The scene that I picked was the encounter with Jack and Neytiri meeting the large dragon. (youtube clip provided)
I decided to analyze this scene because I realized how human-like this particular situation was. The body movements and reactions were the same ones that are played in any horse movie. I feel like every time a person is trying to ride a horse for the first time the horse reacts crazy, the person tames the horse, and then the human and horse ride off in this intense ‘one with nature’ ride. First, the avatars are looking up at the dragon because it is much bigger than they are; similar to how humans have to look up at horses. Second, the dragon is making some grunting nose noises; similar to how horses grunt. Third, the dragon jumps out of the bushes with its large wings spread out; similar to how a horse will kick up its front two legs to gather authority and fear. Fourth, Neytiri speaks softly and offers a peace offering treat; similar to as a human would do for a horse with a carrot. Fifth, Neytiri touched the dragon’s nose and put together their ‘life-lines’; similar to how a human will pet a horse’s nose and make a connection. Neytiri jumps on the dragon just as if it was a horse, kicks his side, and off they go from the cliff. Then the music solidifies this human/animal connection with the soft music and the only sound you can hear is the dragon’s wings; similar to the sound of the horse running or just the person’s breathing.
My argument from this clip is that no matter what planet it is, there always has to be a dominant species. We, as humans, are able to relate to this movie because we are seeing ourselves taking over planet Earth with all variables replaced. For example, humans for Avatars, horses for dragons, and black and white skin for blue skin. It is as if we are watching our own bibliography in a much more entertaining fashion. Similar, the Maus series had all the characters changed from humans to mice, cats, and dogs so the events didn’t seem to real or intense in a comic book. The Avatar movie is going to change humans to blue Avatar creatures so the events don’t seem so directly real or boring. The last thing we want to do is watch another human history movie; let’s add some melodrama!
Also, when I was watching this scene I felt like I had seen this before. As it turns out, I have! I looked through the Pocahontas movie and realized I had basically seen the same scene between the Raccoon and John. The Raccoon is hiding in the bushes, attacks John when he gets close, and John makes a connection through a peace offering with cookies! The scenery is similar being on top of a cliff, near a large ‘tree of life’ that is at the end of the cliff, and the forest-like surroundings.
My argument for this intertextual connection between these two films is that all of these types of films have the same set scenes but with different characters and sometimes different settings. Like we talked in class, we have seen everything before; it is just placed into a different context. I thought these clips solidified this idea clearly. When I realized this connection it made me feel good because I was able to foresee the rest of my connections in a typical movie store line. I am able to predict what is going to happen and it gives me a sense of power that I know what is going to happen. We may be enjoying what is happening in this fantasy world that we are watching, but it does not pull us out of this reality world that we are in where we want control what is going to happen. With the story going through the same motions as most movies do, we are able to gain that control. So who gave us that control? Did we gain it because we figured out that these movies have the same plot line, or is there a group of movie people (similar to a group of news people) that create this control for us to find? Well, it is apparently working.
No comments:
Post a Comment