Avatar, revealing what we try so hard to deny; An Amarican Palestinian's take on the movie.

Rating: 9/10 (12 January 2010)

I was watching Avatar when Selfridge said "This is why we're here, because this little gray rock sells for twenty million a kilo" and latter Jake talks about how we turn innocents into terrorists when they have something we want, to give ourselves an excuse to fight them, and I look at my friend and say "so many movies have talked about that same exact thing, how can people still not know the truth, or at least doubt it?". Avatar may be a fictional fantasized movie but it mentions a reality as real as anything else.
In Avatar, the humans are manipulated by their leaders into fighting the Na'vis, thinking they are fighting terrorists, because the Na'vis' village lies on the riches deposit of the valuable stones the humans want. They forget that Pandora is the Na'vis' home and that they're the invaders. Though the Na'vis are overpowered by the humans' advance technology and warfare they show great bravery by standing up to defend what is rightfully theirs; they fight gunship with bows and arrows under Jake's inspiring words "They've sent us a message that they can take whatever they want. Well, we will send them a message, that this is our land!". As I watched the humans destroy Pandora and then the Na'vis kill the humans, I couldn't help feeling sorry for both. Both sides were victims, both didn't deserve their fate. The Na'vis were left no other choice, they had to fight and kill the humans before they themselves were destroyed and the humans were manipulated by their leaders into thinking they were doing a patriotic act, into believing they were fighting evil. Innocent men, human beings lost their lives in vein, killing innocent Men, Woman, Children and destroying their home land.
The reason I personally love this movie is that it hits so close to home, and inside it I see the real world portrayed in symbolic characters for those who refuse to see it in reality. American Men and women; fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers, and sisters were manipulated into fighting in Iraq, they were told that they were fighting terror and freeing an oppressed people. Those patriotic soldiers believed their leaders and fought Iraqis in Iraq, killing the people and destroying the country. Today, the real aims of that war are clear and it is evident that the main purpose was oil and natural resources. It's like this in many places around the world. Always, leaders of powerful nations find riches; land, oil, gas, gold..etc, in weaker countries and send their soldiers to fight for it, those men go proudly under the delusion that they are patriots fighting terror. And always, innocents on both sides are killed.
In Avatar Jake says, "all I ever wanted was a battle worth fighting for", and then he finds one when he takes the Na'vis side in fighting the humans. It's ironic how we can relate to Jake, how we understand that the Na'vis' battle was one worth fighting for because they were fighting the foreign occupier of their land yet, we can call the Na'vis of the real world; the Iraqis, Palestinians, Lebanese and the others oppressed, terrorists when they do exactly the same thing as Jake and his Na'vi friends.
In the real world, there are good people who try to fight for peace, ignorant people who believe media propaganda and evil leaders who, driven by greed, murder and destroy countries afar. It's just like that in Avatar; "I dreamed I was a soldier who could bring peace. But eventually, you always have to wake up", says Jake representing the good people of the world, who dream of peace but are dismayed by the power of evil and its ignorant supporters.
This fictional movie enciphers so many truths about the real world, maybe I'm scrutinizing too much and going to deep when it was only meant for its superficial meaning. Fortunately though, whether the movie was meant for it or not, I am not alone in my extra analysis; as I was walking out of the theater this lady tells her husband "it's just like the Americans in Iraq" and I look at my friend with a witty laugh who says "she has your same theory".