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Monday, February 15, 2010

Oscar Nominated Movies 2010

I'm on a mission this year. I want to see all the movies nominated for the major awards (film, director, actor, actress, supporting actor/actress, foreign... that might be it).

Just saw Avatar... and it was the second Oscar nominated film I saw in the last two days (the other was District 9), both of which had--as their morality-driven plotlines--subjugation of others. The others in both stories were aliens. Not being an overly sci-fi guy, I wasn't sure I would enjpy them. But I did, in both cases. They weren't obnoxiously preachy but definitely drove home the message that we are too easily motivated to desecrate others' cultures, families, or--in the case of Avatar--spiritual/belief systems so that we can maintain superiority. Both films smacked of what we did to the Native Americans in the 16th century (nod by Avatar) or the Japanese-Americans during World War II (nod by District 9).

At the end of both movies, I didn't feel very good. Avatar--sorry for the spoiler--has a happy ending but, still, I was just left feeling like a big, oppressive white devil. I think that's the point of District 9, but I don't think that's the point of Avatar. I couldn't get past it, in fact, to appreciate the latter for the rest of what it intended to evoke.

Wednesday, I will receive Inglorious Basterds from Netflix. I'm not anticipating that will be particularly uplifting.

So... I'm going to watch Up as soon as I can.

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