Sunday, November 13, 2011

Funding the Avatar Project: the Corporate Dogs

As fantastic and amazing as the native world created in Avatar is, I chose to focus on the "real world" aspect of the film. I feel the critics and viewers of the film can analyze the native world to its death, but they don't even bother to take a second glance at what the movie portrays as the real world operations. It is here the majority of critics fall into the trap of hegemony because we see the real world of the movie as unbiased and not needed to be critically analyzed because it "seems normal." Yes, the characters are quite strong and at some points over the top, but the everyday message and structure of the corporate and science work world is so "natural" to the viewer, it is mistaken as the truth.

The section I chose was starting at the point where Dr. Grace Augustine storms out of the lab saying, "This is bullshit. I'm going to kick his corporate butt." Wearing a white lab coat (screaming expert scientist), she is steamed up and ready for a confrontation.

The scene switches to show other aspect of the plant: the corporate world where people wear ties, dress pants, and certainly not white lab coats. These symbols automatically tell the viewer what type of people they are and what to think about them; hardworking (as seen by the complicated half dome-like screens and a woman giving directions to someone being "clear for South departure"), analytical (as seen by the two men in ties discussing a map of the native world), and the typical corporate team workers led under one main boss (as seen in the tables of employees all working together as the boss plays golf). And here I'd like to elaborate. The main boss, Parker Selfridge, is seen playing golf in one of the all too typical office putting greens meant for corner bosses who work too hard to get out of the office and play golf but still are high class enough to know the game and work at it to improve. He is framed in the midst of a room of hard-working subordinates doing complicated calculations and decision making. Instead of having any interest in actual work, he distracts a worker by drawing the attention to himself and his worker addressing him as "sir." As Dr. Augustine walks to his section, you hear the voice of Parker saying "I love this putter" which shows just how out of touch with the overall vision of the project he is and framing him as the "bad guy" that cares more about the bottom line than the mission.

Dr. Augustine and Parker Selfridge banter back and forth with Dr. Augustine coming across as the brutally pushy woman in authority. Just listening to the pushy, upset voice makes us remember all the bad "wife jokes" we've heard. It is so common for us to view any woman in authority as brass and demanding that we don't think twice that perhaps she needs to be more collaborative or approach this conflict in a different way. Even when she deliberately pushes the coffee cup which Parker is putting into out of the way, we as the viewer don't blame her for it because that's something that archetype does.

Progressing in the argument, Parker Selfridge acts like the typical out of touch corporate boss who would rather take aggressive action ("yeah, that happens when you use machine guns on them") than spend money on schools to teach English and waste years earning the native's trust. At this time he is distractedly examining the 3D map as if to say Dr. Augustine doesn't deserve his whole attention and that what he has to do (although he has been perfectly putting it off paying golf) is more important than any issue a "science" person has.

Parker leads Dr. Augustine into his office muttering under his breath about how he can't take these science people anymore and the scene cuts to a piece of the precious metal. "This little grey rock sells for 20 million a kilo" is the line recited by Parker which, again, frames him as the corporate man obsessed with making money. All he cares about is how much can be made and his care of additional scientific knowledge is small. The shot is close in this moment to crop just his expressions on his face and the rock he is holding up, as if to emphasize the importance of what the final mission is. The audience is put off by his forward statements and obvious obsession with making money.

One last point I'd like to dissect is that Parker says to Dr. Augustine "It's what pays for your science." This line does a fabulous job summarizing how the world works (read the bad men think only in terms of money) and that any scientist person wanting to explore the world just for the sake of learning isn't going to be able to unless it has monetary gain. Sadly, this is mostly true as the main incentive for most corporations is to make profit.

So much can be critically analyzed from the larger than life characters of Avatar going about their daily work. The main message is that corporate men are bad, women in power are pushy, and the only way things get done in our world is for monetary gain. This harsh reality then compared to the world of the Avatars acts as a foil which shows the extremes of both worlds. I feel the overall message of the film is that we, as humans on Earth, are bad and need more of the Avatar "be connected and content with nature" in our daily lives.

Okay. All done. Sorry this is extremely long.

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