Movie comment: Avatar (2009)  

Posted by Denis Haack in , , ,




Ross Douthat, an Op-ed columnist for the New York Times and film reviewer for National Review, saw Avatar, James Cameron’s latest movie epic and sees in it more of interest than the latest cinematic technical advances.

It’s fitting that James Cameron’s “Avatar” arrived in theaters at Christmastime. Like the holiday season itself, the science fiction epic is a crass embodiment of capitalistic excess wrapped around a deeply felt religious message. It’s at once the blockbuster to end all blockbusters, and the Gospel According to James.

But not the Christian Gospel. Instead, “Avatar” is Cameron’s long apologia for pantheism — a faith that equates God with Nature, and calls humanity into religious communion with the natural world.

You can read Douthat’s thoughtful piece, “Heaven and Nature,” here.

This entry was posted at Monday, December 21, 2009 and is filed under , , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the comments feed .

3 comments

greg  

What a fascinating article! One of the best critiques of pantheism I've ever read, and it's on the New York Times movie review page! Thanks for calling our attention to it, Denis.

Do you know anything about Ross Douthat? Reading his piece makes me want to know him.

Thanks again!

December 21, 2009 at 4:54 PM
Denis Haack  

Greg:
Can't say I know I lot about him, but have enjoyed reading his work. He used to blog for The Atlantic, now does so for The New York Times (http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/). Douthat is thoughtful, conservative, Roman Catholic. Worth following as a commentator on current events.

December 21, 2009 at 10:17 PM
Anonymous  

Nice movie everyone should watch.

I made my comments on my blog about avatar the movie 2009

check here : http://www.tetrop.com/

January 6, 2010 at 1:06 AM

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