Avatar: The Way of Water contains some intense sequences and action, but there's one thing James Cameron wanted to avoid: glorifying guns. According to Cameron, he cut several scenes in the film for that reason.
Avatar: The Way of Water has been dominating the box office since its release. It seems inevitable that a filmmaking titan like Cameron would continue his streak of box office success, so it's not surprising that the film has been seen by millions of people. This inevitability likely played a part in Cameron's decision.
In an interview with Esquire Middle East, Cameron discussed gun violence in his earlier films. “I look back on some films that I’ve made, and I don’t know if I would want to make that film now," Cameron said. "I don’t know if I would want to fetishize the gun, like I did on a couple of Terminator movies 30+ years ago, in our current world. What’s happening with guns in our society turns my stomach."
The director cut a decent amount of footage from Avatar: The Way of Water. In the Avatar franchise's lore, humans are fighting to colonize the alien world of Pandora, which involves violent confrontations with the Na'vi. Cameron said that he tried to find a balance in this depiction. “I actually cut about 10 minutes of the movie targeting gunplay action. I wanted to get rid of some of the ugliness, to find a balance between light and dark," Cameron said. "You have to have conflict, of course. Violence and action are the same thing, depending on how you look at it. This is the dilemma of every action filmmaker, and I’m known as an action filmmaker.”
Gun violence plays a key part in Avatar: The Way of Water's ending. Neteyam (Jamie Flatters), son of Jake (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), is fatally shot at the climax of the film. The character was attempting to launch a rescue mission and save his siblings when a human soldier wounds him, and the scene is one of the hardest-hitting moments in the movie.
Numerous people have equated the action in Avatar with the rock beats laser trope in fiction, but it makes sense when viewed through Cameron's anti-gun stance. The Na'vi are portrayed as enlightened, spiritual people. They have no use for guns because their bows and ranged weaponry will feed and sustain them. They can do without weapons of mass destruction.
Avatar: The Way of Water is now in theaters.
Source: Esquire Middle East