To the Editor:
Re “The Messiah Complex,” by David Brooks (column, Jan. 8), about the film “Avatar”:
As a native professor of American Indian studies, I’m often asked by students what I think about Hollywood’s frequent and oh-so-predictable attempts to describe our cultures, especially when they are being intruded upon by nonnative cultures.
As Mr. Brooks notes, the White Messiah fable is one of the most frequent tropes used by filmmakers, and it is exasperating, to say the least.
The most galling line to me in this latest installment was when “the Messiah” personage was somehow able to rouse the spirits of all the animals and natural forces to choose sides and retaliate against the invasive forces—something that even the supposedly more naturally inclined natives were unable to accomplish.
Thus, James Cameron’s messiah was able to wield an organic power that even Kevin Costner could not muster in his role as messianic master in “Dances With Wolves.” No small feat, that.
David E. Wilkins
Minneapolis, Jan. 8, 2010
To the Editor:
David Brooks is right to critique the recurring theme of racial paternalism in Hollywood blockbusters, but there is an even more problematic subtext that many Americans accept blindly. The myth of redemptive violence is endlessly retold for our entertainment in cartoons and on the big screen.
This belief that chaos is, in the end, thwarted only by our hero’s use of violence has infected the American psyche and has led presidents as different as George W. Bush and Barack Obama to rely too heavily on militarism to address our problems abroad.
Karl S. Shelly
Goshen, Ind., Jan. 10, 2010
To the Editor:
Upon reading “The Messiah Complex,” I was struck by the irony that “Avatar” preaches a message of back-to-nature purity, and then makes product deals with McDonald’s.
Josh Rosenberg
Montclair, N.J., Jan. 9, 2010
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 