Nausicaa week one

This was my first time watching Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. It was amazing. It was surprisingly hard to give the film my full attention because I was constantly comparing it to Avatar. All I was thinking was, "Why is this film so much better than Avatar yet so much less appreciated?" As I walked to my apartment I contemplated the messages in each of the films and how they play out in the end. I decided that Avatar had an empty resolution. What I mean by this is that Jake Sully has escaped from the evils of humans and has moved on to live a better life. This is wonderful when we are in the theater and joined with the characters of the film, but once we leave the theater they leave us here on earth to rot in our own evils. In Nausicaa, all of the humans join together to save ourselves and our planet. In the end we watch together as our sacrifices and struggles have paid off; we have kept our lives and created new bonds with former enemies. This ending was much more meaningful to me because I felt involved and inspired to take that strength and face the problems of our own world.

The problem that is affecting my world the most right now is the financial crisis of our country. It is beginning to feel like we are close to a financial apocalypse. I almost want an apocalypse to happen just to bring our country back to more clear thinking. We have all gotten so distracted by consumerism and the nuclear family that we've forgotten all other ways to live. To me Nausicaa is a good wake up call; it reminds us that in the face of destruction sacrifice and bravery are necessary. Nausicaa risks her life to try to save nature and her fellow humans. Also, in the end everyone was happy, not because they were back to normal, but because they were still alive and they still had each other. I think in our economic situation we can come up with a better plan to revive the economy if we all just sacrifice a little bit of what we know and love. I won't go any further except to say that what I learned from Nausicaa is far more than what I learned from Avatar and that lesson was one of sacrifice.