Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Popular Culture

Academy Awards?

40 Comments

There goes the neighborhood.

When I moved out here decades ago, one of the reasons that didn’t cause me to do so was proximity of the movie business. It was just for the space work, and the climate, and a general love of California. Just never had that much interest in it, or its denizens, and I can’t remember the last time (if ever) I watched an Oscar ceremony. Of course, I hardly ever go to the movies, so it’s likely that I haven’t even seen ninety percent of the contenders.

My big hope for this year is that Avatar wins an award for effects, and gets shut out on everything else. When a producer/director comes out and blatantly states that he was setting out to make an anti-corporate pro-“environment” movie, that should seal the deal, as far as I’m concerned. As Mayer famously said, if you want to send a message, use Western Union.

[Monday morning update]

Overall, I’d say that the Academy got it right. I think it’s interesting that, now that the evil tyrant George BusHitler is no longer terrorizing us from the White House, it’s all right to praise the troops, and to give an Oscar for best actress to a woman who played a Christian conservative (though maybe they were imagining what a feat of acting it must have been, as it would have been for them, for her to do so).

And we finally went to see Avatar yesterday afternoon (it’s no longer playing in IMAX, having finally been shoved aside by Alice, but still in 3D). It was just about as annoying as I expected.

Amoral anti-science philistine corporate toady interested in nothing but this quarter’s bottom line? Check. (Though to be fair, probably a lot of people in Hollywood have no experience with any other kind of businessman.)

Evil military guy who takes great joy in wiping out folks he considers subhuman? Check.

Scientists good, businesspeople evil? Check. Though again, to be fair, Hollywood often portrays scientists as evil as well.

Mindless worship of nature over technology (which is evil and destructive)? Check.

Perpetuation, even elevation of the pernicious myth of the noble savage? Check.

The last two, of course, are greatly aided by the propaganda effort that has been undertaken in our public school system for the past three or so decades. The Indians lived in peace and harmony, and in sustainable balance with their environment, bla bla, with no evidence to the contrary offered (e.g., mass slaughter of buffalo by driving them over cliffs, their horrific imagination for torture, the human sacrifices, the slash and burn, etc.). It’s all part of the ongoing effort to turn us from a nation founded on the principles of Locke to one based more on Rousseau. I’m glad that it wasn’t rewarded last night (though, had they invested one percent of the amount they did in effects on writing and story telling, and less cartoonish characters of a dimension greater than a half or so, that they did on effects, they might have gotten away with it).

[Update a while later]

Here’s an example of the brilliant dialogue:

NEYTIRI
Why save you?
JAKE
Yes, why save me?
NEYTIRI
You have a strong heart. No fear.
She leans closer —
NEYTIRI
But stupid! Ignorant like a child!

I think I know where the scriptwriters got their inspiration:

Eros: “You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!”

Harsh, I know. But that doesn’t make it not true.

Also, as Ray Kurzweil notes, Cameron seems to have a warped view of technology. Daisy cutters: bad. Arrows that can stop a man’s heart in less than a minute: good. And noble. And strangely, their bows and arrows are the only technology that these people seem to use. There is no mention of how their clothes and jewelry are made, though they clearly have them. And they clearly needed the Skypeople’s technology to destroy them. It’s all fine to have Gaia or whatevertheheckhername send a herd of stampeding hammerhead rhinocerous-like things, but that daisycutter would have been delivered if they hadn’t had a gunship and ordnance of their own.

And their only transport is the animals, though they don’t seem to use saddles. How do they expect to make serious war when they can get knocked off at the first impact with the enemy? The invention of the stirrup how the Mongols wiped up the place with everyone else. And really, don’t those flying things need seatbelts? I was quite amused to watch Sully firing his full auto cannon without being knocked off the creature from the recoil.

What this movie reminded me of was another movie with groundbreaking (at the time) effects, and terrible story, dialogue, and annoying characters. It was called Jurassic Park.

40 thoughts on “Academy Awards?”

  3. Rand, Cameron’s version of his message is regrettable and the corporate/military stereotypes clownish,but…once a work of art is out there, we can each choose to interpret it as we would like.

    I just chose to see Avatar as a metaphor for the oldest story in the book, the persecuted triumphing over the persecutor, sat back and enjoyed the astounding evocation of an alien yet familiar world (several times).

    It’s that “verisimilitude” of a working ecosystem and its inhabitants that’s the greatest joy of the film, and why it _should_ get “best pic” (tho I doubt it will and don’t bother watching the Oscars either. Probably I see even fewer films per year than you do.)

