Critical analysis of the film Avatar (2009) in the light of intercultural communication. The film Avatar is a science fiction film written and directed by James Cameron, starring Sam Worthington, Zoë Saldaña, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, and Sigourney Weaver. Released by 20th Century Fox on December 2009, Avatar is really a successful movie in American which earned an estimated 27 million on its opening day and an estimated 77,025,481 domestically its opening weekend. Worldwide, the film grossed an estimated 232,180,000 its opening weekend, the ninth largest openingweekend gross of all time, and the largest for a nonfranchise, nonsequel and original film. It is also considered to be a frontrunner for awards and nominations at the 82nd Academy Awards. So far, it has been nominated to 4 Golden Globes, 2 of which it won: Best Director and Best Motion Picture (Drama).
Avatar_ Nguyen Phuong 11E20 Vietnam National University, Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies Faculty of English Teacher Education Class: 11E20 Full name: Nguyễn Thị Phương CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE FILM "AVATAR" IN THE LIGHT OF INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION Avatar_ Nguyen Phuong 11E20 The film "Avatar" is a science fiction film written and directed by James Cameron, starring Sam Worthington, Zoë Saldaña, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, and Sigourney Weaver Released by 20th Century Fox on December 2009, Avatar is really a successful movie in American which earned an estimated $27 million on its opening day and an estimated $77,025,481 domestically its opening weekend Worldwide, the film grossed an estimated $232,180,000 its opening weekend, the ninth largest opening-weekend gross of all time, and the largest for a non-franchise, non-sequel and original film It is also considered to be a front-runner for awards and nominations at the 82nd Academy Awards So far, it has been nominated to Golden Globes, of which it won: Best Director and Best Motion Picture (Drama) The film tells the story of Jake, former U.S Marine paralysed from the waist down in combat, and his fellows in Avatar Program in 2154 Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a due to wounds sustained in combat, is selected to participate in the Avatar Program which is planned by the Resources Development Administration(RDA), a non-governmental organization back on Earth controlling colony personnel and military The duty was previously filled by his identical twin brother Tom Sully, who was recently killed by a man attempting to rob him of his money Firstly, Jake meets Colonel Miles Quaritch, a hardened and seasoned military veteran in charge of security on the colony as well as Avatar_ Nguyen Phuong 11E20 welcoming the new personnel and military soldiers and briefing them on Pandora a place which is mostly covered with lush rainforests and wildlife, and is the home to the primitive Navi, a sentient race of tall, blue-skinned humanoids In this program, Dr Grace Augustine, a botanist, at the same time, the leader of the Avatar Program allows humans to control avatars genetically engineered human-Navi hybrids who look like Navi to approach them Previously, Grace and her team have made some remarkable progress teaching some Navi their ways and English as well as learning their language and culture by using the avatars Grace is not pleased with RDA administrator Parker Selfridge's decision to use Jake to replace his brother’s avatar position, as she will have to spend time training him in Navi culture as well as teaching him how to control his avatar However, Parker stresses that huge deposits on Pandora can enable them to find the extremely valuable mineral unobtanium At the same time, Quaritch makes Jake his informant to gather information on the Navi and their home, the Hometree with huge deposits of unobtanium deep below its surface He wants Jake to gain their trust and convince them to leave their home within three months After using avatar, Jake comes to Pandora and meets Greyti who then teaches her how to fit in Pandora Gradually, he falls in love with Greyti and people there He does not want to keep the plan and try in vain persuade RDA not to attack Navi with weapons After that, he together with some teammates (Grace and ) and Navi people fight against RDA and also failed Avatar_ Nguyen Phuong 11E20 as Quaritch makes him awake I chose Avatar for my final essay because of two reasons Firstly, the film implies such meaningful and profound messages about humanity for us human race The first lesson is that we should not take everything of others such as their homes or relatives for such things’ importance to them If we do, they will try to the last breath to fight against Furthermore, Pandora in the film is like a new place with a new culture that we need to learn how to “fit” ourselves into it before we want to anything like studying or working there Beside humanity messages, I can see clear evidences of some concepts in intercultural communication such as adaptation and belief which can help me gain better and deeper understanding about the subject The rest of the essay consists of three parts as follows Part is about adaptation and examples from the films The next part will continue with beliefs and also examples from the films Last but not least, there will be conclusions and implications from the film and two above concepts As we know that “adaptation is the process by which people establish and maintain relatively stable, helpful, and shared relationships with other upon relocating to an unfamiliar cultural setting” (Kim, 2001, p 31).This