Abstract:

In this study, James Cameron's Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) is analyzed through qualitative descriptive content analysis in terms of the basic concepts and elements of ecologism ideology within the framework of thematic tendencies and motifs in the film. Although ecologism is divided into many different approaches, the core ideas and concepts that shape this micro-ideology are defined as holism, sustainability, environmental ethics, self-realization, redefining and redesigning the relationship between humans and nature, protecting the integrity of nature and life forms, encouraging variations on integrity, and the concrete and immediate implementation of qualitative life forms. In post-2000 American science fiction blockbuster films, the Avatar, which stands out with a strong ecological emphasis, and the second film of the series, Avatar: The Way of Water, is selected as a purposive sampling for the analysis. As a result, it was observed that, The Way of Water deals with the ideas that shape ecologism, that the ecologist perspective expressed as "shallow ecologism" has a stronger place, and that the relationship between nature, humans and species is reinterpreted with a balanced perspective that questions the relatively hierarchical place of humans. The thematic concentration and motifs in the film about the outcasts, the contrast between the new and the old generation in the process of cultural transmission, and the attitude towards persistent struggle in narrative structure provide a discussion on the limits of classical/mainstream cinema.

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