Is Avatar radical environmental propaganda?
Images: Avatar the Movie 
Don’t think that could happen? Think again. It just did.
Harold Linde has worked with environmental groups such as Greenpeace, Rainforest Action Network, Forest Ethics, PETA, and the Ruckus Society before turning his hand to producing environmental film and television projects such as "11th Hour", "Big Ideas for a Small Planet", "30 Days", and "Edens: Lost and Found". Michelle Rodriquez plays him in the opening of "Battle in Seattle" — a feature film that dramatizes a group of radical environmental activists fighting against the WTO.
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Comments(46)
Posted By Kris Brooks - Tue, Jan 26 2010 at 11:04 AM ESTDeindustrialisation
If the west continues on this path of supporting green policies of renewable, low carbon, global warming, anti science ideologies the west will be like the third world in a generation. This is what this film promotes. A de-industrial back to nature. Tribal people have a life expectancy of not much more than 30 years. Is that what you want?
Posted By Tami Kennedy - Fri, Mar 05 2010 at 11:30 AM ESTPut Technology to Better Use
The West can easily proceed on a path of "supporting green policies of renewable, low carbon, global warming" protection by continuing to GROW our technology for a smarter use of this world.
Posted By Anonymous - Mon, Jan 18 2010 at 5:30 PM ESTUm hello, there were people there too
I do think it was great that the female pilot took a stand and all and died doing it. And yeah, I think the environment is important to save. But did anyone ever think that the reason she killed her fellow American soldiers was because they were killing other innocent people? I don't really think she decided to kill her friends just because they were burning the forest. While I obviously don't think that burning down this amazing environment for some financial gain is acceptable or right, I.... More
Posted By Ishtara - Thu, Jan 14 2010 at 9:19 AM ESTThe Planet
The earth is an estimated 4 Billion years old. It has been through a lot of seemingly destructive events yet, instead of being extinguished, life formed and has evolved to this stunning and diverse beauty we experience today. The earth will be here after we are gone and there will always be life living on her lands and in her waters. I feel that acting out of a fear of destruction of the planet automatically creates a conflict between ourselves and one another. Why not be more conscious.... More
Posted By Steve Crowley - Wed, Jan 13 2010 at 7:11 AM ESTAvatar - Of course its propaganda!
Avatar is a great film. And like all powerful cinema it is going to be propaganda like it or not. In this case it supports the environment. If you aren't Mother Nature's good buddy, you will probably be upset. That's what happens when you make choices in life. I personally feel that the Pandoran science and ethos presented in Avatar are pointing us in the right direction, one we have to follow if we want to both remain alive and ethical. This, I'm sure, scares lots of folks. But it shouldn't..... More
Posted By James Miner, author HONORABLE ANIMAL - Fri, Jan 08 2010 at 12:53 PM ESTYes, Gratefully, Avatar hit it on the bullseye
Enter your comments here
AVATAR not only beautifully demonstrates our perverted relationship to nature but also suggests it is our lack of spiritual relationship with nature that is at the root of the problem. As I mention over and over again in my book HONORABLE ANIMAL, the lack of conscious connection to our instincts has created many problems for the human species. Our lack of communion with ourselves outpictures as a lack of communion with our natural origins. Mesmerized by technology,.... More
Posted By Redhawkwoman - Thu, Jan 07 2010 at 4:59 PM ESTIt's all from where you already stand
It's always from where you already stand. What about the SS man shoots down his fellow SS to save a few dozen Jews on the way their doom? Terrorist or hero ? French underground blowing up German barracks killing all as they sleep? Terrorist or patriot. Get the point?
I stand with the Creator and the natural world, not those greedy ******** who cut it down, dig it up, and kill wild things all for maximum profit and the corrupt government officials, especially in this hypocritical.... More
Posted By Arlene Bowman - Thu, Jan 07 2010 at 3:14 PM ESTFilm Review of AVATAR from an Indigenous/Dine' Perspective
Film Review of AVATAR from an Indigenous/Dine' Perspective
by: Arlene Bowman arlbow49@yahoo.com
Viewed the AVATAR December 29, 09 at the local theatre for $10.00 Canadian dollars. I liked the animated effects a lot, but the story line, written and directed by James Cameron, which the film review "When Will White Men Stop Making Movies like Avatar" points out, "whites need to stop remaking the white guilt story, which is a
Posted By marty - Thu, Jan 07 2010 at 10:33 AM ESTPandora is Earth
"Avatar" is a multi-billion dollar film about indigenous eco-warriors liberating planet Pandora from human destruction... But what about planet Earth? And saving native lands here? Will ANY of that money help OUR crises? YES, if we will it! Learn more + join our movement at .... More
Posted By Mark - Wed, Jan 06 2010 at 6:51 AM ESTMcDonalds
I have yet to see Avatar, and i was really wanting to for a while, then i seen the shameless McDonald's tie in for the movie - if it is supposed to be about environmentalism they have kinda missed the mark there.
