In 2009, Avatar wowed the audience with its formidable visual section. But he has also been the center of serious discussions about his characters. In particular, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), who was considered sleepy incarnation of the so-called “white savior”. The figure, common in adventure films, usually depicts a person from a foreign culture who ends up saving a culture that is not his own. An old Hollywood trope that has become traditional and is even part of the great epics of social assimilation.
In fact, Sally was immediately compared to the main characters in Dances with Wolves D The Last Mohican. For better or worse, his efforts to preserve the Na’vi culture, the center of James Cameron’s story, have made him the subject of analysis. Moreover, one of them made it clear that Avatar it was a narrative that used colonization and the perpetuation of the wild native stereotype to support its premise.
The debate has placed James Cameron’s story at the center of criticism, despite its high ethical content and features of an environmental epic. But the big question was inevitable. It might work Avatar, or the universe that was supposed to be created from the original film, without the eternal idea of a savior? Moreover, from a figure who came from another culture, able to show himself as a symbol of power.
Why Jake Sully isn’t the classic “white savior”
Jake Sully doesn’t really fit – at least not quite – into the old Hollywood image. In fact, he reinvents it towards more favorable spaces and endows it with a strange imperfect beauty, which is perhaps its main attribute. Much more when a general idea of Avatar it was – and is – a celebration of a kind of ethnic significance that is not part of the race, but part of the ideal.
With all his problems big and small, Sam Worthington’s character has become someone who can overcome prejudice to become something more. Even in the simplicity of the script, which did not sufficiently explore the emotional world of its protagonists, James Cameron forced Jake Sully to break the old stereotype. And if that wasn’t enough, also create a new one.
Jake Sully began his journey on Pandora not knowing exactly what was expected of him, what was the greatest demand of his responsibility in a human colony on the planet. Which put him in an ambivalent position. He had no clear responsibilities – neither immediate, nor a specific goal. In fact, Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) makes it clear right away that he’s not welcome here.
The scientific and military environments in the dispute are completely separated. Which makes Sally a bit of a marginal even in the human conglomerate. Especially for having a severe motor disability and being on a project Avatar because of his relationship with one of its members.
Wounded man in distant lands
Jake Sully doesn’t want to learn about Na’vi culture or Pandora. As a low-ranking soldier, his mission is to obey, and it becomes clear early on in the film that this is his goal. He even takes direct orders from Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), whose mission is to brutally attack the local population.
Cameron not only avoided giving Sully the impression of someone capable of immediate sympathy for alien and seemingly aggressive people. He also emphasized the character’s loyalty to his race and his need for some sort of benefit. Using his physical disability as a bargaining chip to spy on a group of scientists, he agrees to a dirty and selfish deal.
But unlike what happens in Dances with Wolves, The Last Mohican and other similar reports, Jake Sully does not claim to understand, save or save the Na’vi. He also doesn’t think it’s necessary. Even the aggressive environment of Pandora (for all its beauty) is indifferent to him. Until he takes over an artificial body and has time to make contact – from a biological point of view – with a powerful habitat. He is so far from all his assessments and visions that he associates a complete picture of life, completely unknown to him, with his limited experience.
How Pandora is changing the worldview of Jake Sully
In fact, what separates Jake Sully from the usual white savior of many other similar films is that your connection to Pandora is personal. The character discovers that the body he occupies gives him a completely redeeming and biologically different perspective.
So powerful that it changes the way you think about your mind and personality. Sully’s path to becoming a Na’vi does not begin with his direct sympathy for the indigenous peoples. It’s actually a complete overhaul that reinstates the character as an observer and then as part of a larger ecosystem. Complex enough to make you understand the extent of your own spirituality.
In one of the most memorable scenes in the 2009 film, Jake Sully connects with the Tree of Life and Ava. A complete and powerful blow to his belief system and his way of accepting his own existence. This communication allows him to show the mysterious deity the world he comes from and what might happen if Pandora is colonized. The perception of Sully’s spiritual nature and his moral growth sets him apart sharply from many other similar characters.
A reborn man who knew the power of the earth
By the time Jake Sully makes a direct decision to be a Na’vi, his inner transformation does not make him immediately accepted. Cameron carefully avoids turning his character into an enlightened hero through a power grab. Sully’s direct admission that he “loved” the tribe and the planet does not come from a condescending attitude. At best, this intricate construction on ominous spiritual illumination.
It’s the perfect time to see Avatar before the premiere of the new film
While in the end, Jake Sully commits his entire life to Pandora and saves the planet, it’s not a heroic act. In any case, not one that could be interpreted from the point of view of a person who saves a foreign culture with the highest act of kindness. In fact, he saves himself. To her newfound meaning in life and, ultimately, to the total and formidable power of her understanding of her identity. A small but significant achievement that James Cameron achieved by studying man as part of something much larger than his own existence.
Source: Hiper Textual
