Some of my conservative friends are reluctant to see Avatar because they don't want to financially support an anti-American Com-yew-nist movie where the bad guys are the white American military and the good guys are the pure-hearted natives.
Now it's true that "Avatar" has a simplistic good guys/bad guys plot.
But the military being pilloried isn't the military--it's mercenaries working as corporate goons.
And while the locals are shown sympathetically, so are five or so humans--Americans. Including the protagonist. Actually, the movie has much in common with "District 9" another science fiction film about corporate interests mistreating noble (once you get to know them) aliens. Ugly as toad road kill, but noble nonetheless.
But most ironically, the Com-yew-nist Chinese dictatorship has belatedly pretty much banned "Avatar"--because Chinese viewers are seeing it not as criticizing Americans or the American military, but as allegorically criticizing...the Chinese government, famous for ruthlessly expropriating local villagers' homes and lands on behalf of rich developers and industrialists.
So the American right wing fears the film China's dictators fear.
What does that tell you?
1 comment:
My apologies for asking an off-topic question, but I can't find any other way to contact you. Where did you hear this?
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http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2010/01/29/opinion/29iht-edcohen.html?permid=52#comment52
52.
Ehkzu
Palo Alto, California
January 29th, 2010
10:47 am
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[The PRChinese] think we're immoral because we don't cheat on behalf of relatives, interestingly. This is why Costco warehouse stores in the U.S. now packages produce in more or less sealed packages--too many Chinese housewives were swapping, say, pears they didn't like for pears in other flats, then just grabbing pears from other flats and loading twice as many purloined fruits in their flat and shamelessly trying to check out with it. After many complaints, Costco now puts them under plastic and wrappers and whatnot in order to cope with this, um, cultural phenomenon.
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I've spent 28 months of my life in the PRC, and 12 months of the 28 working for a PRChinese employer. You're absolutely right about the PRChinese lack of honesty, and not the first person to notice it, either:
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http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2133/2133-h/2133-h.htm#2H_4_0031
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. My e-mail address is hvhj _AT_ hotmail _DOT_ com. I don't check this Gmail address much.
Thanks.
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