Joe Klein saw Avatar the other night, and he came away pleasantly surprised:
Klein believes this is a sign of a changing zeitgeist: Americans are willing to shell out bucks to watch themselves get killed by blue aliens. I have no doubt the movie’s anti-Americanism is one reason it’s doing so well overseas. But isn’t it just as likely that the movie is doing well in the States despite James Cameron’s ridiculously heavy-handed and semi-parodic political message? Americans are tolerant people, and I’m betting they are willing to overlook the sillier parts of the movie in order to enjoy the revolutionary special effects. I know I did.
The journalistic tendency to describe every cultural event in terms of a larger trend can be pretty silly. Case in point: “The zeitgeist is a subtle thing,” Klein writes, “and the impact of Avatar is bound to ripple in all sorts of lovely, little enviro-theistic ways.”
Hold it–“lovely, little enviro-theistic ways”? Is the Time columnist saying enviro-theism is better than other religions?
