Avatar

Directed by James Cameron

As Reviewed by Ms. Maria Dana Denise C. Mojica

Avatar explores the world of a distant planet called Pandora. The humans are looking for
a rare mineral that can solved the ecological crisis on Earth. However, their plans were hindered
by an indigenous race called the Na’vi. A solution to this problem, Col. Quatrich sends ex-
Marine Jake Sully. Jake’s goal is to gain the trust of the Na’vi’s and get them to relocate (he will
do this by controlling an alien body that will allow him to breath the air in Pandora). As Jake
starts to see the world through the eyes of a Na’vi, he realizes how much this new world matters
to them and he will fight and protect his new race.

In criticizing this movie under the post-colonial approach, we are going to use the
concept of Edward Said.

According to Edward Said’s Orientalism in 1978, post-colonial depicts the imbalance

between the West and the East by showing the superiority of West over the East, West always
dominated the East.

Pandora’s forest (where most of movie takes place) is shown to be highly exotic. The
plants are highly captivating, while the wildlife is extremely dangerous. From this, we can
conclude that Pandora is the East, wherein the place is remote, unchanging and primitive.

The movie represent various aspects of colonial oppression. The humans wanted to
change the Na’vi’s way of life. One is by building a school, they taught Na’vi’s a new language-
English. Through teaching them the English language they can easily communicate with them,
they can also easily control them and conquer their place. This also shows that the humans
have no intentions of adjusting to the life in Pandora.

Another colonial oppression we can see from the movie is that humans, do not care
about the lives of the inhabitants. They did not think twice to eradicate the population of the
Na’vi’s, even with the presence of women and children. They also did not care about the culture
of the West, even the trees which is sacred was destroyed by the humans.

We can also see injustice in the movie when Jake gained the trust of the Na’vi’s for their
own advantage. He learned the way of living of the Na’vi’s so that he can easily persuade them
to relocate. As a result, the Na’vi’s felt betrayed.

Moreover, when it comes to weapons, we can see that the West is the underdog. Most
of their weapons are bows and arrows unlike the humans which uses advance technology such
as guns, airplanes and robots. Also, most of the battles where in the favor of the humans. Few
humans were killed and a number of creature were killed.

However, one of the most challenging problems was how to unite people under the
banner of a nation or form pan-national or pan-ethnic movement. And the Na’vi’s solved this
problem by allowing Jack (white man) to do the leadership after he untamed the giant flying
Toruk. The world may change rapidly but the east persistently keep its cultural inheritance more
valuable that west offers technology. We can see that when they fight for their place- Pandora.

The four characteristic of post-colonialism is also present in the movie.

1. An awareness of literary characterization of non-Western/non-European nations as

“other”—traditional literature often depicts African, Middle Eastern or Asian nations as
mysterious, exotic, “heathen”, barbaric/animalistic, mysterious, primordial, stuck in the
past or “beneath” Western culture.
2. Attention to language, particularly discomfort with the formalized, standardized use
of language, and a desire to break free of it and revert to natural, regional dialects
3. Recognition of “double identities” or unstable identities in which one individual or
group belongs both to the colonizers and the colonized.
4. Emphasis on cross-cultural interaction.

References:

Post-colonial. (N.A) Retrieved from owl.english.prude.edu/owl/resource/722/10

Postcolonialism. (N.A) Retrieved from blogs.setonhill.edu/jamieleighkegg/2013/03/20/barry-

chapter-10-postcolonialism/