AVATAR+Important+Event

A significant event which helps portray a main theme from the film is the violent destruction of the towering Na'vi Hometree. Hometree collapses in flames after a missile attack, coating the landscape with ash and floating embers. The attack has been instigated by Parker Selfridge, the corporate administrator for the RDA mining operation hoping to gain access to the valuable unobtainium deposit situated under Hometree. The attack is led by General Colonel Miles Quaritch who is the head of the mining operation's security detail whose profound disregard for Pandora's inhabitants is evident in both his actions and language. The Na’vi people are reluctant to abandon Hometree and defend it fiercely. Their primitive weapons however are almost useless against the mechanised warfare and technology of the invading “sky people”. Quaritch's forces destroy Hometree, killing Neytiri's father and numerous other Na’vi innocents.


 * __ In this scene a number of ideas are clearly conveyed: __**
 * Unjustifiable military aggression (reference to America’s involvement in Iraq)
 * The capability humanity has to cause destruction
 * Humanities growing materialism and lack of care for the environment
 * A warning about the risk we are posing to our own world and future through exploitation of our environment and natural resources.


 * __ Techniques which convey these ideas: __**

Long shot: of hometree surrounded by approaching gunships. The grey of the machines contrast against the green of the tree. Low angles: when the Navi look up at the gunships implying vulnerability and the destructive cabability of the human war machines.
 * Camera shots: **

**Lighting:** Low key lighting and red filter: As hometree is destroyed the entire scene is shot using low key lighting, fire engulfs the forest and a red filter is added to the scene - this reinforces the destructive and violent nature of humanity.

Slow, melancholy music plays as hometree falls. This relfects the loss that the Navi feel at the destruction of their planet.
 * Music: **

The entire scene seems chaotic and filled with violent noises - the sounds of the gunship blades, engines, shooting, screaming and crying all combine to convey the feelings of panic and depair felt by the Navi people but also the destructive potential of human technology.
 * Diegetic sound: **

“Keep going he’ll move…These people have to learn that we don’t stop”
 * Dialogue: **

"You throw a stick around here it’s going to land on some sacred fern…They’re just goddamn trees”

"The wealth of this world isn’t in the ground. It’s all around us”

“The’re not going to give up their home…what for lite beer and blue jeans? There’s nothing we have that they want”

“I’ll drive them out with gas first. It will be humane…more or less”

“They’re flybitten savages that live in a tree…I don’t know about you but I see a lot more trees”

“And that’s how you scatter the roaches”

“I didn’t sign up for this shit”