Posted By James Crosby - Tue, Jan 05 2010 at 3:00 PM ESTTruth.
Someone earlier posted this link, and I think it really does justice to reality: http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1222-hance_avatar.html
But, seriously, unless we USE HEMP we cannot save the planet all that well. USE HEMP... It has over 25,000 industrial uses, and is the best first step we can take to better the planet.
To learn more about
Posted By Anonymous - Tue, Jan 05 2010 at 1:58 PM ESTThey were Mercenaries for Hire, not Marines
What the writer of this piece failed to comprehend (and what was made perfectly clear in the film) was that these were mercenaries for hire, some of whom were ex soldiers. In other words, she was shooting at Blackwater-style hired guns engaged in genocide.
In my opinion her actions were humanistic, ethical, honorable and valid in context.
Posted By Jim - Tue, Jan 05 2010 at 1:18 PM ESTDoesn't answer the question
This is relatively sensational headline with strong implications, which led me to read the article. As I finished reading, I realized that the question was not answered: is Avatar radical environmental propaganda? It would be great to read an article that breaks it down even further--is it radical, and is it propaganda, and if so, why/how?
Posted By Craig - Tue, Jan 05 2010 at 11:00 AM ESTThe precedent was My Lai
"Try to imagine a major Hollywood blockbuster in which a U.S. Army pilot hijacks a Marine Corps Blackhawk helicopter to shoot down fellow U.S. choppers in order to protect indigenous people fighting to save their rain forest from U.S. oil interests. Don’t think that could happen? Think again. It just did."
Actually, this happened during the My Lai massacre of the Vietnam War. Hugh Thompson, an army pilot, put his helicopter down between the soldiers and villagers, ordering his men to.... More
Posted By James - Tue, Jan 05 2010 at 7:38 AM ESTMy idea of a *better* movie...
I'll call it "The Lowered Drawbridge." It's a story about how a really anti-military president, in the future, harshly condemns the US military, and after thoroughly stripping our armed forces of any teeth, basically throws the doors wide open to the rest of the world. Hollywood rejoices, until massive amounts of enemies attack the US, and there are no combat or aircraft elements available to fight back. We could have five
onitesnof watching Hollywood be burned to ashes just like what.... More
Posted By doctor - Thu, Jan 07 2010 at 1:06 PM ESTtake your meds
Thats Ok jimmy - you're in your safe place now. Swallow the pills the nice man is giving you. The mean, jane fonda loving late sipping limosine liberals cant hurt you now. Im sure you have enough canned mean and M-16 ammo buried in your back yard to last the coming apocalypse. Douche bag.
Posted By Rick - Tue, Jan 05 2010 at 11:25 AM ESTA "better movie"...
I'm sorry, but you are a blockhead (or should I say jarhead). There are no enemy "armies" out there with the ability or intention to conquer the US, nor has there been for decades. Conventional warfare has largely died out since WWII and has been replaced by Vietnam style revolutionary guerilla warfare or terrorism. While terrorism does threaten the US, it also threatens every other democratic open society in the world and large armies are of little defense against it. As has been shown by.... More
Posted By James - Tue, Jan 05 2010 at 7:23 AM ESTHorrible movie, no really...
I got tricked into watching this crappy film. As a retired Marine, my son used the fact that the protagonist was a Marine too to convince me. Now I can't blame him for wanting to see this crappy film, because everyone else in his school saw it and not only has this become the norm for being cool now, but even the TEACHERS were instructing kids to see it. In the Marines, we learned honor, code, and above all else, faith in one another. Every Marine is a brother, and no Marine kills another..... More
Posted By jim - Sat, Jan 09 2010 at 10:32 PM ESTperhaps your son was right
Enter your comments hereI was in the military in Nam, & know how a bunch of mindless screws like youself can be led to do the dirtest of dirt to people who have done you no wrong. You have no morals, no ethics & not enough intelect to think for yourself, maybe you hurt small animals when you were a child, maybe you watched you dad beat your mom into a pulp, thought all native americans deserved to die, who knows, but thank God your son,maybe, wont grow up to have no empathy for ALL GODS.... More
Posted By navy boy - Thu, Jan 07 2010 at 1:21 PM ESTstupid enough to be a marine
I believe you are ex marine. You certainly never would have got into the air force or navy and its not implausible that you were tricked. I bet you've been tricked a lot.
