Saturday, November 12, 2011
Conflicted
"Everything is backwards now." Jake says this about 76 minutes into the film. Up to this point he has been collecting information to report back to the Colonel to use in obtaining Unobtainium. Jake has been spending every possible moment escaping his reality and going into his fantasy world in his Na'vi body and begins to "go native". His confliction arises when he begins to see the Na'vi as humanoids instead of animals by spending all his time in their "world" learning their culture, language, and customs. As his perspective shifts on his mission of gathering information and reporting it Jake is made to look depressed and conflicted. He has grown a beard from lack of taking care of his human body and his demeanor is slumped forward in his wheelchair. He lives in a very dark environment with hardly any background noise. The music playing in the background in this scene is a single violin playing very sad, slow music as if the violin is weeping with depression. This gives the impression that he is alone with his thoughts and possibly even lonely when outside of the Na'vi world. This loneliness is a perfect representation of the emotions Jake is dealing with concerning the upcoming decisions he has to make. I sympathize with Jake and understand the amount of weight a stressful decision can put on oneself. Does he complete his mission and go back to Earth where he is promised to get his legs back, or does he enter the Na'vi world where he has worked to be accepted and feels apart of something again that he was lacking since becoming a paraplegic and most likely being medically retired from the Marine Corps. So not only is Jake missing the camaraderie and esprit de Corps that the Marines offered him, he does not have anything to return to. So why go back? Why continue the mission? With so much upside presenting itself to Jake through the Na'vi including physical capabilities that even a non paraplegic would be envious of, his confliction is terribly depressing and sad. Having this opportunity must be a miracle for him since his reality up to this point has been in a wheelchair. With the amount of stress his pending decision is having on him, and continuing with the "White Messiah" mode, I'm surprised Cameron didn't push the envelope and show Jake sweating blood over his decision to really nail down how conflicted Jake has become. I want so badly for Jake to choose the Na'vi body, escapes his depressing reality and live the fantasy life I want.
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I find this really interesting because while watching the movie you are almost waiting for this scene, waiting for the time when Jake chooses whose side to be on. I remember thinking while I was watching the movie that he would choose that native population not necessarily because they were better then the white population but because staying with the native population allowed him one valuable thing.. the ability to walk. Throughout the movie you start to realize that there are many other reasons why Jake would choose to quit the mission and stay with the Navi's. Overall this mission doesn't seem to just be about his legs because it seems like he would get them either way but it becomes more about love and happiness and this has a bigger influence on his decision in my mind. I think that in this scene reality and fantasy are bridged because you see Jake come back as white man and you see him being aged. This aspect of time passing and his features changing really makes you believe this is possible.
ReplyDeleteWhat I think is interesting here is that not only does he find this new Na'vi world more appealing and fun. He has suddenly taken a turn in the opposite direction from enemy to friend. Jake can no longer see them as the people he is looking to attack, he wants to be a part of their world and be accepted by the Na'vi people. It is always interesting to me to see people suddenly have a change of heart especially in a movie like this where the fantasy life is so captivating that you know he feels he has no other option.
ReplyDeleteIt really seems that there was only one option for Jake and that was with the Na'vi for the movie to continue. It would have been a horrible ending if Jake would have finished gathering information on the Na'vi and traveled back to earth. Seeing the movie mostly from Jake's point of view, we end up rooting for him to join the Na'vi and make the "right" decision.
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