In the essay “Notes on ‘Camp’” Susan Sontag illustrates with great detail her extensive definition of a certain sensibility which goes by the cult name “camp;” including what criteria she requires for something to be considered “camp.” Camp can be applied to cinema, art, music, objects, even people. But this blog entry will focus on film, specifically James Cameron’s Avatar. Avatar meets the majority of Sontag’s criteria to be considered “camp,” whilst becoming the highest grossing film of all time. It is doubtful Cameron would consider his cinematic triumph “campy,” but he’d be lying to himself and further proving the argument for film’s “campness” by displaying his naivety as the author whose production became camp unintentionally.
The innocence of the author is integral to Sontag’s view of “pure camp.” According to Sontag an author can produce something “camp” intentionally but to achieve “pure camp” the author can not be camp on purpose. After smashing box office records with the film Titanic, Cameron had much to live up to with Avatar. It is difficult to speculate if he intended to make the highest grossing film ever, but one could assume his goal was to make something extraordinary; a serious film that could be enjoyed by a global audience.
While executing those intentions, Cameron made a spectacle of a film whose style is far more extravagant than its substance; so extravagant and stylistically intense, the audience can get lost in the sheer “campness” of the film and resist interpellation from the serious message encoded in Cameron’s work. The viewers become so entrenched in the vivid 3-D special effects wizardry, the emotional aspects of the film are cheapened. With every corny line, weird glowing plant, or enormous CGI explosion, audience members are sunk deeper into the camp world of Avatar and grow further distanced from the story’s morals and a social commentary which applly heavily to present day global entanglements and the never ending quest for lucrative energy sources.
Sontag says “Camp is art that proposes itself seriously, but cannot be taken altogether seriously because it is “too much.” Anyone who has seen Avatar can attest to the film being “too much.” Too much aquamarine, too much CGI, too much time (the film is nearly three hours long), too much 3D, even too much social commentary. Often audiences love “too much.” After all, it is the most lucrative film of all time.
Textually, Avatar’s exaggerations operate seamlessly within the film: beyond the absolute saturation of vivid colors and detailed landscapes; the films characters are exaggerated as well. There is the exaggerated villainous colonel who is totally ruthless and “over the top” to the exaggerated hero who speaks in clichés whilst overcoming his physical handicap to the exaggerated nature loving scientists and the extremely exaggerated peace loving alien people the “Na vi.” The film is littered with exaggerated clichés as nearly every scene pushes the audience to the edge.
With all of Avatar’s “campness” it manages to defy some of Sontag’s criteria. Sontag says, “Ordinarily we value a work of art because of the seriousness and dignity of what it achieves. We value it because it succeeds in being what it is and, presumably, in fulfilling the intention that lies behind it.” It is safe to say Cameron and Avatar achieve a straightforward relation between intention and performance but here is where I disagree with Sontag. Yes, Cameron met his goals, but the film is still camp.
Another strange contradiction is how the film was panned by many critics with “refined tastes,” meeting yet another criterion for “camp” but oddly enough, the film is nominated for many Academy Awards, including the prestigious Best Picture and Best Director. Even Avatar’s nominations speak to its “campness.” No accolades are being paid to the film’s actors and actresses or the film’s writing. This feeds the argument of style over substance. The story is recycled mix of the tale of Pocahontas and John Smith meets the Smurfs meets Dances with Wolves. The acting is average while some accomplished players like Sigourney Weaver can not elevate their characters beyond the cliché lines scripted for them.
So, is the highest grossing film of all time just a piece of camp or an artistic masterpiece? Suppose it can be both. Perhaps a big campy eyegasm is what the world was looking for and Avatar gave it to them gift wrapped. However, let us hope Avatar’s “campness” will not cause too many audience members to become detached from the film’s important message of peace and harmony with one’s world and neighbors.
-author does not exist
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