My poor, poor little lost boy. Come here. No one understands you like I do. Im never gonna let the mean people trick you again. Like your first girl friend in high school who dumped you for the draft dodger and then later the Nigerian Prince who never paid you the millions he promised and now this nasty liberal cartoon.... More
Posted By Kurt - Wed, Jan 06 2010 at 2:13 AM ESTMissing the point
I think what you are forgetting is that in the movie, 1) the "military" were all private contractors, that is "ex-military", and 2) those ex-military decimated the lives of an entire indigenous culture, in their own home, uninvited and without provocation, purely for the prospect of material wealth. I'm pretty sure that capitalism isn't based on principles of genocide, though you might want to talk to the good people over at Blackwater about their perspective on that.
Posted By omg - Tue, Jan 05 2010 at 9:05 PM ESTjarhead
can your brain actually think, or do you solely depend on orders?
Posted By DeathMarch - Tue, Jan 05 2010 at 6:35 PM ESTHope
So the military is always right now matter what. I hope you die
Posted By Kwaut_Lizard - Tue, Jan 05 2010 at 1:36 PM ESTTechno-Dances with Space-Wolves
You are testament to the ability of indoctrination by a military and have apparently never heard of 'fragging'. And I quote Kernow: "During the Vietnam conflict, the fragging rate rose from 1 incident per 3,300 servicemen in 1969 to a peak of 1 per 572 servicemen in 1971." Oh I can hear you just saying "Not on my watch!" and "Never a Marine!" but Marines comprise approx 200,000 out of approx 1.5 million military personnel. So your ego-oriented statements are really non-sequitur of pure.... More
Posted By David - Tue, Jan 05 2010 at 10:55 AM ESTEver heard of Blackwater?
You obviously are blinded by your preconceived prejudice to the point where you can't even draw the right comparisons. Why do you feel personally attacked? Are you guilty of some kind of war crimes, like so many of the mercenaries in the Middle East? Get some unfiltered news and read it with an open mind before you shoot your mouth off.
Posted By Kyle - Tue, Jan 05 2010 at 8:23 PM ESTInstead of attacking the poster...
Instead of attacking the poster, wondering if he is guilty of some war crime, perhaps you should note his end point. Radical environmentalist message in the film? Yup. Anti-capitalist message? Yup. Anti-military? Yup. Probably the only one that is questionable is the Anti-American as no one states what nation they are from. Of course, they are mostly white and all of them speak english as their main language... so draw what conclusions you want.
You, being the person that you.... More
Posted By WChinner - Tue, Jan 05 2010 at 5:15 AM ESTWhat I Reflect on Avatar
This is my personal reflection on Avatar and the link to reality. Read on:
http://wchinner.blogspot.com/2009/12/must-watch-movie-before-2009.html
Posted By Jorge - Tue, Jan 05 2010 at 12:01 AM ESTIn wars all parts have a reason
Each individual in a war fights because he/she thinks that is the right thing to do. The Avatar army is not fighting for a corporation, money or a country...... it is fighting because the believe they are being threatened and that an attack on them is inminent...... so they need to do a preemtive attack..........
WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND THAT EACH PART IS DOING THE RIGHT THING TO THEIR BELIEVE.
Posted By Jorge Pareja-Diaz - Mon, Jan 04 2010 at 11:52 PM ESTWhat is the question to answer?
In wars, as far as I have heard most of the time, soldiers do heroic acts to save his or her fellow friends lives not explicitly to save a country or to save freedom. The question is... will each of us on an individuall basis fight our own army (gun aiming at us) to save our friends?
Posted By Raven - Mon, Jan 04 2010 at 11:12 PM ESTThe reality is it IS happening now...
Look at the countries that are being effected now, from mi
occupying countries for oil, and the Amazon Forrest with millions of acres being chopped down for corperate gain. Oil is the blood of mother earth, and its being sucked like leaches from our own Govt
taking over oil rich countries and fooling people by calling them Terrorists.. when we were never attacked to begin with. 911 was an inside job and billions apon billions have been made by the corps and military and now passing.... More
Posted By Jennifer Thomson - Mon, Jan 04 2010 at 11:02 PM ESThope for the future?
just saw avatar and had the exact same reaction as the author of this article. all i can hope is that kids seeing this movie hundreds of time in a row will awaken to its real message. hopefully, they won't all just rush to buy the video game.
Posted By Mike - Mon, Jan 04 2010 at 6:14 PM ESTNot exactly...
Just remember that this is not the army... it's the "company" and they are doing this for profit, not some greater cause, so I wouldn't paint Chacon as the eco-martyr turning on her military buddies exactly. I agree that the message is pretty strong, but it's really just escapism, and haven't we heard this before anyway? What sci-fi movie doesn't paint a dystopian future where we have destroyed our planet?
