THE COLONIZERS
One of the other comments I heard before seeing Avatar was that the characters leading the Pandoran occupation were too one-dimensional. Another person I spoke with was also exasperated that “all the bad people were white.” Here again, I think these statements have a lot to do with the lens the viewer brings to the film as well as the level of knowledge she has of the history of colonization and racism. To address the second point first, it is simply not the case that white people alone are the enemy. For example, secondary characters Trudy Chacon (Michelle Rodriguez), a Latina pilot assigned to escort to the science and anthropology unit, and Max Patel (Dileep Pao), an Indian scientist who works on the avatar project are part of the corporation before having a change of heart. There are also peripheral characters like the sergeant on Jake’s spaceship, a machine operator Jake encounters upon his arrival and several non-speaking extras who are Black, Latino and Asian. While the racial representation in the film is small, I nevertheless found it disconcerting that the person who complained about all the white people being bad did not notice that the bad people were not all white.
For me, watching those people of color eagerly fighting against the Na’vi as part of the mercenary army sparked a series of questions: what brought them to Pandora in the first place? Did they, like Jake, feel pressured by circumstances beyond their control? Were they thirsty to “fight terror with terror” like their commander? What is it that drives those who are ostracized, oppressed and “othered” in their own social system to ostracize, oppress and “other” those with whom they share the most in common?
In light of these lingering questions, Trudy’s decision to fight alongside the Omaticaya intrigued me. Despite not having personal experiences with the Na’vi, she recognizes the savagery of the acts committed against them, and acknowledges the disjunction between what she signed up to do and what her superiors were asking of her. What enables her to see the injustice when most of her peers do not and leads her to resist until the end? The film provides very little if any clues, but I like to think that her own social location as a woman and a person of color—as another kind of outsider—helped her finally relate to the Na’vi’s struggle and compelled her to take a stand.
To the critique that the film portrayed military and corporate personnel as people lacking substance and complexity, I would again respond with a yes—and a no. On one hand, characters like Colonel Miles Quaritch and businessman Parker Selfridge are motivated by nothing but bloodlust and greed respectively. They have no redeemable traits, making it easier for the audience to relish their comeuppance. Furthermore, the film does not provide meaningful back-story for any characters besides Jake and, to a lesser extent, Grace, making it unclear why they make certain choices.
On the other hand, what Avatar lacks in subtlety, it gains in accurately capturing the sordid history of colonization, domination and extermination of indigenous people in the U.S. and beyond. From the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to the present, European peoples and their descendants have forced indigenous communities like the fictional Omaticaya from their lands and oppressed them for personal and professional gain. Unfortunately, the blunt rhetoric used by the colonel and Parker echo the rhetoric used to justify oppression against pre-American native communities and the enslavement of millions of Africans and their descendants. In addition, some of the film’s dialogue includes direct quotes from the propaganda that fueled the march toward war against Iraq, demonstrating that violent language remains a part of our rhetoric. In this regard, Avatar does not need to go out of its way to make the military and corporate forces “look bad.” The distant and recent history upon which the film draws speaks for itself.
