Criticism of 'Avatar' spiritualism off base

I liked it better when it was called Dances with Wolves.

As for the abuses of the American Indian and other peoples, to deny that is to deny history....however, in the minds of mushy headed PC folk, any preaching of Christianity is an imposition and "Wrong"

Forcing Indigenous people to work in Mines and beating them= BAD

Preaching Jesus and bringing the True Faith to them= GOOD

Colonization was a mixed bag, and the history reflects that.

Not all Native cultures were good and praiseworthy...the Mexica (Aztecs) for one. If the word savage ever could be properly used towards a Civilization, it was them. This is why the Spanish had no problem recruiting the surrounding tribes to help them annhilate the Aztec.

I would respond with: Perhaps....God used the Spanish to bring the residents of the three continents out of pagan darkness. After 15,000 years, they had not gotten out of the stone age. The isolation provided by the oceans on each side kept them alone and yet how is it that the European continent was able to build ships and navigate by the stars, build clocks, etc. Whenever a more advanced civilization meets or encounters one that is significantly less, there will be no backing away. Man does not allow digression....Man proceeds to progression. And the means is always bloodied. Whether we like it or not, it has happened all through Man's history. It is always an inevitable outcome. After "Custer's Last Stand", when Washington was trying to arrange peace with the remaining Indians, they brought the delegation East through all of the industrialized cities. The Indian leaders were shocked into submission by the size of the cities, the buildings, the industry, the transportation, everything. They then knew they could not fight the white man to victory.
As terrible as that is, "Avatar" is a movie, a contrived story, a script and in no way reality.

Dear Demetria et al: As much as Avatar milked all the contemporary myth of indiginous and space (Dances With Wolves, most of John Wayne and the Alien movies) it was an amazing spectacular. Casting S. Weaver of Alien fame was a coup. For once we saw the "aliens" and could really identify them as ourselves rather than "them". As much as the media castigated Avatar for its depiction of Americans and its military as "holocausters" it rang a bell, as did the "George Bush" security/military commander.

What amazed me was the "tree of soul"? Much of the visual of music which i love over the past few years seems to depict that single tree whether in the midst of fertility or devistation. It is, I think, for me at least, that celtic myth of the "tree of life" connecting and being vital to earth, sky and all that lies among and within.

The Vatican be damned. We are all connected. We are all interdependent. For thefirst time in all of time we, the intelligent ones, the ones imbued with reason, faith, compassion and responsibility are overseeing, or ignoring, the destruction of creation rather than joining with its source in its beutification and completion.

Really - so L'Osservatore Romano is synonymous with the Vatican. I didn't know that. I will keep it in mind in the future.

Call me crazy...but you can see whatever you want in that movie. It is what it is. I saw Eywa as my God, Elohim. I pictured it as being the Garden of Eden in balance before sin...though that's not a perfect analogy because the animals were violent and the natives hunted...but...it was beautiful and untouched, and God was present with them. That's just how I chose to look at it. AND...why does it matter? It's science fiction. They didn't worship nature, they worshiped their God, which was present in the form of a tree. I thought it was a beautiful relationship between "man" and "god" in that regard, and a respect for that "god." Loved it. The movie is just beautiful. It's simple, too. I just watch it, enjoy it, loving the fact that it happened in my lifetime.

It was just a movie; sit back and enjoy it. Why do we need to demonize it or turn it into a metaphysical thesis? It's a story in which one can take some inspiration about being human and humane. Why make more out of it?

I have read alot of caparison of Avatar to the plite of the American Indian and other opressed people. This article compaires the Spanish spread of Christianity to conqure. But what is the diffrence in these situations and the movie? Out of all the articles I have read none have brought up this issue. It shows what one motivated Marine and his rifel(or bow) can do. Jake who is a Marine Non Comissioned Officer (Corpral) is tasked with taking over his brothers Avatar body beacause he (His brother) is killed. On his first encounter with the Na'vie is telling. They seem to know not to kill him right off. He tells them he is a warrior and that intriques the Na'vie. They teach him their ways and he is able to assimilate into the clan. He sees that the Na'vie will be distroyed and goes back to help them. He uses his leadership skills that he learned in the Marines to amass an attack on the invading humans. Its about leadership and courage.

Semperfi!