Posted By Liberty4All - Mon, Jan 04 2010 at 5:46 PM ESTIt's also about Palestine
I think the enviornmental references are extremely obvious and so are the US military ones, but I think the film is also about people fighting for their land against arrogant and greedy foreign occupiers. "This is our land" is a cry you can hear in Palestine everyday and all over the world where people are occupied and oppressed. Palestine was a beautiful place where people lived in harmony with the land, before Israel came along and installed walls, alien settlements and a huge occupying army..... More
Posted By Charlie - Mon, Jan 04 2010 at 5:43 PM ESTElements of Avatar aren't fiction
Security forces and contractors are killing indigenous people right now in the Amazon over access to oil, gas, minerals, and gold: http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1222-hance_avatar.html
Posted By Rosalia - Mon, Jan 04 2010 at 4:49 PM ESTIt is not a matter of the American army.
The main drama of the movie is not about the depiction of a real army or of a former one. It is an artistic and fine description of the western society who behaves very immature ruling the nature. The "hot princess" define us in simple words: people with strong heart but ignorant like a child who cannot comprehend how we are linked to the web of life.
Posted By Joe Neri - Mon, Jan 04 2010 at 4:41 PM ESTFormer Military?
What happened to the saying, "Once a Marine, always a Marine?" Whether or not they're hired as contractors after their service is complete is not the point. It's the same revolving door between government and private industry that plays out in Washington DC everyday.
They're Americans.
Posted By Tyler Grad - Mon, Jan 04 2010 at 3:14 PM ESTNot true
I'd like to point out that nowhere in this movie was it even implied that a.) the "military" presence on pandora was completely American (there is a sense that America still exists in one form or another at that period) or that b.) they represented anything more than a private security firm composed of former military, again - not totally American.
I wouldn't read into this movie folks, it's a major hollywood blockbuster, made possible by deforestation and the destruction of our planet..... More
Posted By Anonymous - Wed, Jan 06 2010 at 8:24 AM ESToh please - ALL the corporates/mercs/marines have US accents!
as an immigrant myself, I can promise you this: everywhere else in the world, people *will* recognize the mercenary/Marine/corporate genocidal exploiters of Avatar as the perfect encapsulation of ugly violent neo-con American culture.
Posted By Notafan - Mon, Jan 04 2010 at 2:56 PM ESTConnection to Alberta's oilsands
Also, did you notice that the equipment that was chewing up the forest and mining the planet was a bucketwheel? It's the same beast that is chewing up the ground and exploiting the oilsands near Fort McMurray. Hmmm...
Posted By wvflowerchild - Mon, Jan 04 2010 at 1:56 PM ESTMaybe it is time!
We need more movies like this, we have to ignite a fire under our young people in order to save this once beautiful planet of ours!
Posted By Lauren - Mon, Jan 04 2010 at 1:49 PM ESTIt wasn't depicting the US military
Regarding "Try to imagine a major Hollywood blockbuster in which a U.S. Army pilot hijacks a Marine Corps Blackhawk helicopter to shoot down fellow U.S. choppers in order to protect indigenous people fighting to save their rain forest from U.S. oil interests. Don’t think that could happen? Think again. It just did."
No it didn't. The crew was not military but former military, now hired guns, who are willingly exploiting the new planet for personal gain. The movie is not about.... More
Posted By Robin Shreeves - Mon, Jan 04 2010 at 2:16 PM ESTI thought they were former military too
My husband and I had this conversation after seeing the movie over the weekend. I remember someone in the movie saying, perhaps the Giovanni Ribisi character, that the "military" people in the movie were all former military who had been hired. He didn't catch the reference, though.
Posted By Hyster - Tue, Jan 05 2010 at 3:42 PM ESTFormer military...
The reference comes early in movie in the voice-over that Jake Sully provides. He makes it clear that many of the hired goons are ex-military.
Posted By Anonymous - Wed, Jan 06 2010 at 8:27 AM ESTformer, schmormer; go read General Smedley Butler
the Marines are just another unit of US armed forces sent in again and again to rip the guts out of other countries to make the world safe for the profits of major US corporations - it's been that way for 150 years and more. that's not fiction, that's reality.
Colateral damage
Great movie .... brings the the subject of "Nature and inhabitant advancement" to the forefront. Mother nature on Planet Earth will survive in the end, humans can become colateral damage or learn to exist in harmony with MotherNature, a decision we adults need to make NOW and pass it on to our kids or enjoy Mother Natures wrath. Haiti, now Chile, need i say more.