  1. ha, debes haber visto Invictus pero a lo mejor hubiera sido demasiado deprimente para ti dado que Venezuela no tiene lideres como Nelson Mandela...

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  2. Vi a Invictus y me gustó mucho. Sobre todo es una lección en tolerancia y grandeza de espíritu.

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  3. Si, y no veo a nadie en Venezuela que alcanza hasta los rodillos de Mandela - ni en el gobierno ni en la opposicion. En Venezuela hay que empezar desde cero, lamentablemente.

    Ojala que estrenan esa pelicula alla y a lo mejor unas cuantos Venezolanos pueden aprender algo - por lo menos los que todavian pueden pensar para si mismos.

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