45-page sworn declaration - Business Insider

Mitchell
Silberberg &
Knupp LLP
Case 2:11-cv-10294-MMM-JCG Document 117 Filed 11/13/12 Page 35 of 45 Page ID
#:2027
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108. If the good guys are the native people with their innate respect for
nature, and the bad guys are military, then that is the central axis of conflict. I
decided that there was no better way to understand this deep cultural divide
between the two world-views – that of the takers, and that of the care-takers – than
to have the two lovers of this love-story be on either side of the conflict. It’s a
proven dramatic technique from Romeo and Juliet on down, for 500 years of
storytelling since those star-crossed lovers defied their two warring houses. If
Neytiri were to be my Pocahontas, then Jake would have to be a member of the
human military forces.
Protagonist as a Military Man
109. I had previously written stories about a military veteran as a hero in
the 1980s (e.g., Rambo II and Wind Warriors). Further, my male protagonist in
Aliens, Corporal Hicks (played by Michael Biehn) was an active Colonial Marine.
Michael Biehn also played the future soldier Kyle Reese, who was the male
protagonist in my first film, The Terminator (1984). This was not new territory
for me.
110. In Avatar, having a Romeo and Juliet story meant that our human
character, Jake Sully, had to represent the military. It was a given, or at least a
very obvious choice. That choice led inevitably to the idea that he would be a
paraplegic ex-soldier, because it would add great poignancy to his experience of
living in the avatar body, able to run on long powerful legs and be free. The seeds
of the idea of a paraplegic who fulfills his spiritual quest and transcends his
crippled body came from Chrysalis, which I had written in or about 1973-74. See
paragraphs 17 and 18 above.
111. This concept resonated fully with me in the early nineties, only a few
years after my youngest brother John David Cameron fought in Desert Storm as a
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DECLARATION OF JAMES CAMERON