  4. Some people with clear libertarian leanings are also warning about the harmful effects of giant corporations (especially on the liberties and prosperity of normal citizens) and are calling for greater antitrust activity. Smaller government? Sure. How about smaller corporations with less power over us as well?

  5. Mr. Divine, they go hand-in-hand. The point of freer markets over mercantilism, when they were first proposed, was to prevent government sponsorship and protection of big businesses like the English East India Company. Having a small government also limits the size of Big Business. Here in business school, we’re actively taught to pursue “burdensome government regulation” to protect the big businesses we presumably will represent from smaller competitors’ innovations. It’s basic corporate strategy as outlined by Michael Porter from Harvard. That’s not some libertarian myth; it’s in the text books.

  6. I thought it was Sam Goldwyn who said that Rand.

    Hey, I can’t be expected to keep all those Hollywood moguls straight. I hardly ever even go to the movies.

  7. When a producer/director comes out and blatantly states that he was setting out to make an anti-corporate pro-”environment” movie, that should seal the deal, as far as I’m concerned.

    This is mitigated by the fact he is a strong supporter of Obama’s space policy. 😉

  9. Trent,
    That was done by the same guy who did the take down of The Phantom Menace (in a huge 8 part review). A very funny and insightful guy really.

  10. “Rand, Cameron’s version of his message is regrettable and the corporate/military stereotypes clownish,but…once a work of art is out there, we can each choose to interpret it as we would like.”

    You’re right Charles. I interpret it as being the same pretty crap that Hollywood always cranks out, therefore having no real value to me.

  11. Rand, while it would be nice to see Cameron’s propaganda piece shut out of the Oscars, given that the Academy shares his views, it’s pretty unrealistic to actually expect such a shut out. Odds are he’ll sweep everything he’s nominated for:-(

  12. a working ecosystem and its inhabitants that’s the greatest joy of the film, and why it _should_ get “best pic”

    No, “Up” should get best picture. It has a working ecosystem *and* the talking dog collar — a piece of technology that some really needs to invent. 🙂

  13. I guess I’m of the point of view, that if I ever need to know who won the Oscars, then Wikipedia will come to my rescue.

  15. I haven’t watched – or cared about – the oscars in years. Won’t start now.

    However, I hope The Blind Side wins some awards. I actually went with a friend to a movie house to see it. First time in a lot of years a movie house got any money from me.
    It’s a wonderful and touching real story.

    And that will unfortunately pretty much preclude it winning anything. 🙁

  17. Most libertarians that I know (including me) despise corporatism. But Cameron’s movie set up a straw man (and straw soldiers), and pretty unrealistic ones even for straw-things.

    Avatar continues to mentally chafe me when I think about it – it was so ridiculous on so many levels, but in the hands of a truly talented SF- and screen-writer – say, Harlan Ellison (several stories of whose were some of Cameron’s early inspirations for Terminator) – it could have been brilliant. Sort of like the last scene in The Maltese Falcon – all of the effort and money and blood was spent pursuing…a lead falcon painted black instead of the fabled jewel-encrusted treasure. “The stuff that dreams are made on”, indeed…

  18. And a hearty second to Edward Wright about the dog collars in Up – Pixar captured exactly how dogs would talk if they could…

  19. Jonathan,

    Thanks for the interesting information. My academic experiences include physics and social psychology. I saw plenty of authoritarianism in both fields.

    cthulthu,

    I also saw the limitations of Avatar. It does say something, though, about our society that the film was such a big, box office hit. I’m looking forward to Robin Hood in May. I don’t know what kind of film it will be. The Robin Hood legend, though, is hardly complimentary to the kinds of bullies who too often inhabit government and corporations — especially big ones.

  20. Well, the Queen of the World is now Queen of the World. Avatar essentially did as Rand hoped.

    Up! was a depressing movie. Charming and well done, but depressing. However, I still love how I can now say “Squirrel!”, and my dog bolts to the back door and into the yard.

  21. the Queen of the World is now Queen of the World.

    doesn’t work… Bigelow wasn’t married to Cameron when Titanic own best picture.

  22. Although wikipedia disagrees with this, I was told many years ago that the Sioux indians were given that name by other tribes meaning they were snakes in the grass that could not be trusted. They refer to themselves as ‘the people’ which seems quite racist to me.

    I’ve actually stood at the camp site of a tribe the Sioux wiped out. A complete genocide, that tribe of people no longer exist. So much for living in harmony with nature.