As far as the movie goes, as a movie, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The attention to detail about the planet was an incredible task. However, as the criticism noted, the script/story line was old and well-used. There was nothing but stereo-typed characters....but the visual effect and the way the story was told and shown was of great entertainment. I wouldn't worry about taking it other than an entertaining movie....because it was that.

I continually ask myself and know am asking you - does reporting on all matters Catholic always have to be bashing the beliefs and utterances of the Church? It seems like the mission of this paper is to constantly beat the rest of us up.

Here is a link to my review of AVATAR that was posted earlier this month on the NCR Blog : RIFFING WITH MYTH

http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/riffing-myth

I did not see the Vatican/L'Osservatore article and there was no attribution to the criticism mentioned in Demetria's posting. But I am not surprised at the analysis that seems to come from an Italian perspective as much as it does from a doctrinal reading of the film over the cinematic experience. Italy had colonies (think Ethiopia). Just as it took generations for those of us in the USA to realize how we were and are colonizers as well (historical, political, cultural, industrial, etc.), so Italy does not want to remember the details of their past.

It is uncomfortable for the Church (or some people in the Church) to recall the link of the missionaries to the oppressive colonizers of the past as reflected in contemporary story-telling so they look at doctrinal implications. (This reminds me of how poorly films about the Iraq war have fared; as important as they are in terms of social justice and morality, people don't go to see them.)

What is good to remember is that there is no right or wrong way to interpret the meaning of a film; everyone's interpretation is valid - even that of the commentator in the L'Osservatore Romano.

We can respectfully disagree with him (I assume it is a him, though i could be wrong).

The value of the interpretation of a film is not about being right, it's about the conversation, the dialogue.

Good work, Demetria. "Nature worship" also reminds me of "demon worship" and all those other accusations that have cost courageous non-traditional people their lives throughout the ages. It seems to me that when church institutions (all institutions, for that matter) pay more attention to keeping themselves on track than criticizing others, we will all be better off.

I immediately recognized the communion of saints in the voices of the ancestors in the tree-God. I found the spirituality constructed for the Na'vi compellingly attractive and compatible with Christian (and many other)belief systems. The film was very thought-provoking for me in that it asserts the moral legitimacy of the resort to force in the face of oppression and injustice. The good guys win after a good fight and live happily ever after. Does anyone really think that the earthlings would quietly go home and never return? While Jake might be seen by some as a Messianic figure, the Messiah he portrays is the one the people expected, not the one they got in Jesus. To me, the movie begs the question whether the violent way is the "right" way or even the most effective way. I think it would serve as a great springboard for a discussion about this with young people, many of whom have been raised on a diet of virtual reality violence.

Thanks for that great commentary Demetria...Its apt and makes you wonder if ther vactican attacked AVATAR out of an embarrassed memory of its part in genocide in the americas.
Note the popularity of AVATAR around the globe shows us that ordinary people have accepted its messages: this worries those in power, be they political corporate or religious.

You do realize that the Spanish monarchy was not the same institution as the Catholic Church, right? And that - not all actions of the Spanish Monarchy and persons thereby sponsored are equivalent to actions of the Church? So even if the Church required colonists to convert natives, they didn't sanction killing and violence? Maybe such distinctions are too much - or just not important - for this simplified black and white tale of evil Catholic aggression and native innocence.

It is well known that the vast majority of natives died of European diseases, as documented in the popular book 'Guns, Germs, and Steel', which itself is an attempt to pretend that there's no such thing as one culture being superior to another, just chance biological allotments.

Maybe your history book didn't inform you that the Spanish subjugation of native empires was helped by all the little tribes the native empires had inhumanly subjugated into slavery. Or maybe a comparison to tribal life before the Spanish (including the cross-tribal slavery) and the rule of law established after the events of conquest.

Whatever the case, all cultures are sinful. All have committed evil. And as Mel Gibson showed in Apocalypto - certainly the natives to Central America treated each other with as much cruelty as Western colonizers. It's one thing to recognize the evils committed by Conquistadors, but to also recognize that God ultimately brings good out of evil. It's another thing altogether to act like everything Catholic and Spanish is pure evil, and that Latin America is better off returning to its pagan roots where Hispanics can experience some liberating sense of cultural independence.