I watched a good movie today. Avatar: the Way of Water. Maybe it's not ACTUALLY a good movie, but it resonated with me. I love movies, and it think this is the first movie, EVER, that touched my heart as a Father.
[spoiler alert] Our blue hero, Jake Sully, has a full family. Wife, two teenage sons, a teenage daughter, and a young daughter. Plus they adopted a stray human white boy. We see him as he teaches his sons to hunt, and coaches his teenage daughter as she seeks her own identity, and we get to watch as the youngest child discovers her gifts.
We see the father desperate to protect his family, and they become refugees of sorts, where he must help them fit in with a bunch of strangers in their new home. When the war finally comes to them, he leads his family in battle.
I also enjoyed the beautiful cinematography and creative animals, and I appreciated the cultural appropriation shown by the depiction of the Sea People, and I think it fits very well in this context, and added to my enjoyment of the movie. Well done Sir!
Director James Cameron is an avowed environmentalist, and the movie is full of the expected "white people bad, natives good" moments (the whole plot, actually), but it is good story telling. I was not expecting to cry at this movie. I guess Fatherhood has changed me. I was moved by watching a father trying to raise his kids as best as he can. Loving them, teaching them, sacrificing for them, being their dad. Other movies have tried to portray this dynamic, but this one actually moved me.
Thanks, James Cameron, for this reminder of my blessings. And thank you, God, for making me a father. Of TEENAGERS!
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