In Peter Weir’s “The Truman Show,” Noah Emmerich’s character Marlon commented on the sky above as he talked life and love with Jim Carrey.
The two gaze at a sunset, during which Marlon brought up the brush the “big guy” upstairs used to sculpt the moment. The big guy upstairs wasn’t the “big guy,” as we know him, but a mad director played by Ed Harris, who trapped Truman inside a giant dome since birth.
While Weir’s creation was prophetic of the coming reality TV age, it truly struck gold with Harris’ ego-maniacal director creating and manipulating his own reality.
Carrey’s Truman figured out the difference between the real and the surreal, and made the choice most of us red-blooded types would. But fans of James Cameron’s film “Avatar” are going in a different direction. So complete and wonderful is Cameron’s digital world, message board posters are becoming depressed at its intangibility
In an article from CNN, Jo Piazza writes:
“On the fan forum site “Avatar Forums,” a topic thread entitled “Ways to cope with the depression of the dream of Pandora being intangible,” has received more than 1,000 posts from people experiencing depression and fans trying to help them cope. The topic became so popular last month that forum administrator Philippe Baghdassarian had to create a second thread so people could continue to post their confused feelings about the movie.”
How far we’ve come. I remember the days of “Tron” when 3D polygonal motorcycles and Frisbees were all the rage. But I don’t remember “Tron” geeks waxing suicidal because they couldn’t don blue suits in an imaginary computer, taking on David Warner along side Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner
How does one cope, knowing they’ll never live in “Avatar’s” Pandora?
Step one in the grieving process – watch “The Bridge on the River Kwai.” While “Avatar’s” jungles and screen life may be impressive to a digital extent, does the film quite make you sweat like David Lean’s production? It doesn’t, because it isn’t real.
And that’s the kicker. I’ve come of age watching CGI overtake film-making, starting with “Tron,” then on to Cameron’s “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” and “Jurassic Park,” yet none offered the sheer dryness of “Lawrence of Arabia,” or the heavenly foothills of Ireland like John Ford captured in “The Quiet Man.” There isn’t a thing in “Avatar” one can’t experience in a cheap video game, but show me a Mac or PC that can repeat what Ford captured in Monument Valley.
I’m not the most well traveled, but I’ve yet to see a computer create the essence of morning fog overhanging the Smokey Mountains in Gatlinburg. Truman’s faux sunset may have just been dandy for Ed Harris, but give me dusk at Coldwater Beach during a warm summer day in Florida.
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