Showdown At The Oscars

By Lisa Anderson

Image from
Awards Daily

As Oscar night grows near, two of the most closely watched nominations are for Best Picture and Best Director. Former spouses James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow are pitted against each other in both categories—Cameron for Avatar and Bigelow for The Hurt Locker. If Cameron wins, it will be a rare triumph for science fiction, one achieved despite controversy about Avatar‘s content. Bigelow stands not only to score an upset victory against a blockbuster, but also to become the first woman to win the Oscar for Best Director.

Because of the negative buzz about Avatar‘s race and disability subtexts, I had not planned to see it but I eventually accompanied friends to the theater so I could decide for myself.

For those who don’t know, Avatar tales place on the fictional planet of Pandora. Paraplegic ex-Marine Jake Sully arrives there to become a “driver,” an operator for a genetically engineered body used to interact with the planet’s indigenous sentient species, who call themselves the Na’vi. In the process of trying to help Pandora’s human invaders with their strip-mining goals, Jake falls in love with a Na’vi female and comes to embrace their views on life.

I can see how this movie is racially problematic, even if it’s not about human race relations. The Na’vi are coded as various human indigenous groups. The story itself falls into the trope of the White outsider sweeping in and saving a group of Others, who only seem to exist for his eventual edification. The Others are idealized, seeming to have no flaws beyond a grumpy initial reluctance to accept the hero. The most common description I have heard of Avatar is that it is Dances With Wolves-meets-Ferngully, and that’s not too far off.

Yet there was a lot that I enjoyed about it. I liked more than just the stunning visuals and compelling action, although those things were a lot of fun. The Na’vi worship a Goddess called Eywa, and rarely have I seen a movie that takes the feminine Divine so seriously. (The last time may have been The Wicker Man. Oops.) There are not any weak female characters—none. It’s also rare these days to see a film that deals so explicitly with conservation and interdependence. Cameron reportedly dug his heels in when the studio asked him to make the story less “green.” I can forgive him a lot for that.

It’s important to have discussions about the depictions of race and disability in popular culture. I’m not trying to belittle anyone’s concerns, or even contradict them. There is a reason, that the “white man’s burden” and “noble savage” tropes exist, uncomfortable as they may be: all human beings crave a life of meaning and authenticity, a connection to something greater than ourselves. Avatar taps into those longings, even if it does so imperfectly.

When I learned that James Cameron was up against his ex-wife for both Best Picture and Best Director, I became curious about The Hurt Locker. The film follows an Explosive Ordinance Disposal unit in Baghdad. The team’s two specialists, J.T. Sanborn and Owen Eldridge, lose their team leader in a mission at the start of the film. The replacement is Sergeant William James, whose reckless, unorthodox methods and outlandish personality cause tension immediately.

On the surface, it’s pretty obvious why The Hurt Locker may be considered the more important or grown-up film. It’s about current-day, real-life events with geopolitical significance. While the characters in Avatar are not without nuance, the men of The Hurt Locker are even more complex. The extreme conditions they face only bring these complexities to light.

One minute, James goads Sanborne into pulling a knife on him, and the next, James is sharing the last of his water with him. The interactions with Iraqis illustrate specifically the challenges that Coalition soldiers in Iraq face—with both good and bad results—and there are tense battle and bomb-defusing scenes to keep the audience on edge.

In the end, the EOD team comes to the end of its rotation. Sanborne is grateful to get back to normal life and start a family. James, by contrast, realizes that he only loves “one thing” and signs up for another year-long tour, even though he has a partner and infant child at home. It’s this aspect of The Hurt Locker that made me think: I’ve seen this before. Not just the trope of the workaholic male, but of the war-addicted soldier. When you realize that, suddenly, the battle and bomb scenes, and the idea of war being simultaneously both a horror and a thrill, no longer seem quite so original.

In summary, both movies do things that have been done before, but they do them well. Which one you like best will depend not only on what kind of movie you prefer, but also what kind of mood you’re in. Each movie has its own strengths: Avatar has the special effects, the sci-fi content, and pulls on the heart strings a safe and familiar way. The Hurt Locker has better acting and a far stronger story, as well as being more challenging and topical. I will say that if you’re looking for relaxation and escape, Avatar is probably your best bet.

Since I haven’t seen all of the Best Picture nominees, I won’t go out on a limb as to which one should win. I will say that I am pulling for Bigelow for Best Director.

The contest between Bigelow and Cameron seems to be destined to remain heated right to the end. Just this past week, Hurt Locker co-producer Nicholas Chartier was banned from the Oscar ceremony for sending Avatar-bashing emails to Academy voters.

Whatever the outcome of this particular Oscar race, both Bigelow and Cameron have managed to generate discussion not only about the topics of their films, but also about the process of movie-making itself. When that happens, the audience is the real winner.