Fellow blogger Joel Davis tackles the question head on in his blog U.S. Role in the World: “For our focus on the U.S. role, I think the real question is, did the director intend to depict Americans? Having seen the film, I’d say the answer to that question is yes.”
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Davis has a point but is being perhaps a bit too sensitive. The fact that an Australian actor was asked to use an American accent in the film is telling, to say the least.
But he reads too much into it.
Why did all of the bad guys in “Avatar” have American accents? Who knows? Why in many Hollywood movies did Romans have British accents? Was casting British actors in Roman roles a commentary on empire?
Davis continues: “The director is not showing us an international cast, it’s all Americans. Still, this is a complicated movie, it’s not a one-sided portrayal of rampaging Americans, it’s not the My Lai massacre in space. Several of the ex-military and civilian personnel and shown to defect from the corporate agenda and in the end, they Do The Right Thing. Given that, I have no qualms about recommending this movie and suggest that an alternate tile for this film would be ‘Avatar: Brave Marine Saves Natives from Greedy Mining Company.'”
Davis’ blog can be found here.
See “Avatar.” You won’t be disappointed.
Murphy can be reached at: [email protected]
