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STATE OF THE ART: James Cameron combined criticism of imperialism, colonization, and militarization with a romantic vision of nature in a spectacular viewing experience that changed the nature of moviemaking. Avatar rightly netted Oscars for Best Art Direction, Cinematography, and Visual Effects. Courtesy: Dune Entertainment/Ingenious Film Partners/20th Century Fox.
CREDITS
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation/Dune Entertainment; James Cameron, dir., scr.; Cameron, Jon Landau, pro.; James Horner, mus.; Mauro Fiore, cin.; Cameron, John Refoua, Stephen E. Rivkin, ed.; Rick Carter, Robert Stromberg, prod. design; Nick Bassett, Robert Bavin, Simon Bright, art dir.; Mayes C. Rubeo, Deborah Lynn Scott, costumes; Alex Alvarez, creature art; Jose Astacio, virtual art; Skywalker Sound, special sound effects; Grant Bensley/Weta Workshop, Dave Booth, F/X; Jim Charmatz/Stan Winston Studio, character design; Shaun Friedberg “Pyrokinesis,” Jonathan Fawkner, Laia Alomar/Framestone, visual effects; Ben O’Brien/ILM, digital artist; Richard Baneham, animation supervisor; 162 min. (theatrical release), 171 min. (special edition), 178 min. (extended cut); Color; 1.78:1 (IMAX 3D).
CAST
Sam Worthington (Jake Sully); Zoe Saldana (Neytiri); Sigourney Weaver (Grace); Stephen Lang (Col. Miles Quaritch); Michelle Rodriguez (Trudy Chacon); Giovanni Ribisi (Parker Selfridge); Joel David Moore (Norm Spellman); CCH Pounder (Moat); Wes Studi (Eytukan); Laz Alonso (Tsu’tey); Dileep Rao (Dr. Patel).
MOST MEMORABLE LINE
Everything is backwards now. Like, out there is the true world. And in here is the dream.
JAKE SULLY
What do you offer as an encore for Titanic (1997)? James Cameron took an idea that had haunted him for years, and he used the vast power that was his following the huge financial success of that acclaimed Oscar-winning film. The main roadblock to an immediate start was the F/X necessary to bring Cameron’s vision to full life onscreen. He made the decision to delay filming until CGI and other venues reached a new level, allowing for a total realization of his idea.
THE PLOT
By the mid-twenty-second century, earthlings have stretched their territorial imperatives into space to exploit mineral resources, often at the expense of indigenous people. Pandora, a forest-covered moon in the Alpha Centauri system, contains unobtanium, a source of energy mined by astronaut entrepreneurs representing corporate interests. In so doing, they destroy the ecological system and threaten genocide of the local Na’vi. Originally pleased to be a part of this epic conquest, paraplegic Jake Sully finds himself questioning imperialistic attitudes once an extension of himself becomes isolated in a green garden. There, he falls in love with the humanoid beauty Neytiri and comes to share her people’s simple, pure values.
THE FILM
In addition to narrative and themes, Cameron always planned to make this a cutting-edge experience for viewers in newly renovated theaters. Pushing back the boundaries of film in what critic Robert Warshow had referred to as “an immediate experience,” Cameron conceived the recently improved 3-D process as basic. Rather than use the outdated approach of such nostalgic, though crude, films as House of Wax (André de Toth, 1953), Cameron tested RealD 3D, Dolby 3D, XpanD 3D, and IMAX 3D. To maintain secrecy, he tested his advanced process in certain South Korean theaters, employing the revolutionary “4-D” format for a complete stereoscopic effect and qualifying Avatar as a technological breakthrough, as well as an artistic endeavor.
THEME
Immediately following the film’s release, Pope Benedict XVI, speaking for the Roman Catholic Church, warned against “neopaganism” as tied to the worship of nature, with, of course, Avatar being the latest example of precisely that. In its review of the film, the Vatican’s official newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, insisted that Cameron’s desire to engender a “deification of nature” went against the grain of a Christian tradition that posits the defense of nature rather than its worship.
However one thinks or feels about that perception, a follow-up statement was, simply, incorrect: Avatar offered up “a new theology.” In truth, the film’s religious ideas can be traced back to such popular Westerns as Little Big Man (Arthur Penn, 1970), Dances with Wolves (Kevin Costner, 1990), and The Last of the Mohicans (Michael Mann, 1992); each features an Anglo, hailing from a corrupt civilization, who finds true spirituality in the wide-open spaces with Native American blood brothers. Cameron’s views also offer a throwback to the Romantic poets of the early nineteenth century, particularly Wordsworth. His insistence that we celebrate “splendour in the grass” and “glory in the flower” argues in favor of discovering a joyous form of religion in the woods. Such thinking was dismissed as neo-paganism (which indeed it was) by London’s classicist minds of that time. No surprise, then, that, thematically speaking, Avatar would be damned by contemporary conservatives and hailed by modern liberals owing to its “extreme green” attitude.
TRIVIA
Dr. Paul Frommer, a University of Southern California professor and linguist, invented the unique and entirely original language for the Na’vi. Writer and painter Wayne Barlowe was among those who collaborated with Cameron in creating the look of the Na’vi.
Cameron insisted that his story line was influenced not only by “every science-fiction novel I ever read as a child,” but also the jungle adventure romance books of H. Rider Haggard (King Solomon’s Mines, 1885) and Edgar Rice Burroughs (Tarzan of the Apes, 1912).
Though originally budgeted at something less than $250 million, the final cost of completion may have exceeded $300 million. Some industry insiders believed that the film could never come close to earning back its negative cost, but Avatar grossed $2 billion internationally, setting the stage for a new era of enormous film production undertakings.