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Avatar – Individual Acting Performances -Col Guarlich

The most impressive performance of Avatar is the Colonel, played by Stephen Lang. He’s a one-man recruiting performance for the Marines. He reminded me more of a no-nonsense Chief Master Sergeant, but the rank of Colonel works fine for the movie. From his first in-brief for the newbies on Pandora to the moment he’s shot with arrows “dipped in a neurotoxin that can stop your heart in one minute,” he is the most committed, forceful personality in the movie. He is mission-focused, forceful, tough, and clearly earth-o-centric, until the moment he tells Grace, “I can do that,” in response to her question, “Ranger Rick, what are you going to do? Shoot me?” At that point, glib becomes lack of care, which we do not expect from a committed Marine. He also takes over from the corporate CEO, but the original movie does not show that. You learn that from a deleted scene where the CEO is trying to stop the use of daisy-cutters on the Pandorans’ religious site. After that, the Colonel is ruthless, cavalier, and cruel.

But until then, he is a lovable tough guy, who commands respect, and he is the most focused person on the planet of Pandora. He is lovable because you know, or think, at the beginning that he’s tough because he cares about his people. He seems to truly care about Jake. But there’s something about him; he seems to love war too much. He is tough because he is utterly single-mindedly focused on the mission. At some point, though you realize something has snapped, and he is ruthless and cares nothing for the beings on Pandora, or anyone who gets in the way of the mission.

Two scenes demonstrate that resolute focus and fearlessness. When Jake and his allies escape their confinement to go back to the Pandorans and assist them in their resistance, the Colonel grabs a machine gun and with a quick “masks on” to warn the other humans in the air traffic control tower, he walks out holding his breath and starts firing on the helicopter Jake is in. The other scene is when “Dragon,” his aircraft, is crashing, and he gets into a robot suit while his shoulder is on fire, appearing not to notice. As he prepares the machine for a jump out of the aircraft, he casually brushes the fire off himself with his hand. Throughout the rest of the movie, he is a cornucopia of army lingo and GI Joe brashness and bravado mixed with utter self-confidence and even humor.

The in-brief acquaints you with his personality right away. The key statement from that briefing is: “As head of security, it is my job to keep you alive. I will not succeed . . . not with all of you.” In the deleted portion, he makes the only reference to religion amongst the humans when he refers to the different religious beliefs of the humans. He mentions Muslim, Christian, atheism, etc., indicating a pluralistic society with no one religion dominant. Being on Pandora “is not a cake walk, but the money’s good.” His first private conversation with Jake lets you know about his attitude toward being wounded and scarred on Pandora. “I kind of like it.”

A critical deleted scene evidences a point sometime after the Colonel has clicked a switch in his own mind. Parker Selfridge, the CEO and presumably the man in charge, tries to keep the Colonel from going out with daisy-cutters, and the Colonel grabs him and clearly wants to kill him and says, “You’re a long way from earth.” Once the dogs of war are loosed, it is hard for the civilians to reign it in. Another scene evidencing this complete commitment to the destruction of the Pandorans is his decision to bring down Home Tree, the home of the Pandorans, while Jake and Grace are tied not far from it. It appears that the Colonel feels as scorned by Jake as Neytyri and doesn’t mind sacrificing him or Grace for the sake of the mission, even though there was not urgency time-wise.

A good piece of directoral work occurs in the scene where the Colonel asks Jake, “Haven’t gotten lost in the woods, have you?” In the scene that follows, Jake is clearly too anxious to get back to his Avatar body and become one of the Pandorans through the final ceremony. And the Colonel clearly sees through it also. Lang and Worthington, of course, did fine acting performances in that scene. The Colonel is correct to doubt Jake’s resolve, and Jake has “crossed a line” already; he sees his human existence as the dream world and his Pandoran existence as the real. Biblically, the Colonel, who should’ve known this would happen, is right to mistrust Jake’s motivations, and Jake has simply fulfilled the Deuteronomic warning against becoming too close to the pagans and their worship. He wants to become one of them. His affections, loyalties, and desires are wound up in his life with them. Thus, he becomes like them, in culture, in love, in affection, and in religion.