Reply #184: I read your link. The point is very well taken.

[howard112211]

For one I will have to reconsider whether I consider this movie entirely a "liberal" movie.

However, I think this is not all about race. This may be a somewhat "racial" movie but I think it is also a "geek" movie.

The people most likely to identify with the "blank slate character" in Avatar I would think are probably not necessarily people who have had many experiences with racial tensions.

I think people who will identify the most with the protagonist are those who feel lonely, alien and powerless among their OWN people.

The natives in this movie are not exactly a prototype of oppressed people. They may be threatened by the overwhelming destructive force of the "whites" in this movie but they are also powerful and superiour. Taller than humans, more attractive and exotic, stronger and wiser. The humans appear like bullhogs with machine guns in comparison.

I think the overall theme is more "breaking out of the machinery". Sure, the protagonist eventually becomes a leader. Point well taken. But is this any different from, say, "The neverending story"?

I see the theme of this movie less racial, and more something like: There is a world that is like a dream inhabited by beings that are like angels. The destructive machinery of the "real world" of ruthlessness threatens to destroy this place. The main character, who is weak an broken himself, finds courage to face up to the evils of the world around him and eventually finds peace.

I think the people who this rings most with are not the ones who have alot of "white guilt" in them. I think the people this
rings with are the ones who feel weak and have a slight tendency towards narcissm. The same people who identified with Luke Skywalker and wished they could take on the empire all by themselves.