Analyzing John Rieder's Analysis Of The Film Avatar
This essay evaluates John Rieder’s analysis of the science fiction film Avatar in his article “Race and revenge fantasies in Avatar, District 9, and Inglorious Basterds.” Avatar is set in an alien world called Pandora with the protagonist being a disabled former marine named Jake Sully. Although he is bound to being in a wheelchair, Jake’s combative character lands him among the indigenous blue Na’vi inhabitants of the planet. Initially, Jake is recruited for a mission to extract a mineral that’s worth $20 billion per kilogram on Earth from Pandora. Since the highly evolved world is poisonous to humans, the only way to access it is through the use of technology. The system used to enter Pandora connects a person’s conscience to a hybrid body
…show more content…
Investing more thought into feminism would have made a creative argument to support his thesis of racial scapegoating by illustrating the relationship between feminism, patriarchal colonialism, and the authoritarian characterization of white men. Conversely, the lack of attention dedicated to feminism gives rise to the points made about the designated power roles of white men in scientific films, with Avatar being the perfect example of this. Most of the time John Rieder’s diction was successful in conveying a clear and central argument. However, pertaining to feminism, he confuses his argument through the poor use of one specific word. When Rieder touches on hyper-masculinity, he says “Avatar panders to feminism by having the Na’Vi princess Neytiri kill Quaritch,” (Rieder, 52). By using the word “pander,” he makes his argument less accessible by implying that the film does not actually address the demand to be respected within the lines of feminism. Furthermore, an aspect that could have been helpful to his argument and applies to the film Avatar would be how love serves as a distraction to the audience, influencing them to overlook racial scapegoating. Essentially, the use of pathos is manipulated to promote passion and affection but eclipse social
Investing more thought into feminism would have made a creative argument to support his thesis of racial scapegoating by illustrating the relationship between feminism, patriarchal colonialism, and the authoritarian characterization of white men. Conversely, the lack of attention dedicated to feminism gives rise to the points made about the designated power roles of white men in scientific films, with Avatar being the perfect example of this. Most of the time John Rieder’s diction was successful in conveying a clear and central argument. However, pertaining to feminism, he confuses his argument through the poor use of one specific word. When Rieder touches on hyper-masculinity, he says “Avatar panders to feminism by having the Na’Vi princess Neytiri kill Quaritch,” (Rieder, 52). By using the word “pander,” he makes his argument less accessible by implying that the film does not actually address the demand to be respected within the lines of feminism. Furthermore, an aspect that could have been helpful to his argument and applies to the film Avatar would be how love serves as a distraction to the audience, influencing them to overlook racial scapegoating. Essentially, the use of pathos is manipulated to promote passion and affection but eclipse social