478 - World Tree Center (12/8/20) by Chapo Trap House published on 2020-12-08T05:26:58Z After last week’s Cameron discussion we decided it was finally time to induct this film into the official Chapo Canon: it’s been a long time coming but here’s the AVATAR episode. Join us as we examine the most anti-imperialist blockbuster of the 21st century, argue that its subversiveness is precisely why this massive hit “made no cultural impact,” and explain how Avatar teaches us to shed our baby selves as we confront America’s role as the 9/11 do-er. Comment by hzs1kc3b55xw Why is this episode missing from the Grey Wolf feed? A lot of the more popular Chapo episodes are. 2021-09-11T21:18:10Z Comment by Thomas Prentice Bezos us Lex Luthor 2021-03-06T17:41:19Z Comment by MelancoliaI i always thought the 'bees' scene from the Wicker Man remake was some alternate shit on the DVD and not in the initial cut. could be wrong 2021-01-30T04:15:03Z Comment by acula-md * also jurassic park * 2020-12-29T23:18:28Z Comment by LeBrontosaurus James Really likes this episode, thanks 2020-12-28T01:49:12Z Comment by Scot Forsythe The blue- ty full ones have not yet been born, 2020-12-15T02:15:55Z Comment by Scot Forsythe I love it when yguys do this, I actually brought up Avatar in my post colonial African lit course when it first came out on dvd and everyone kind of just laughed it off...pretty much college in a nutshell for me 2020-12-15T02:09:34Z Comment by FYSICKAL So how much did you guys get for this Avatar 2 ad? 2020-12-14T21:17:06Z Comment by Jack Rutledge Goembel the pentagon definitely made James Cameron throw in that line about the soldiers being "hired guns" instead of just the official US military 2020-12-13T18:30:59Z Comment by User 772675521 Just like you guys do, huh? 2020-12-12T09:06:10Z Comment by Jack Rutledge Goembel phenomenal episode, made my week. so well-spoken 2020-12-12T02:48:09Z Comment by kerryf I always liked this movie btw 2020-12-11T19:19:26Z Comment by Jacques Oeuf Well, eh... Leni Riefenstahl. Her politics might be a tad problematic, but credit where credit is due. 2020-12-11T14:49:12Z Comment by britzman one of the best episodes ever, and I hate movie episodes 2020-12-11T14:34:59Z Comment by Samm Parker Has anyone made the connection between this movie and the Gorillaz album Demon Days yet?? 2020-12-11T06:51:41Z Comment by Anthony Go Wu 1. If Jeff Bezos can buy Whole Foods, he can definitely rationalize himself as the hero in Avatar. 2. No amount of Red Dragon taming or training montages can divorce this story from the white savior narrative - it's a White guy becoming the best of the Blue guys who are all cast as Black guys. Someone noted the significance that Michelle Rodriguez was POC - this movie would have had an entirely different meaning if Jake Sully was POC. T E Lawrence didn't move into his own Arab fiefdom, Ho Chi Minh wasn't a plucky Scots Irish 2020-12-11T00:20:49Z Comment by Jimmy Anvil will, that's exactly what i thought at the time. how dour i was. 2020-12-11T00:09:47Z Comment by Dwayne J. Stephenson Avatar is not good, guys. 2020-12-10T16:33:14Z Comment by joe franks i first saw avatar at a theater in india, and they edited out the sex scene for "moral" reasons. so amazon might have done it for global distribution issues 2020-12-10T09:04:20Z Comment by FugeesNFunyuns People that roll their eyes at the praise misunderstand that a movie having a coherent, underlying message isn't the same thing as saying it's 'deep'. Marvel movies and Avatar are both moralistic fables, simple stories, except the 'lesson' in Marvel is a sort of vague support for military/police buildup; in Avatar the lesson is the inherent unity of all life and the insanity of destroying it for ephemeral 'profit'... It's still a movie about 10-ft tall space elves, but why not.. 2020-12-10T08:43:57Z Comment by Ecce Shnak Felix’ lou dobbs impression=necessary 2020-12-10T04:40:32Z Comment by Divine Fools Club "Motherhood is nurturing, is community." Best Matt hot take 2020-12-10T02:40:22Z Comment by Divine Fools Club So Will is drunk right 2020-12-10T02:23:43Z Comment by Divine Fools Club Matt is the hot take god 2020-12-10T02:02:52Z Comment by Joshua Marx yeah rewatch this movie and see this take is right, but it doesn't matter- the movie is pedestrian at best.. 2020-12-10T01:28:30Z Comment by allyPOUM For those still wedded to the idea of Avatar/Cameron as cringe, discard the coolness factor & extract the essence of this highly topical reinterpretation. One of the best eps for ages. 2020-12-09T20:28:46Z Comment by Ganymede station Did Will just get out of dental surgery? 2020-12-09T17:02:27Z Comment by Themilo Interesting take, but I do mostly disagree. Maybe it's just because I'm not American, but the movie never really did anything for me emotionally. And while it tries to be subversive, it undermines itself by the fact that it's answer to the problems of the modern world is a kind of Anarcho-primitivism "Back to nature" philosophy. Which, at best, is pseudo intellectual hippie/luddite crap. At worst, basically a kind of proto fascism. 2020-12-09T16:52:39Z Comment by Themilo Interesting take, but I do mostly disagree. Maybe it's just because I'm not American, but the movie never really did anything for me emotionally. And while it tries to be subversive, it undermines itself by the fact that it's answer to the problems of the modern world is a kind of Anarcho-primitivism "Back to nature" philosophy. Which, at best, is pseudo intellectual hippie/luddite crap. At worst, basically a kind of proto fascism. 2020-12-09T16:51:29Z Comment by Ｕｎｃｌｅ＿Ｊｏｅ Science Fiction doesn't depict poverty? You know there's this little niche genre, not everybody might have heard of it, called Cyberpunk? Surely no multi million dollar movies or games made for that. Deus who? Whatpunk 2074? Blade what? Nah man, that shit don't exist. 2020-12-09T16:26:20Z
