James Cameron’s Avatar Review: Environmental And Social Context In The Movie

Disney’s Pocahontas Plot synopsis

A world deprived of its natural resources and overpopulation, the first idea is to expand Earth's horizons and build out into the far beyond into the deeps of space. The story follows a wheelchair-bound male named Jake Sully whose life has taken the turn for the worst. His brother had recently returned to Earth after being sent off to a distant planet to communicate with the people of the land, the Na’vi. Later after returning to Earth, he was robbed and murdered.

This news was later told to Jake Sully who had just been thrown out after a bar fight. He was taken to his dead brother who had been placed into a cremator and then torched alive. Jake later was offered a job to fill the missing place job place of his deceased brother and he accepted. He would end up joining a research team to study the Na’vi while magically transported into a new body if the Na’vi species.

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He would gain their trust and slowly become one of their own while secretly siding with humanity’s army to cause the destruction of the Na’vi and set up mining outposts for the newly found Unobtanium.

Jake Sully would later change his mind about the idea of wiping out the Na’vi for the greed of Humanity after falling in love with Neytiri, one of the Na’vi. This greed would help Jake and his team with the Na’vi defeats the Human army.

The time colonial exploration is upon the world in the seventeenth century. English soldiers had just discovered gold and other valuables in the Mayan empire. Captain John Smith was one of the crew to hop on the idea of exploring unknown areas in search of gold and wealth. After joining a crew heading to this ‘new world’ they are met with a storm which sends an inexperienced crew member overboard in which he is saved by Cpt Smith. Once they reach the ‘new world’ they start the clearing of the forest to build a settlement now known as Jamestown. While building their small settlement, Cpt Smith heads out into the forest to explore and discover the whereabouts of either the Injuns (indigenous natives of America) or the wealth of the land.

While rummaging around the forest, he comes across a female native of the Powhatan tribe who is known as Pocahontas. He at first thought of her has a savage who is to be killed but starts to fall deeply in love at sight and starts seeing the Injuns as normal functional human beings. He follows her to grandma willow and comes about with the plans of peace between the soldiers and tribal warriors. This plan fails after the death of one of the tribal warriors and starts a small-scale war between the two foes. This is interrupted by Pocahontas at the last second before Cpt Smiths execution, preventing the war between them to start. This ends with the English soldiers leaving the Powhatan tribe in peace and heading back to England, without any wealth. Historical Context The film is set 150 years into the future but follows the repartition of history with the greed of humanity overcoming normal injustice. This was shown but the hunting down of the Na'vi which represents the tribal countries of Earth and the hunters which were humanity, representing the greed of countries with higher technology. This film is based on a real-life event in which English soldiers invade the ‘new world' in search of gold and wealth even if it means the killing of tribes or a whole race. This ended up being the case and the Injun's population were drastically decreased. This ‘new world' later became the United States of America after a few wars and is now one of the largest countries in the world.

Environmental Context

The greed and expansion of humanity took over Earth and wiping out all or most of the natural resources on humanity’s home planet; Earth. The English soldiers would destroy an entire forest and wipe out a tribal village just to obtain wealth or fame. Throwing out all human rights or thought would kill other humans for materials people find of value.

Social Context

Within the Human army, there were ranking officers who could call orders or dismiss people without their opinion, but with the Na'vi, there was a sense of belonging amongst the people of the tribe. For the Powhatan tribe, there was a community that you would be able to feel at home and not be scared to recommend an idea to the tribal leader. With the English soldiers, there was an idea for top dog and the feeling of not having the freedom to speak. Cultural Context A life that begins as a fight for survival gives you the idea of becoming the richest and strongest person you can before your life is up. This comes from the poor choices and the greed that has devastated the environment of earth before most of humanity was born. For the Na’vi, life was easier but just as hard is ways. People could be free to harvest natural resources and were connected to the land in magical ways. With growing up around people who saw wealth as a way of life and been up in the ranking of society; people in England desired gold and wealth. This helped seeing discrimination as a fine thing to do against others of a different skin colour or different race. For the tribal society, they believed in ghosts and after seeing white skin, they thought that were ghosts because of the society they grew up in.

Audience positioning

The audience for Avatar was considered for teenagers or young adults who were finding life a struggle. The film shows that life is to be taken slowly and enjoying every moment of it that you possibly can. The main audience for Pocahontas was children who lived in America and were wondering how the place they lived in came around or history enthusiasts who wanted to learn a quick and simple explanation of how the United States of America came to be. Ideas and issues explored In a society that saw people who were of different races or skin colour as different or savages; it is expected to reoccur in the history of humanity. This discrimination is just for a bit of wealth and fame but they lose all common sense or human morals just to obtain this. Love, the way that people who have never meet before or feeling miles apart can be brought together and feel connected. This appears in Pocahontas with the love between Pocahontas herself and Cpt John Smith.