Hegemony in James Cameron's Avatar

          While the movie industry continues to be determined by box office success, movie giants like James Cameron contribute their own convictions and ideologies into movies like Avatar.  It has become common for corporations and influential individuals to use the media as a platform for their beliefs, called hegemony.  Conglomerates generate a consensus around a particular partisanship and thus the material produced reflects the interest of shareholders and advertisers.  Hegemony leads to an exceptionally biased outlook on politics, business, and entertainment, and almost solely controlled by the wealthy minority (Straubhaar 43). 

                                                                                                                         Avatar by James Cameron

          Writer, director, and producer, James Cameron, controlled every aspect of the mega-blockbuster, Avatar.  Inspiring a revolution of 3-D films and grossing over two billion dollars worldwide, Cameron also revealed his passion for the environment and the necessity for its protection.  In Avatar Parker Selfridge employs Jake Sully to infiltrate the native people, Na’vi, on the planet of Pandora, which intends to exploit the land for rich minerals.  By transforming into an avatar, Sully bonds and forms an alliance with these tall, blue peoples and is forced to choose between saving the utopian land and assisting the avaricious corporation.   

          The epic movie’s central theme revolves around the idea of interconnectedness of nature and the consequences of attempting to exploit it.  The thread of Avatar comes straight from James Cameron’s personal environmental activism and who is most recently quoted saying, “The BP mess is a classic example of how our energy policies, or lack thereof, are going to hurt us.”  His opinions of offshore drilling regulations are directly coincided with Avatar.  Cameron expresses his position on need for harsher regulation against greedy companies and cut back of demolition of natural reservoirs.  While not all corporations or individuals have such admirable motives, Cameron incorporates hegemony into Avatar in order to educate the populous on need for environmental protection and responsibility. 

Along the press chain for the movie, James Cameron continuously recalled the connection between Avatar and the environment, especially featured in Hardball with Chris Matthews.