James Cameron makes messages movies these days, and he has no qualms admitting it.
The “Aliens” director told the L.A. Times that back in 2010, weeks after his sci-fi epic “Avatar” conquered the box office. The film extolled the beauty of Mother Nature, cursing those eager to plunder its resources.
The film’s messages drew conservative angst on several fronts, something which tickled the Oscar-winner. The film, according to select conservative outlets, delivered an anti-American, anti-human message.
“I’m happy to piss those guys off. I don’t agree with their world view,” he told the far-Left newspaper following right-leaning critiques of “Avatar’s” agenda.
Cameron disagreed with naysayers, but anyone watching the original film or “Avatar: The Way of Water” will see the human race depicted in the worst possible manner. And they’re all speaking English with colloquialisms you wouldn’t hear from English or Canadian characters.
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Conservatives have softened their attacks on Cameron’s franchise following “Water’s” release.
Why?
The film is a full-on advertisement for strong, nuclear families. That message got little attention in the press, and Cameron didn’t elaborate on it during various press interviews.
Now, it’s the Left that’s attacking Cameron, and it’s unclear how he’s taking the barbs from his own side.
James Cameron is facing the wrath of so-called activists who are accusing the director of “cultural appropriation” in his new blockbuster, “Avatar: The Way of Water.”https://t.co/WPeT1sKkjU
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) December 22, 2022
In recent weeks animal rights activists scorched Cameron for attending an “Avatar”-themed dolphin event featuring the aquatic creatures performing for the public. Cameron apologized to his critics, contending he didn’t know what was planned for the event.
Native American activists vowed to boycott “The Way of Water” for so-called cultural appropriation.
Even when Cameron attempted the ultimate virtue signal over gun violence he caught heat. The director said he snipped out 10 minutes of what he considered gratuitous gunplay from “The Way of Water” because real-world gun violence is so upsetting.
He also apologized for his older, classic films like the “Terminator” franchise which featured extensive gun violence.
“I look back on some films that I’ve made, and I don’t know if I would want to make that film now. I don’t know if I would want to fetishize the gun, like I did on a couple of Terminator movies 30-plus years ago, in our current world. What’s happening with guns in our society turns my stomach … I’m happy to be living in New Zealand where they just banned all assault rifles two weeks after that horrific mosque shooting a couple of years ago.”
Enter Gizmodo, which blasted Cameron from the Left on that stance. The outlet called the director “self-righteous” and noted how much gun violence remains in “The Way of Water.”
Jake Sully, a former marine, and one of the main characters of the Avatar franchise, is a character who notoriously loves a gun. When the rest of the Na’vi are reaching for bows and arrows, Jake’s hiking an AR onto his shoulder and aiming it at the nearest target…Later, Jake even explains to the Metkayina people that human technology, aka guns, will wipe them out easily. (Which is probably why Jake almost exclusively uses a gun during the big whale battle, so he has a fighting chance.) If Cameron really wanted to avoid fetishizing guns, maybe they shouldn’t have been such a huge symbol of power.
The irony?
Cancel Culture and the woke revolution didn’t exist in 2009. It does now, though, and its proponents don’t stop with critiquing art – always a fair and respectable process. They often want it censored or punished so aggressively the artist will think twice before creating similar art again.
Take your poison. Censorship or self-censorship.
Conservatives would be the first ones to defend Cameron’s right to tell his story, his way. They may critique his motives and agenda, but their barbs aren’t meant to silence the filmmaker.
Can all of Cameron’s progressive critics say the same?
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