My 12th grade history teacher, a staunch socialist, despised the movie “The Last Samurai” for how it portrayed Samurai. He felt the Samurai were defenders of a reactionary society that favored them. In this strict hierarchical system, peasants were de facto slaves and Western ideas like equality before the law were non-existent.
The movie “Avatar” tells the story of Jake Sully, a marine who eventually joins a native alien people called the Na’vi and saves their culture and land from the militaristic energy corporation he originally worked for. As Annalee Newitz put in her review, “Avatar is just the latest scifi rehash of an old white guilt fantasy.” She compared it to movies like “Dancing with Wolves” or “The Last Samurai.” In both of these movies, a white male joins the alien culture to defend it against evil modernizing forces representing the West.
Newitz describes how the Na’vi are portrayed as a caricatured stereotype of Native Americans, feathers and bows and arrows included. In the movie, Jake describes how the corporation can offer them nothing because they are not materialistic.
The Na’vi don’t massacre the humans at the end of the movie and the Samurai don’t torture and kill peasants because Western audiences would be deeply uncomfortable rooting for a flawed society. This is also why a white male lead is needed, so the white audiences can relate to “the journey.”
Telling the story of a minority who at times commits acts of evil defending an imperfect society against an oppressive white Western force would make the allegory closer to history. It would also not be a simple morality play.
The problem with movies like Avatar is that they play into the narrative that western culture is only the domain of militaristic, privileged oppressors (white people) who destroy innocent, peace-loving societies.
Of course white Westerners have committed horrific acts. Atrocities such as slavery and the treatment of the Native Americans are rightly condemned. Women and minorities have had to fight to get treated as equals by the law and by society. Even today the West has problems, from lingering racism to excess materialism.
Yet, native populations engage in warfare against each other and commit atrocities even when Western nations aren’t present. Native American tribes had slaves and attacked each other before Europeans arrived. The Aztecs sacrificed humans and oppressed numerous other tribes. Barbaric practices like honor killings or Indians burning widows are rightly condemned as immoral. This can lead to confusion or fact-twisting from those who assume oppressed societies are always superior.
In reality, the West, with its technological superiority, has been the oppressor more often than not and committed its fair share of sins. Yet to portray it as capable only of negative change ignores all those who would benefit from industrialization, the rule of law and individual liberty. Demonizing the West is easy to do to audiences who enjoy its benefits, but hurts those who need Western virtues the most.
