It isn't just the American West. This theme of the "Avatar" plot mimicking the real history of the oppression of Native Americans or colonial Africans or the Indochinese or the entirety of the New World at the hands of the English , Spanish, and Portugese in the name of resources is widespread. The English colonies leading export back to Europe was timber , early on , since the native trees of the continent were being ruthlessly harvested to depletion.The day after I saw the movie I left a comment at London's "Guardian" saying the whole time I was watching the movie, I was thinking of George Armstrong Custer and his 7th Cav at the hands of the Sioux and Cheyenne at the Little Big Horn. You may recall the US Army was sent in to clear the native Noble Savages from the lucrative Black Hills gold strikes. First impression. But I can just as easily parallel it with Pizarro and the Incas, Cortez and the Aztecs, the Belgians in the Congo, the Dutch in southern Africa. The Portugese in East Asia and elsewhere. Why not the Romans going to Britain to mine the newfound Tin for their bronze nearly 2,000 years ago?---the Legions had no ther reason to go there.

Avatar is just an old story made new, extended into the future. But an old story nevertheless ." Dances with Na'Vi " maybe. Being born and raised in Wyoming, the Custer analogy was the first one to cross my mind, but hardly the only one. Avatar is a metaphor for a great many colonial robber baron adventures worldwide across the span of history. I don't believe it was intended to depict a new morality. Or maye I should rephrase that " I've seen this movie before..."

Coincidentally the morning before I saw Avatar, I was forced to run the gauntlet of Halliburton behemoths that plugged up the frontage road along I-70 in Silt, as drivers chained up after a fresh snowfall and before they headed up Divide Creek where the energy companies still rule -- and pollute -- our blessed landscape. After the film I said to my husband, "Garfied County is Pandora."

Then last week they -- meaning the energy companies -- succeeded in their 3-year long effort to politically assassinate Governor Ritter. Even though no one in the front range media mentioned it, everyone who lives on the west slope knows what they did. Encana, Barrett, Williams, etc, had a massive temper tantrum in response to new oil & gas regulations and staged a sudden slowdown that devastated our local economy. Then they sponsored billboards blaming Gov. Ritter.

If McGinnis and the Republicans gain back control of this state, they will hand over what's left of this county to the energy companies and the air and water pollution will turn us all into the blue people.

I saw Avatar as an allegory of Western imperialistic history also, like the first commenter, Dewey. Yes, I do see the black-and-white depiction of the conflict to be necessary. No, I don't think the depiction of the Na'vi lacks nuance.

The mindset of the imperialistic military-industrial-mercenary complex is predatory and brutal. It is anti-Nature, self-serving, and blind to any other values than anthropocentric commercial values. In Avatar, that mindset has destroyed Earth's biosphere and created a living hell for the overpopulated humans. That's where we're heading with business as usual. It's way past time to call a spade a spade. We live in a predator culture and those who work for it it are stupid - like Jake was at the beginning of the film - and cannot succeed without making themselves into robots. In reality, they ARE the ones without nuance.

The Na'vi are energetically and psychically connected with the natural world. Theirs is an animistic consciousness, rather than a mechanistic one. Predator culture has been trying to stamp out animism since the beginning of civilization because animism is more resilient and resistant to the depredations of the predator culture. The so-called "weakness" of the Na'vi is that they cannot imagine the destructive power of gigantic machines wielded by psychopaths. The sanity of animistic cultures is SO nuanced that they can't understand the lop-sided, greedy, anthropocentric, mechanistic madness of the predators. This is one reason why the animistic cultures are being driven to extinction on Earth at this time. But the main reason is that they don't have any place to go when their land is stolen from them. Their spiritual and cultural strength is deeply connected with their ancestral lands. Being forcibly removed and shipped off to a favela in Manaus, Sao Paulo or Rio breaks their hearts and minds. To not understand this is simply to demonstrate how the predator culture has perverted one's own heart and mind.

As for the Na'vi's ecological footprint, give me a break! Animistic cultures have been sustainable because their animistic connection with their ecosystems has made them ecologically literate, each in their own language and cultural understanding. It is absurd to compare the ecological footprint of indigenous peoples with that of our predator culture, as if to say, 'See they caused damage too.' There is nothing in the history of humanity that compares with the damage we are currently doing to the global biosphere with our technocratic behemoth. It is insane and suicidal.

I agree that it was unfortunate that Jake Sully became another white, human deus ex machina. However, I do not agree that before his arrival the Na'vi are depicted as relatively weak and without the means to self-determination. Where'd you get that? They were completely self-determined in connection with their bioregion. They knew who they were, knew their strength, and were warriors, not just robotic cogs in a gigantic machine. However, the deus ex machina device served a good purpose: it showed the process of 'stupid' Jake being transformed and convinced of the beauty and value of the Na'vi way of life. It became obvious to him and perceptive viewers that theirs was the better alternative. The soulful, holistic, meaningful, thrillingly animistic alternative. Couldn't you feel the allure of that by the end of Avatar? It was a paradigm changing film. I say Bravo!

Just saw it tonight, and definitely an allegory of the white man taking the native americans' land. Only this time the Indians prevail. Dances With Wolves came immediately to mind. Also borrows from other hits, like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. I liked the brightness and the colors much better when I took off the 3D glasses. In any case, an ambitious endeavor, but I still scratch my head considering how successful Cameron has been financially with this one and Titanic. Just don't get it.