Two Movies One Message
After watching a couple of environmentally based films I have taken it upon myself to write a little essay on two movies I find particularly interesting and their aim to increase our awareness of our effect on the natural balance of the world in creative ways. One movie should be well known for most readers, as it was an extremely unique movie for its time of release and wowed viewers and critics alike. That movie in question is Avatar. Yes, the sci-fi fantasy movie set in another world. The other movie in question is less known and less marvellous from my opinion but very heavily addresses the human impact we make on the planet. This movie in particular is called Beasts of the southern wild, set on earth, in a place named bathtub which is overrun by floods.
The films show us an incredible display of nature, and how we use it to our advantage. How we can live in harmony with it but choose not to and exploit it for our resources, while others attempt to save ourselves from ourselves but are powerless. They show a great deal of powerful people who are blinded by greed, and people who are wise but hindered by their status, wealth, and strength. Avatar follows the experience of a retired and paralysed former Marine named Jake sully who received the opportunity to link with an Avatar (a manmade hybrid of the natives of the planet Pandora, and humans) in order to aid the scientists who were aiming to form a connection with the planets natives and establish trust between the two species. However, the people above the scientists are greedy for a natural resource which they will do anything to get to, destroying significant parts of the planet which are important to the natives. In a way Avatar depicts events that were aimed to be avoided but could not. Beasts of the Southern Wild shows the aftermath of a climate change ridden Earth. It tells the tale from the perspective of the people of Bathtub, who have lived off the land rather than on the land. They symbolise the way that we should have lived, in harmony with the land, whereas in one of the shots they show the distance smoking factories that have brought devastation to the land, but now living in the aftermath of a ruined Earth, life is much harder, especially for the poor.
This clip here from Avatar shows the destruction of a sacred tree in the Planet of Pandora. Further solidifying the fact that humans will go to any means necessary to obtain more power and wealth. The sacred tree seems to symbolise the balance of nature. By destroying it they disrupt the balance of nature, they open up the planet of Pandora. This is where it gets interesting. The planet is named Pandora for a reason, after Pandora’s box, a mythological Greek artifact which after opening releases curses of all kinds upon mankind. Putting this all together shows us how important the balance of nature is and that destroying one major part of it can ruin not just species who rely on certain conditions but us as well. Beasts of the Southern wild also shows this but relates it more to the current state of Earth. Climate change thaws out these mythical beasts that ravage the Earth as they charge across land and sea leaving destruction in their wake. For me this shows nature’s way of fighting back. By destroying nature, we anger it, and force it to fight back in ways that hurts itself and us.
In the end both these movies have the same message being shown. Whether it be Earth or Pandora, the message is clear, we are our own demise, manipulating the land for our own good is what brings about our downfall. Only by appreciating and respecting nature can we avoid the destruction of beautiful nature. Needless to say, I enjoyed both films, Avatar significantly more, but when focusing on the lessons these movies teach you learn a lot about the severity of human actions and I’m confident that movies like these benefit our society by providing entertainment and warning to us all.
We are our own demise if we choose to be so.