Avatar and Knives Out Flashcards
Knives Out - Time of Release Audience Context
2016 US Election:
- Immigration was a major political point in both the election and movie
- Joanie and Richard’s fight
- Joanie depiction of left wing ideology, young, female,
- Richard depiction of right wing ideology, old, racist, white, male
Whodunit
Detective film subgenre
Everyone is suspicious
Identity of murderer revealed at climax
Avatar - Time of Release Audience Context
War in the Middle East:
- USA in very costly war
- Similar to Quarritch and army invading in Avatar
- Na’vi represent innocent civilians caught in war
- Soldiers represent real life soldiers
- Hometree falling similar to 9/11
- ‘Unobtainium’ like Oil
Avatar - Explicit ideologies
*Corporate Greed
- Parker Selfridge
- The RDA, a powerful corporation, represents corporate interests that exploit Pandora’s resources without consideration for the planet’s ecosystem or the well-being of its inhabitants.
Avatar - Implicit ideologies
*White Saviour Trope
- Jake ‘saves’ Na’vi from the military - never questioned
*Environmentalism
- Destruction of Hometree
- Issue of environmental destruction never tackled
Knives Out - Explicit ideologies
*Immigration
- Characters’ attitudes toward Marta, and immigration are explicitly addressed, touching on immigration policies and societal attitudes toward immigrants
- Argument between Richard and Joni
*Xenophobia
- “America is for Americans”
- Fear of what is different - immigrants
Knives Out - Implicit Ideologies
*Racism
- forgetting what country Marta comes from implies that “middle America” is racist or uncaring towards migrants
- “Paraguay” “Brazillian”, actually from Uruguay
* Critique of Liberal Hypocrisy
- Family treat Marta as “part of the family”, care for her
- When she does something wrong, they completely switch attitudes
Knives Out - Institutional Context
Development:
- Come off Last Jedi (Poorly recieved)
- $40M budget in 2019
Distribution:
- $500M deal with Netflix for 2 sequels
Consumption:
- $310M Box Office
Avatar - Institutional Context
Development:
- Come off of Titanic (11 academy awards)
- Budget $230M in 2009
Pre Production:
- 13 years to write 5 movies
Production:
- Long, Expensive, Difficult
Post Production:
- Most of the film made within post
Consumption:
- $2.9B at box office over multiple releases
Implicit Ideology
When a media product depicts an ideology as just the way things are
Explicit Ideology
When a media product challenges an ideology presented, questioning or supporting/refuting idea
Avatar - Older Audience
- Vietnam Veterans
- Pandora similar to Vietnam Forrest terrain
- ‘Huey’ helicopters similar design to Choppers in Avatar
- Quarritch personality and dogma similar to real Vietnam Generals
Knives Out - Present Day Audience
- Audiences more ‘woke’ post BLM movement
- New age audience may be more critical of
- Audience may be more critical based on the worse reception of the sequel
- Change in Leadership make the theme of ‘immigration’ less relatable to audiences/prevalent within society
Avatar - Present Day Audience
- Audience more critical of ‘White Savior Trope’ and depictions of white protagonists
- More critical of the depictions of the Na’Vi - uncivilized (similar to how native americans were seen)
- More critical of film based on poor reception of sequel
- Greater pressure on environmental consequences now - audiences can resonate with theme of environmentalism more today
- Present day audience may consume film with less care (over multiple viewings/on a phone), due to increased accessibility
Hitchcockian Thriller
Restricting the action to a single setting to increase tension
- ie. The Thrombey Estate (Knives Out)
