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Title: Jim Cameron eager to mix it up with 'Avatar's' right-wing critics
Source:
latimesblogs.latimes.com
URL Source: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/the ... p-with-right-wing-critics.html
Published: Feb 13, 2010
Author: Patrick Goldstein on the collision of en
Post Date: 2010-02-13 00:44:24 by Ferret Mike
Keywords: None
Views: 1976
Comments: 41
You can always tell that the Academy has sent out its final Oscar ballots by the sudden reappearance of gaudy full-page Oscar ads in the trades, my paper and the New York Times. It also means that most nominees, fearful of making a horrible gaffe, are especially careful not to say anything that could possibly be viewed as controversial in their interviews with the showbiz press. Except, of course, for Jim Cameron. He's on the cover of this week's The Envelope and he's clearly eager to mix it up with the multitudes of conservatives who've been trashing "Avatar," claiming that it's dumb, sanctimonious, anti-military, nuttily pro-environment and, as Big Hollywood's John Nolte memorably put it, a "Death Wish'' for leftists. Cameron isn't the sort of guy to take those brickbats lying down, even if means alienating a few Oscar voters, either because they agree with the conservative take on the film or prefer to vote for films that are free of any political leanings. As he told Glenn Whipp: "Let me put it this way. I'm happy to piss those guys off. I don't agree with their worldview." As for his detractors' contempt for his environmental consciousness, dramatized in the film by the callous destruction of the Na'vi's pastoral world, Cameron says that the film's environmental message is a lesson for all moviegoers to digest. He explains that our planet "will be a dying world if we don't make some fundamental changes about how we view ourselves and how we view wealth .... We're going to have to live with less." Cameron admits that many people will wonder what a fabulously wealthy filmmaker ensconced in a Malibu mansion knows about living with less, but he says that "I think there's a way to live and raise your kids with a set of values that teaches them the importance of hard work, the importance of respecting other people and the importance of respecting nature." Cameron says he did have second thoughts about using an explicit "shock and awe" Iraq war reference in the film, but he insists that it reflects a bigger point he was trying to make. "What I really was saying was, 'Listen to what your leaders are saying. Open your eyes. And understand what the run-up to war is like, so the next time it happens, you can question it." People have debated for years whether message-oriented films actually have an effect on filmgoers' consciousness. Seeing a movie is such an internalized, diffuse experience that it's hard to know how much of an influence it leaves behind. But I would say this: You could not have spent 150 minutes immersed in the world of "Avatar" without coming away with a new respect for how much we should treasure the natural resources of our world -- or any other. Poster Comment: I am in complete awe of this film. It is a movie that will revolutionaize the industry and bring people back to the theater. More importantly this fim maker is spot on with his message on culture, the need for more focus on the environment, and I completely resonate with it. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle lives, and the Na'vi and Pandora have captured my imagination and heart.
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 28.
#4. To: Ferret Mike (#0)
Who's "we?" It's difficult to decide who is worse, pompous Hollywood types or pompous Washington types.
Yeh - it really pisses me off that some Hollywood character would have the nerve to show a military force in anything but a glowing light. Those blue monkeys brought it on themselves. I mean, jeez, the militants even gassed them to give them a chance to leave their homes before they made the military bomb their homes. I'm with you on this one MC. That jerk Cameron outta be water bordered for his hateful views on the US and its military.
I apologize for causing you to have knee jerk reaction but I wasn't referring to his views on the Iraq war. I was simply pointing to his pompous statements about how "we" are going to have to learn to live with less. Do you really think any rich person, be they from Hollywood or D.C., is going to live with less? If you choose to respond, please respond to what I actually wrote, okay?
Yes. There needs to be recognition that the most foundational budget to recognize is the carrying load of this planet for human numbers and individual human needs. I would also say that material things are hardly the most important possessions of people. Enhancing intelligence and wisdom are far more important then the practice of compounding ignorant and the ability to be hateful and inhumane toward others.
Sounds like something out of that discredited book "The Population Bomb" by that discredited author Paul Ehrlich.
Fact: species are going extinct at an increasing rate. Fact: the human population has grown huge and the growth of population has not stopped. Fact: this cannot continue forever. If we do not stop population growth, mother nature, war, and other factors will do it for us in a disastrous fashion. I did not read that book. I do know it is not a new one and more recent works no doubt cover the bases it did better. You can live with the wool over your eyes; in fact the entire human race can. But we are walking blindfolded toward a steep cliff, and if we do not change our ways, we will go over it.
If we do not stop population growth, mother nature, war, and other factors will do it for us in a disastrous fashion. Better to have things happen naturally than to have a bunch of know it all, arrogant, paternalistic scum try to stop people from having children. What do you propose, a one child policy for the world? Never gonna happen! I did not read that book. I do know it is not a new one and more recent works no doubt cover the bases it did better. The book and its author have been discredited. All the doom and gloom he predicted in the book never came to pass. Anyone who believes in this crap about overpopulation should set an example by commiting suicide.
That is irresponsible thinking. We are responsible for our actions, such as irresponsibly increasing our numbers unchecked. Nobody expects the solutions to make people happy, but if you ran a hotel by leaving the doors open and letting fights, fire, murders, theft, and shear lack of room determine the occupancy of the building people would gage you a fool of a business owner. As far as discredited goes, you argue rate of growth. This is a weak position as the ecologically disastrous effect of too many humans who want to much in terms of material possessions is a fact. It is demonstrable and what is happening is measured and documented. As far as growth goes, a slower walk to the cliff with the wool over the eyes might be slower, but the results are the same when the camel's back finally breaks when the last straw hits it. Your argument is full of hole and irrational.
#29. To: Ferret Mike (#28)
We are responsible for our actions, such as irresponsibly increasing our numbers unchecked. You don't have the right to tell anyone not to have children. It's the worst kind of arrogance to think you do. As far as discredited goes, you argue rate of growth. Look up the predictions made in "The Population Bomb" and see for yourself. None of them have come true. For example, the book predicted mass starvation in 70's and 80's. It didn't happen. Most doom and gloom predictions don't happen especially the ones about the future!
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestHe explains that our planet "will be a dying world if we don't make some fundamental changes about how we view ourselves and how we view wealth .... We're going to have to live with less."
#5. To: Mister Clean (#4)
#6. To: tom007 (#5)
Yeh - it really pisses me off that some Hollywood character would have the nerve to show a military force in anything but a glowing light.
#21. To: Mister Clean (#6)
"Do you really think any rich person, be they from Hollywood or D.C., is going to live with less?"
#24. To: Ferret Mike (#21)
Yes. There needs to be recognition that the most foundational budget to recognize is the carrying load of this planet for human numbers and individual human needs.
#25. To: Mister Clean (#24)
#27. To: Ferret Mike (#25)
#28. To: Mister Clean (#27)
Replies to Comment # 28.
End Trace Mode for Comment # 28.