"At first it was just orders, but then everything changed, I fell in love."
This scene occurs about an hour and a half into the movie; Jake, in his avatar body, returns to warn the Na'vi people that the sky-people are coming to destroy Hometree. Obviously, this causes a disturbance within the community, so Jake must further explain why he is certain they are all in grave danger.
At the beginning of this scene the music is soft, tribal, slow. But then the music stops.
And the bomb is dropped (figuratively speaking), Jake was sent to Pandora by the sky people to study and learn the ways of the tribe who later would adopt him as one of their own. Neytiri is confused, not knowing the 'man' she fell in love with came into her land as basically, a different person.
Pause the film at 1:37:07 and you will see a reaction shot of Neytiri. Her lips are pursed, jaw clenched, strait posture, slightly furrowed brow, and she is giving Jake a bad-ass death glare. The look on her face is one of confusion, hurt, and anger. Any girl (and maybe boy, I don't really know) who has every been lied to or hurt by their significant other can identify with the body language and facial expressions of Neytiri, even though she is a 10 foot tall blue cat-lady.
The music starts again, slowly and very softly. Maybe it’s a violin playing? but it’s subtle.
Then, like many girls who get hurt, Neytiri turns angry and quite vicious. She pushes Jake away as he tries to explain himself, then yells something to cut him deep, maybe to try to hurt him as much as he’s hurt her, “YOU WILL NEVER BE ONE OF THE PEOPLE!”
Finally, after her freak out with soft quiet music, the emotion and the music sync back up and the sound becomes louder and more epic.
All around Jake are the Na’vi people, circling him, but this time their arms are not stretched out to him. They are not connected and their is much distance between them. This shows the emotional disconnect not only between Jake and Neytiri, but between Jake and Neytiri’s world. The lie, or omission of truth, has created a void between Jake and the people.
Interesting post. I liked the focus on the music of the scene, and not just the dialogue. It's strange how the music is something that is never really focused on or noticed, but it plays such a major part in the feel and emotion of the film
ReplyDeleteIn thinking about how this makes me feel, the position it makes me take is a hurt for Jake. This is just a miss understanding and in the moment it seems horrible, like most bad situations but you know that in the end everything will be ok. Which in the end it is ok they just had to get through the lows.
ReplyDeleteI think that your focus on the music and the emotion of the characters is really interesting. It's always interesting when you see contradictions like the one you mentioned because directors do that purposefully. Having the viewer hear one emotion, in this case the soft music, and see another emotion, in this case the hurt and anger of Neytiri, allow the viewer to feel connected to both of those emotions at the same time. The viewer is allowed to feel connected to Neytiri and Jake because of the disconnect between what a person sees and hears. I think that your analysis is really interesting and I think it's really cool that you brought in your personal feelings about the scene into it.
ReplyDeleteI liked your detailed description of Neytiri's face because it is something that I would have never given a second thought about. I have always been told that facial expressions speak louder than words and I believe that it is true in this case. Just the look on Neytiri's face automatically gets the viewer to feel her pain and agree with her!
ReplyDelete