People that know me might expect I would want Avatar to win best picture and Cameron as best director. Both Avatar and The Hurt Locker (directed by Cameron’s former wife, Kathryn Bigelow) could win as best picture and their respective directors win as best director.Surprise! My favorite picture this year was neither of these. My favorite picture this last year is an animated comedy, Up, that is also in the top ten movies nominated for best picture. I don’t expect Up to win as top picture; but it could win as the top animated film and might even win other awards. Perhaps the reason Up moved me so much is that the story is so much that of my own life. The death of the woman he loved dearly, the pain of the adventure they never could take together, and his anger as he looks at the loss of his own sense of purpose and vision. The script is straight out of a John Eldredge book. The lead character even shares my own name: Carl. And then you watch the resolution of this as he gains purpose, adventure, and healing. You really don’t want this movie to stop. And in real life it doesn’t, does it? As long as we see the reality and not the illusion.After that I would pick Avatar. Cameron is a straight-out genius in doing this movie. He really doesn’t need the Oscar to prove this. We already knew it. Someone asked him about the best director prize going to his former wife if she wins. His reply? He’s in a win-win situation with that. He wants her recognized for her work. Unfortunately, I understand her movie, The Hurt Locker, has used some unethical and underhanded ways to promote their film for the Oscar. They violated Academy rules on this. There is enough unethical stuff going on around Hollywood and we don’t need that. Give it to Cameron. If The Hurt Locker gets it, it would be the Academy saying to me that all of Hollywood is rotten. I haven’t seen that movie. If they want to give it the Kathryn Bigelow (the director), I am ok with that. If they give it to the picture, however, you are sending the wrong message to the world as well as to me.
The Messages in James Cameron’s Avatar Movie
The Messages in James ‘s Avatar Movie
Avatar is also loaded with hidden messages for the viewer: political, environmental, antiwar, spiritual, and religious messages. I watched the movie in IMAX 3D and I would encourage anyone planning to see it to at least see the 3D version.For the first 90 minutes, you are taken to the lush and gorgeous planet Pandora. You walk among astonishing and beautiful plants you have never seen before. The plants often have an electroluminescence that glow and change as you touch them. The movie screen seems to disappear. You are on Pandora.The humans are here to mine a mineral Unobtanium, an energy source that the humans need, as earth has been depleted of their oil source. An indigenous people group already lives on Pandora, and the richest deposits of the mineral lie under some floating Hallelujah Mountains, islands sacred to the indigenous Navi people. You can guess the rest of the plot. There could be a war that would destroy everything and everyone. And the Navi seem to have little in the way of defense. Sound familiar? (Hint: Think of the history of the Native Americans in America.)One of my favorite stories in the movie is when the Avatar/Human, Jake, is struggling to learn the culture and is surrounded by hundreds of tiny, illuminated, and animated, and floating entities. He is told by his Navi friend that these are the sacred “seeds of Eyra” and have a healing property. He is told not to fight them, but to hold out his arms and let them bring him the healing that he needs. Later in the movie as you are walking in Pandora you see thousands of these seeds surrounding you and “filling the theatreâ€, some only inches from your face. You reach out to touch them, only to realize you must wait and let them touch you. And you experience a sense of healing as you watch.I liked the quote of Jake, the human/Avatar who is confronting the military strategists. The military strategists have really have sent him into the Navi to warn them of the destruction of their world.Out there [with the Navi] is the real world, in here is the dream” Jake replies.And then you watch as the militant humans with their illusion try to destroy the reality as all-out war breaks out. It hurts to watch.How about your world? Are you in the illusion or the reality?Illusion versus reality is the theme of my new book: Beyond Illusion: Leading from Reality that we are shipping now. Order it at http://www.creatingnewworlds.org. What does a real leader look like today? Does he or she even exist?
