I know it's late but I've finally gone to see Avatar. It's a fairly good film. As with most James Cameron films the plot and character development are simple means to an end (I can only two named characters), however the action was good and the setting was wonderful.
It got me thinking. There is a minor Hollywood meme where white men go native. Avatar goes a slight stage further by having the lead character leave his body behind (in a cyber-coffin) and occupy a local. These types of films are always tricky, always a problem politically. Even in the best cases (such as Avatar or Dances With Wolves) though well meaning the film portrays local culture as flimsy and infantile (not to mention sybaritic).
Sometimes the genre can be downright reactionary. Example: the Last Samurai, where Tom Cruise plays and American soldier won to the Samurai's last ditch battle against the Meiji restoration. In pretty much all films the white man has to arrive and mesh with the society under threat before he leads them out for the denoument/confrontation/ghostdance.
One last thought: what's the appeal of going native? There are degrees and shades of alienation wrought by out society. One is where the city appears to be self-sufficient, a castle in the sky. This is taken to the Nth degree in a city such as London, dominated by a huge financial district.
A big appeal would be in reverting to a society not only peacefully dominated by nature but psychically and philosophically integrated into it (entirely forgetting the grim battle for survival waged by nomadic societies). Avatar goes further than most films of this genre in having the Na'vi literally psychically connected with a giant gaia entity.
Anyhoo, pretty soon we'll have gone to see The Crazies and Capitalism: a love story. I may write I may not. Either way we're postively cultured!
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