That's it! The proof is hear, we see issues it addresses and we disscus them. I was suprised to see this site with very disscusive topics on morals. I mean, alot of us hear now have a resentment ageinst greedy corporations.

I'm a liberal, but I try to see it from both sides some times but most of the time I just dissagree with the Conservitive reasons. It just doesn't seem reasonable to me. And that part about how conservatists dismiss avatar off the bat when they hear about it, that is just sad. I have a friend who's partents were hard core conservatisis and with out even seeing the movie, they don't allow him to see it:angry:. It's so sad to learn that there are some people who are completely ignorient to everything but there own belief.

- We're here. As Zenit said, that says something...

- There's thousands of others out there that See, but are not on the forums, or only posted once back in the hay-day of PAD.

- Activist groups/people fighting oppression all over the world have taken up the image of Avatar and the Na'vi to symbolize their own struggles.

- James Cameron is now one of the major faces of environmentalism and indigenous rights.

Cameron didn't fail. He succeeded, quite epicly I might add. :D

As for conservatism, yeah, the backlash is pretty ridiculous, but that's corporate-sponsored neo-conservatism for you. I'm sure old-school Eisenhower-conservatives wouldn't have reacted that way. In fact, I'm sure the message would have resonated with many of them (rapunzel77 is a perfect example :)). Basically what the right-wing has become is a mass of corporatists and luddites who can't fathom that middle-aged white men don't rule the world anymore. So they see something like Avatar that embodies everything they hate, and for lack of a better term, it makes them have a hissy-fit. There's plenty of other, more reasonable (though less vocal) conservatives out there.

Exactly. This is what good art does. It helps to wake us up at least to the point that we are talking to each other. We see it so often in the media and general culture, very few people with opposite views actually talking to each other. Instead there is too much bickering and hate.

I understand where you are coming from but also keep in mind that very few people can be bunched up into liberal or conservative groups. I am a mixture of both. On some moral issues I cannot waver in my conservative position. On everything else, I am more liberal. I have always loved the environment before Avatar but what it did do was awaken in me to have a greater concern for it as well as learning to listen to others. Before Avatar I was listening to more conservative groups but when I saw what their reaction was to the movie, I stopped listening to them because I was disgusted by their reaction. They took it personally when there is very little if any indication in the movie that it was aimed at them at all.

This is very sad. I grew up in a conservative home and most of my friends irl are also conservative and it irks me sometimes to see some of the knee jerk reactions. It makes us look bad, especially those of us who are also very religiously devout. I enjoyed Avatar and I took from it some very important lessons. Some lessons that perhaps Cameron didn't anticipate. People will read into any work of art weather it is a movie, play, book, painting, sculpture, music, etc anything that they wish to read. Some will only see hate and evil and others will only see love and joy. Very few people will see the more profound messages that can be drawn. Sure, some will only see simplicity and scoff at that but sometimes it is the simplest of stories that we need to hear most.

Actually Cameron did fail in one respect (and I've mentioned this before). He made the RDA and the security forces, indeed, all the humans on Pandora, far too American. The RDA is supposed to be a multi-national super-corporation, but all we see are people who look, talk and act like Americans. There should have been people with French, German, English and Russian accents. Obvious Japanese and Chinese and Indian people (Max looks Indian, but he still talks like an American).

Why is this important? Well, I personally know quite a few people who adamantly refuse to watch Avatar because they've heard it is anti-American and anti-US Military. It's not, but it could easily seem that way. One of the early trailers even makes it seem like the RDA security forces are US Marines and some of my veteran friends will not watch a movie where US troops get masacred. So, by doing it the way he did (and it would have cost nothing at all to add some obvious non-Americans) Cameron lost a lot of people who might well have loved Avatar as much as we do.

There is that, and there is also the fact that some of us here in the international audience are getting pretty sick of the future = Americans. It would have been far more powerful (and gotten the whole 'international company thing across) to have some non-Americans there. Given the blonde woman in the control tower a Russian accent; Wainfleet British; some of the Avatars and scientists different accents. Anything. Something. And it would have been far more imaginative than just 'the future is the US'

Thats not the U.S. out there, Thats a private sercurty force for a Corparation and they were hiered to do their dirty work. As I recall, The U.S. has learned from it's mistake of removing indains in the 19th century. There are contries out there who do more treable things than the U.S. Now a days we try diplomicy, diplomicy, diplomicy.

Diplomacy with the edge of 'if you do not do as we say, we will ruin your county' - OH so easy to do now that there is the 'War on Terror'. Previously, the excuse was the Cold War, which gave way to not only invasions but also coups and assassinations. *shrugs*

But the fact of the matter is that an organized made up entirely of Americans reads as 'metaphor for US'. Might not be US government (not exactly, but given how much pressure companies can put on the government...), but US companies who go in and take what they want with military backing?

Yep. At least to this Australian, the RDA still read as 'America' in a lot of ways.

...You also have, off-hand, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Nicaragua, Honduras, Iran, Guatemala, South Vietnam, Chile, Grenada, Panama, and that's before you mention Afghanistan, and Iraq. A lot of those countries aren't doing THAT well. *shrugs* It's an empire thing, it just doesn't get mentioned a lot, which is understandable, as empires tend to be a little shifty over what they actually do.

But that's partly my point (and really, I don't particularly want to get into the history of US foreign policy - it depresses me, and is mostly OT) - by making all the characters American, the movie can so easily read to those NOT in the US that this is just more of the same. So, yeah, the movie has anti-American sentiments, which could have been nicely avoided if Cameron had cast put more of an international cast in the movie.

Exactly. Like I said once before, if a government went to Pandora, and not a profit-seeking corporation, things would not have gone the way they did. It would've been a mission of diplomacy, not greed.

Though too, in all honestly, the recent Wikileaks dump has shown us that the world still has a lot of work to do on diplomacy. We need to learn to coexist on this planet before we drag someone from another planet into this.

And I'm not sure we're seeing America in Avatar. More than likely we're seeing the end result of 150 years of this...

He could've just forgot.... lol? :P

Haven't notice it until you all mentioned it. I guess it will stay to be one of those things we'll probably never get to know about JC. *continues with life* :P

this thread is a FAIL because of 1 simple fact, James Cameron never fails

Damn it TM20. I was going to say that, I shall say it anyway.

This thread is a fail. Just because the film failed to reach a few people, it didn't stop it becoming the highest grossing movie of all time. Kthxbai. <3