One of the most monumental scenes in Avatar was the Destruction of the Hometree. The scene carries immense emotional weight, as well as some absolutely stunning visual effects. How does this scene move us? How does it make these giant blue people feel real to us? And what was the message of the scene?
The use of extreme long shots in this clip is used to capture the extent of what is going on, and create an enormous sense of awe and spectacle. Look at :38 in the video. The viewer is placed far away from even the helicopters, and then taking up the entire background is the Hometree, burning. This is a spectacle. Something people gather around to see, they may not understand everything that happened before, or after, but this grand scale of destruction invokes an emotional response. This kind of extreme long shot is seen again at 1:28 as the tree is falling. The sheer size of the tree falling, the huge fire burning, the giant shards of wood falling, and rockets and missiles being fired give us all a sense of danger. Danger leads to fear, and when we realize how frightened we would be in a situation like this, it leads to pity for the Navi.
We all know the Navi aren't real, there is no getting around that. But emotions are always real. When we see reactions to this violence, it only heightens those emotions. While the cries of the Navi are gut-wrenching, the human reactions have more potential to move us. The human characters who share the viewers' emotions feel more real, and bridge the gap between fantasy and reality. In the beginning, the female pilot can't bear to do the job, and flies away. We can relate to her. We get to see the researchers with Sigourney Weaver in slow motion, screaming "Murderers!" It's what we all want to scream. What really bridges the gap, makes it feel real, is how the characters who are the most upset by this (those that have Avatars to dive into) are being pulled out of the fantasy, CGI world, and back into a human world. It is still fanatasy, it is filled with caricatures of personality types, it is in the future, but it is still a human world. We are pulled out of the forest with them, out of the same fantasy world that they take a part in, and therefore feel their same emotions.
What is the message? I'd say that it isn't necessary to be a part of a culture to feel for them. Take a look at the reactions at 4:15. Even the corporate man, the one after all the Unobtainium, is having this emotional reaction. He has distanced himself from the Navi, he doesn't care about them. But he even feels the emotion carried by the shot of the tree being destroyed. He is probably seeing a similar feed that we see when we see the extreme long shots of the tree and the helicopters. Even the military leader at :46 has a look of fear and awe at the spectacle. There are some images that will send the same message to everyone from any background, whether it changes them or not.
I think this clip does a great job of representing loss. How empty do you think the Na'vi feel after what they just witnessed? Cameron does a great job of setting up how important "Mother Earth" is to the Na'vi. As you said, I do feel pity for the Na'vi because they lost something so incredibly important to their people. It works on me in that I want to console them and be compassionate toward them even though they don't really exist. Would we feel the same way to Iraqis if we destroyed one of their mosques? What does it take to close the disconnect between reality and reality because this works pretty well in making me sympathize with a fantasy people.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a really interesting scene. The music in this scene first off really exemplifies what is going on in the scene. Especially the music after the tree has fallen. After the tree has fallen the music is really solemn and reminds me of being at a funeral. This makes sense because the "death" of the tree is being mourned. This scene works on me. I feel sorry for the Navi and actually feel hatred towards the white people, interestingly enough I think this scene is doing work on which side your on and I think it is transforming you to a Navi just like Jake was transformed. It is helping you pick which side your on by showing the Navi's crying and screaming out. Besides this I found it interesting that the only person in the movie that didn't look to be affected by the try falling except in the sense of success was the military leader, everyone else in the movie couldn't watch this without there heartstrings being pulled.
ReplyDeleteEven if this was the other way around (the Navi destroying the human's land), I think it would be enough for anyone to feel some pity. The Hometree was everything to the Navi people. It was also everything they had. I thought it was interesting how the colonel acted while they were shooting it down. He was sitting there with a pleased look on his face drinking something. He seemed so calm and at ease, even though he was destroying a whole population's home. I feel as though James Cameron almost made it look like this always how military figures act. They want to see the destruction of their enemies, when in reality they have done nothing wrong. They are going into the Navi's land because of something THEY want. They sent Jake Sully, someone who loves the Navi, to try to move them from Hometree instead of doing so themselves. It makes humans look selfish and solidifies the fact that we will do anything to get what we want.
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