Seeing a movie in the most weirdly right place

No shit, there we were, near the end of our trip to Hawaii. We were staying at this absolutely gorgeous cottage in Volcano Village -- unlike the rental in Kona, this didn't feel like a rental, this felt like somebody's house. (Specifically, somebody with great taste in furnishings -- one of the few places I've stayed that feels as nice as our own rental condos down in Sanibel.)

That last night, we were tired and just looking to chill out, so we decided to watch a movie. The place didn't have built-in Netflix, and I wasn't motivated to wire my laptop up to the TV, so Kate went digging through the rather good DVD collection. And the one thing she found, that neither of us had seen yet and both had on our "we probably ought to watch this someday" lists, was...

... Avatar.

Let me tell you, watching Avatar after spending ten days soaking up Hawaiian culture and history is weird, because the planet Pandora is screamingly Hawaii. (Or at least generically Polynesian.) This was particularly driven home by the close-ups of the flora, early in the movie, which left me going, "Wait a second. That fern is growing right outside our window here."

That said, it also drives home just how problematic some aspects of the movie are. I was particularly cranky about just how extreme a case of Great White Blue Savior it has -- that trope was well past its prime by the time Avatar came out.

Kate pointed out that the more serious problem was its severe case of Noble Savage, which I have to agree is kind of painful after, say, touring the Iolani Palace. One thing you get, when you look at Hawaiian history up close, is that these were not innocent savages -- practically from the moment of Cook's landing, they were aggressively learning, using and adapting everything they could extract from these new visitors.

Yes, there was some cultural imperialism going on, but you can't help but notice that the last King of Hawaii wasn't just aping European nobility -- he'd gone well past them in sophistication, after only a century or so. (First Monarch to circumnavigate the globe: check. Members of every Order that mattered in its time, including Masonry: check. First Royal palace with electric lights throughout: check. Indeed, the Iolani looks to have been a beautifully livable palace for its time.)

So -- on the one hand, the movie is trying to be anti-imperialist, which is an admirable goal. OTOH, being surrounded by some of the history that appears to have inspired it, it's a bit cringe-inducing.

(It is pretty, though, and I can see why it was a big deal at the time...)

Hawaii

[Kate has given me permission to repost her diary notes from our recent vacation here, since she is good about taking detailed notes and I am... not. The following is mostly hers, plus a bit of formatting and relevant links; my additions are in italicized square brackets, like this. Also, note that I am linking to photos, as appropriate.]

So we're back from vacation, which was lovely. The short version is Hawaii is gorgeous, but Waikiki is now just a shopping mall and we like the Big Island much better, especially the Volcano Nat'l Park. And American is a terrible airline.

For the long version, including all 3 locations we stayed in Hawaii plus Disneyland and all of my reading/watching, ( Read on... )