New York Times columnist David Brooks writes about this "fable" tendency in US movies. He notes it was found in "A Man Called Horse" and "Dances with Wolves" and is now a main theme in the movie "Avatar". The fable is of a white hero who becomes part of a native culture and leads them to victory over his own more powerful society. Brooks says: "It rests on the sterotype that white people are rationalist and technocratic while colonial victims are spiritual and athletic. It rests on the assumption that nonwhites need the White Messiah to lead their crusades". He says this fable is "...kind of offensive".
(Source: "Messiah complex on film" by David Brooks of the New York Times. In The Virginian Pilot on 1/11/10)
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