As of last week, my friend Rachel had already seen the smash hit movie “Avatar” five times. Once she brought her 85-year-old father. Her fears that he might not like it proved altogether unwarranted.
So count Rachel among those providing the more than two billion dollars that Avatar has grossed worldwide. She has joined millions of other viewers in adding to director/producer James Cameron’s huge pot of gold. Monetarily, if not artistically, he has build on his earlier blockbuster, “Titanic”.
By contrast with avid fans like Rachel, I was able until recently to contain any desire to see the film. Science-fiction books and movies have never gained entrance to my circle of favorites. Besides, no movie could justify the hype this one was getting, some of it from fairly sober types.
But last week I broke down and, with a friend, went to discover what all the commotion was about.
My real reason for giving in and going to see Avatar was to stay in touch with popular culture. If our minds are to stay lively in later life, we need to maintain contact with the spirit of the times. I consider this part of my continuing educational agenda.
That does not mean always wanting to see everything that is highly touted. Even the cleverest new sitcoms, for example, usually leave me unmoved. And, although I have seen wonderful new plays in recent years, I have little enthusiasm for theatrical experiments.
Still, it remains important for me to find out what younger generations of artists are saying to our society. And, by this stage of my life, these generations include everybody under eighty.
My Avatar experience was novel from the very beginning: at the entrance to the theater I was given 3D eyeglasses. I knew that such glasses existed in the long- ago era of 3D horror movies, but this was the first time I had ever worn them myself.
The glasses were not strictly necessary; my friend and I could have watched the film without them. However, they made it possible for the director to achieve greater depth of vision and to get certain objects on the screen to come at us. It was eerie to see various flying things heading my way with uncertain effect.
About Avatar as a whole I felt both enthusiastic and disappointed. The visual effects were indeed splendid, beyond anything I had ever seen before. A fantastic new world was startlingly displayed before us.
We saw imagined animals, some of them terribly fierce looking, coming through thick forests. Huge mountains and swathes of lush vegetation were displayed in dynamic and fast-moving shots.
This new world is peopled by tall blue women and men with fantastic painted faces and tails. They live on the planet Pandora in the year 2154. Their noble lives, closely aligned with nature, are in mortal danger, however. An American corporation mobilizes heavily armed mercenaries to recover the mineral “unobtainium” in order to save the now-depleted earth.
Critics of all sorts have responded to Avatar with everything from worshipful praise to condemnation of what they see as liberal propaganda. For a well-balanced view that I find persuasive, I have benefited from the analysis of a friend, Howard Turner.
Born in 1918, Howard has had a long and productive career as a maker of documentary, educational, and training films. So he brings a practiced eye to his evaluation of movies.
About Avatar he says: “Technically it is magnificent.” He stands in firm admiration of the film’s visual qualities.
However, he regards the other aspects of this movie as “pretentious” and “corny.” In his view, the film “is not acted at all. Besides, it goes on and on and it’s violent”
I too found the length, 162 minutes, excessive. To endure that stretch of time you need more of what the Germans call sitzfleisch than I can call upon.
Another discerning friend, Michael, calls Avatar “the most spectacular film I had ever seen.” He felt “profoundly affected and held.” He too was unenthusiastic about the plot and other features of the film but he still values it for displaying “a whole new way of being entertained.”
By itself visual splendor in a film does not often satisfy me. Beyond that, I require genuine human beings and convincing interaction between and among them. No matter how beautiful the scenery, I need more for a rewarding esthetic experience.
Avatar has had a modest impact on my imaginative life. It will take its place among the flawed films that nonetheless retain some considerable value. However, it demonstrates once more that, no matter how dazzling the technology, you can’t do without real people.
My hope is that future films will be able to combine technological wizardry and human presence. Meanwhile, I plan to keep learning from the myriad and entertaining forms of popular culture.