film clearly shows Jake’s adaptation process in Pandora for the assigned duty First and foremost, he has to use avatars that are genetically engineered human-Navi hybrids that look like the Navi to approach them Then he has to learn how to Avatar_ Nguyen Phuong 11E20 “fit” himself in Pandora The adaption process through the film is like three steps in the book Intercultural Communication: culture shock, U-curve and Wcurve At first, Jake experienced culture shock at the first time putting his first foot on Pandora He was curious and shocked at the features of the nature and was then strongly attacked as he did not listen to his friend’s advice no to should the animals Culture shock, one of the most powerful, practical, and productive concepts in the field of intercultural communication, is described as the physical, psychological, and behavioral reactions that often occur when individuals are attempting to live, work, or study in unfamiliar cultural contexts Culture shock remains a core concept within the fields of anthropology, psychology, and intercultural communication, and is almost universally referenced in orientation and re-entry training in both education abroad (Church 1982) and corporate contexts (Black and Mendenhall 1991) Also, in almost all the scenes, he was very curious and then surprised at everything especially the nature and what the Navi when being taught by Neytiri They are all extremely strange to him which made him unhappy However, gradually, with a positive attitude, he learned everything successfully This step is the typical sign of U-curve hypothesis by Lysgaard (1955): “Adjustment as a process over time seems to follow a U-shaped curve: adjustment is felt to be easy and successful to begin with; then follows a 'crisis' Avatar_ Nguyen Phuong 11E20 in which one feels less well adjusted, somewhat lonely and unhappy; finally one begins to feel better adjusted again, becoming more integrated into the foreign community.” (1955: 51) There are some scenes in which Jake came back the earth and felt unfamiliar with the life here as well as what he had taken for granted before that for a long time he had not practiced Such signs are called W-curved This is the phenomenon in which a second wave of culture shock so-called re-entry shock may occur when individual returns home and must readapt to the once taken-forgranted practices that can no longer be followed The adaption process of Jake is totally natural as theory I have learned so far which also is actually a real example for the theory The second concept strongly reflected in the film is “belief” Samovar and Porter (1997) pointed out that “Beliefs are the judgments we make about what is true or probable They are usually linked to objects or events that posses certain characteristics that we believe to be true with or without proof” In the film, when first meeting Jake- a Sky person, Neyriti intended kill him, but she did not when she saw some flowers flying around him, as she believed they are signs of Eywa- the guiding force and deity of Pandora and the Navi The Navi believe that Eywa acts to keep the ecosystem of Pandora in perfect equilibrium without needing any real evidence Navi people also believe in the Tree of Souls- a giant willow-like tree that is said to be the closest connection to Eywa on Pandora Avatar_ Nguyen Phuong 11E20 The tree is a point of extreme spiritual significance to the Navi, more so than any other point on Pandora They call it Tree of Souls because they believe that the "voices" of ancestors could be "heard" there through neural queue contact with the tree and the tree can be the witness for them when they choose their mates This, however, seems to be ridiculous for Quaritch and his staffs Although “Avatar” is only a science fiction film, it critically points out issues concerning important intercultural communication that actually happen in our global integration By comparing the two different society of American with a practical lifestyle, and the Navi society with strong spiritual life, we can see that there is nothing true or false, inferior or superior in considering each culture In general, intercultural communication still addresses many complicated issues and we need how to “fit” ourselves in others’ cultures and at the same respect their cultures Avatar_ Nguyen Phuong 11E20 References Church, Austin T 1982 “Sojourner Adjustment.” Psychological Bulletin 91, 3:540–572 Black, J Stewart, and Mark Mendenhall 1991 “The U-Curve Adjustment Hypothesis Revisited: A Review and Theoretical Framework.” Journal of International Business Studies 22, 2:225–247 Kim, Y Y (2001) Becoming Intercultural: An Integrative Theory of Communication and Cross-Cultural Adaption, 31, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Lysgaard, Sverre 1955 “Adjustment in a Foreign Society: Norwegian Fulbright Grantees Visiting the United States.” International Social Science Bulletin7:45–51 Samovar, L A., & Porter, R E (Eds.) (1997) Intercultural communication: A reader (eighth ed.) Belmont, Ca: Wadsworth Publishing Company ... Firstly, Jake meets Colonel Miles Quaritch, a hardened and seasoned military veteran in charge of security on the colony as well as Avatar_ Nguyen Phuong 11E20 welcoming the new personnel and military... evidences of some concepts in intercultural communication such as adaptation and belief which can help me gain better and deeper understanding about the subject The rest of the essay consists of three... cultural contexts Culture shock remains a core concept within the fields of anthropology, psychology, and intercultural communication, and is almost universally referenced in orientation and re-entry