Avatar: An American Film?

In my last Turkish class, each person’s opinion of the new film Avatar was an important topic. Most students liked it, but one student from Germany felt differently. First mentioning that the film was too cliché, he then stated, “These Americans always think that aliens live just a universe away and they walk and talk just like we do.” His tone was obliviously contemptuous, and my eyes instinctively narrowed as I turned my head to see him. He had in one sentence negatively stereotyped Americans and made what was in my view a poor film analysis—not an easily revocable combination.

Admittedly, Avatar is a (mostly) typical American film full of Hollywood clichés, but this student’s comment was highly flawed for several reasons.

First, American movies about aliens do not always presume that they walk and talk like humans do. In the Alien films, the acid-filled, double-mouthed frighteners do not resemble humans at all. In the Predator franchise, the antagonist is bipedal with the same basic skeletal structure, but he’s not much of a talker. Independence Day is a very American film in some unfortunate ways, but the aliens do not walk and talk like humans. And in Steven Spielberg’s career, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, and A.I. Artificial Intelligence all featured aliens walking on two legs, but none of them communicated like humans do.

Of course, you can find some films that support my classmate’s argument, such as 1955’s The Day the Earth Stood Still. In that film one alien looks entirely human while the other is a human-like robot. But in 1955 limited make-up and visual effects left filmmakers with few options better than humanoid aliens. I think the same excuse can be made for the various races in the Star Trek franchise and the Planet of the Apes series.

But even James Cameron’s own films do not reflect this stereotype. 1986’s Aliens I’ve already discussed, and 1989’s The Abyss featured aliens that looked more like sting-rays. Finally, American director Stanley Kubrick made what is probably the best film that includes aliens with 2001: A Space Odyssey. Importantly, he never even shows the aliens to the audience. The idea that Americans always represent aliens in any particular way is simply incorrect.

Second, there aren’t really international films about aliens that we can compare with American ones. My classmate seems to suggest science-fiction films made by non-Americans would be more intelligent. This may be the case, but there isn’t evidence to support it; movies about aliens usually require large budgets, and large budget movies come from Hollywood.

Moreover, the purposes of storytelling necessitate aliens that can communicate and walk. An alien without legs can’t chase the good guys, and an alien that cannot speak is a little bland for most two-hour movies. If you asked James Cameron what he thinks aliens most likely look like, he probably wouldn’t produce the blue, nine-foot tall Na’vi, but he’s making a $230 million movie for people around the world to see, so he needs some common denominators—like two legs, two arms, and speech abilities.

Finally, Avatar is not simply an American film. First of all, James Cameron is Canadian. The film’s main production company, Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation, is owned by Australian Rupert Murdoch, and one of the film’s other four production companies is based in London, which is also where one of its two premiers was held (the other was in Hollywood). And Avatar wasn't only made by an international team, but for a global audience. It was released around the world on the same day, meaning I could have watched it in Istanbul nine hours earlier than any of my friends in Phoenix, Arizona. So far, 64% of Avatar’s gross has come from outside of the United States. If in fact “these Americans” do make silly films in which aliens walk and talk like humans, we do it with international help and global customers.

Importantly, there are reasons to criticize Avatar—I would start with the familiarity of its plot. But show me the German, or Chinese, or Indian film that treats alien-life more intelligently. I think my classmate fell into a cliché of criticizing Americans and our movies as being monolithically stupid. But in my view, criticizing Avatar for being too American and subsequently dismissing all American science-fiction is poor etiquette and worse film analysis.

Danke.