  23. Ken, if Wiki said the sky was blue, I’d look out the window to double check.

    FWIW, I heard the same thing about the origins of the Sioux name.

  24. I agree with Ed Wright…. Up! had a far more touching and believable love story in it than Avatar (and in a kid’s movie, too). Titanic was the same sort of Cameron claptrap as Avatar. Good special effects, awful, cartoon dialogue and utterly predictable plot and a sacharine dopey utterly predictable love story… poor boy bridges divide to make it with hot rich girl (Titanic) Poor (crippled by serving in inhumane military) Earth boy bridges divide to make it with hot blue rich (in connection to nature) girl (Avatar).

  25. I rolled my eyes last night when Hurt Locker won best picture. I haven’t seen it yet but from what I’ve heard it is a movie that actually shows the troops in a positive light rather than as drug addled rapists. I immediately thought that it is only now, that Obama is in office, that Hollywood is willing to show us that they truly support the troops. I’m sure in their mind they’ve always been highly patriotic seeing that dissent has been the highest form of patriotism as long as an evil Bushitler is in office. Now that they have their man in office it only stands to reason that any form of criticism and mockery is on the order of treason and out and out wingnuttery.

  26. I immediately thought that it is only now, that Obama is in office, that Hollywood is willing to show us that they truly support the troops.

    If you think that; wait this you read this:

    “The Hurt Locker” scored a victory for war-on-terror dramas, which until now had found little favor with audiences shell-shocked by nightly news coverage of the action in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    Um no. That’s not the reason.

  27. Rand,
    I read a review somewhere that showed a one page ‘script’ for Disney’s Pocahontas, with red-lines to reflect the Avatar script. Pretty funny.

    I don’t understand why these folks in Hollywood need to make the ‘bad guys’ so over the top that the viewer has no choice but to hate them (think the soldiers in Dances with Wolves). If their beliefs were so strong (that the military/big business) is so bad, why not just show them as they are in real life. Surely us viewers don’t need to be spoon fed these beliefs.

  28. I doubt anyone believes most movie villains are intended to be realistic. Most movies are intended to be emotional joyrides and provide only the bare minimum to establish that. The black hats only have a little time to establish their vileness (usually, some variation of “kick the dog”, doing something reprehensible so that movie goers know who has the black hat in the movie).

  31. When the sequels come out I betcha the Na’vi deity turns out to be a giant computer.

    And unless the Na’vi develop space travel, in the sequel they will just get nuked from orbit.

  32. There was a 10 second scene at the beginning of Avatar, just as Jake comes out of hybernation, showing the wonder of weightlessness. In 3-D, that scene was great! Putting all else about the movie aside, that zero-g scene still stays with me.

  33. There was a 10 second scene at the beginning of Avatar, just as Jake comes out of hybernation, showing the wonder of weightlessness. In 3-D, that scene was great!

    Actually, for me, that was one of the most vertiginous scenes in the film. I think it was because of the rotation.

    I also have to say that a) I am much too acrophobic to be a Na’vi, with all the rock and vine climbing and jumping and b) I’m much too claustrophobic to run an avatar. I’d be in a full-blown panic attack when they closed the lid on that box. (Also a reason I could never do a sensory deprivation chamber.)

  34. Interestingly, Avatar was seen in China as a movie defending property rights against confiscation by powerful government-backed elites. I heard the government there eventually banned it.

  35. “When the sequels come out I betcha the Na’vi deity turns out to be a giant computer.

    And unless the Na’vi develop space travel, in the sequel they will just get nuked from orbit.”

    Bill, did you watch the link I posted above?

  37. Interestingly, Avatar was seen in China as a movie defending property rights against confiscation by powerful government-backed elites. I heard the government there eventually banned it.

    The Chinese have a long and bloody history of peasant revolutions. Last thing they want is people getting such ideas in their head. YMMV.

  38. Our weapons are also more humane. Sounds odd, but it’s true.

    If you are incinerated you don’t take weeks to bleed to death, at most hours, unless you happen to have one of OUR doctors present to keep you from dying and helping you establish a reasonable standard of living.

    As for Hurt Locker, I noticed all of the subtle insults that nolte mentioned, but the fact is, that those subtle insults are basic truths.

    Whenever I went to field training (I was a major pogue) the instructors would casually toss off “as a joke” that 5 people can’t finish a patrol with 10 prisoners.

    So if you ever get the upper hand on an ambush? TAT TAT is their miranda rights.

    The “insults” in hurt locker were only wrong in that they were personified by officers, high ranking ones at that. (are there any officers who aren’t colonels?)

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