I am sorry that I have got stuck in Salina Kansas, but I have realized the Academy Awards show is fast approaching so I must post my thoughts on the awards before the show. Otherwise you might not believe that I had predicted the winners correctly. Each year I try to see as many of the films nominated for best Pcture a possible. I think with one week left to go I have seen all but 2 of them. I think I have a week to go.

The film The Way of Water supports the view of Professor Moriarty who influenced me so strongly more than 50 years ago when I was a first year university student at the University of Manitoba. Moriarty, in an old lecture I discovered on YouTube. Moriarty was of the view that humans were the Aids virus of the earth.

I think James Cameron, the co-writer, co-producer, and director of the film would likely agree with that assessment. Humans, in that film are clearly on the side of mechanized death fighting with life.  The original Avatar was not that different.

In this film we are once again shown the ubiquitous plot of a group of ‘good guys’ fighting a larger group of ‘bad guys.’ Frankly, I am getting tired of this template for every action film, but this film did have some redeeming social merit that ought to free it from the grip of artistic censors.

Though the narrative may be weak and overdone, the technical production values in this film are indeed immense and worth the trip to see the film all by themselves.

In the film the humans once again lead an assault not just against the Na’vi but actually against nature itself. This caught my eye because it is one of the two themes of this Grand Finale Tour I am on. The humans in the film frankly look at lot like Americans with their awful mechanized war equipment. To me this was the most interesting aspect of the movie. Americans, as “leaders of the free world”, at least in their minds, are leading the charge of humans against all life. Yet, amazingly Americans seem to love the movie that attacks them!

There is actually one sympathetic human in the movie, namely, Spider, who is the apparent son of Colonel Miles Quaritich who was born in Pandora, the land of the Na’vi but is allied with the humans who want to colonize Pandora which unsurprisingly is losing the war with humans from earth and is dying.

The invaders include ‘recombinants’—Na’vi avatars implanted with the minds and memories of deceased human soldiers.  Quaritich is the mainly evil leader of the recombinants.

The film is filled with suggestions that humans ought to appreciate and respect non-human life. This is of course an idea that is foreign to many humans. This is a lesson I endorse.

The whaling vessel manned by humans, brought me fresh reminders of that classic book Moby Dick I that read last year. In that book the fanaticism of Captain Ahab’s relentless pursuit of whales was severely critiqued, much as Cameron does in this film. The “whalers” pursue the hapless creatures for the purposes of harvesting their inner liquids which are the most valuable substance on earth. Of course, the rest of the carcass is dismissed. Sounds familiar doesn’t it?

Tonowari, the chief of the Metkayina clan who accept the arrival of the newcomers who are seeking asylum from the invaders, again pointing to a lesson to which Americans, and the rest of us, ought to pay attention. Many of the Metkayina lack sympathy with the Na’vi because they have human blood in them, but their leader teaches them the evil of discrimination and racism. More valuable lessons again.

Showing the respect to other creatures that humans at times seem incapable of, the Metkayina respect the intelligent and peaceful cetacean-like species called Tulkun. They consider these creatures part of their spiritual family much like Indigenous people of North America have for creatures other than their selves. Clearly, Cameron believes, as do I, that the indigenous have a better attitude to nature than American, and amazingly, from watching Americans viewing this film so do many Americans! Maybe a new attitude to nature is actually possible. Or is this pure science fiction? In any event the film explores some interesting ideas though often in a too conventional and clumsy manner.

All in all, it is a good but not great film. To me it was interesting.