| How does James Cameron top a movie like | | | | nature worship, but between caring for our |
| Titanic? Most directors would have died happy | | | | created world and not caring for it, respecting our |
| following the unprecedented success of the | | | | neighbours and not respecting them. Surely all |
| Leonardo di Caprio and Kate Winslett partnership | | | | right thinking Christians would align themselves |
| on the sinking ship. Not Cameron. He comes back | | | | with the former. The ethical drive behind Avatar |
| with the even bigger Avatar. Just as Titanic was | | | | is not to promote some kind of New Age |
| the ultimate love story movie, with love | | | | spiritualism, but to condemn the greed which |
| conquering the divide between the haves and the | | | | destroys the goodness of creation. Again love |
| have nots, so Avatar is the quintessential anti-war | | | | conquers all at the end, like Titanic, but in this |
| movie to end all war movies. Not only is it | | | | movie love also becomes the driver that |
| cinematically a breakthrough movie, with its 3D | | | | harnesses the positive energy of nature against |
| effects and stunning graphics, but its treatment | | | | the jarring modern technology of the invading |
| of colonialisation as a corollary of greed must put | | | | earth people. Happily, in movieland, nature can win, |
| the seal for good on "war for profit" initiatives in | | | | and we leave the theatre with a rosy glow. |
| the future. | | | | Reality is not quite so comforting, I fear. |
| Avatar is a brilliant evocation of the ethical | | | | The paradise setting, the tree of life, the fall from |
| dilemma that has plagued unscrupulous men in | | | | grace as a result of alien corruption, the gathering |
| power for centuries: how to disguise war as a | | | | for worship and prayer are all scriptural themes, |
| force for good, when more often than not it is a | | | | and James Cameron has managed to turn |
| force for self-enrichment. Whether the movie is | | | | profound and universal images into an edge of the |
| seen as a metaphor for the European colonisation | | | | seat adventure. The more we can attack |
| of native America, Vietnam or even the more | | | | power-mongering through brilliant art like this, the |
| recent war in Iraq, the question is the same; what | | | | greater will be the growth in consciousness among |
| right does one culture have to challenge another in | | | | ordinary people, which in the end is the only |
| the name of political or capital gain? | | | | defence we have. Great directors like Cameron |
| Surely the Vatican has nothing to fear from this | | | | deserve credit not just for entertaining us, but for |
| movie. The tree-hugging is not the main point. The | | | | showing us how things really work in life. |
| divide here is not between God worship and | | | | |