👀 drop the atlantis meta pls. Even just your favourite part or why you love it so much.
I was working on a paper and decided this would be my treat for finishing the part I was on hehe
SO ATLANTIS: I don’t remember the first time that I saw it but it has been my favorite movie for my entire life, and I can quote it on command because this movie RULES. I want to talk about how this movie symbolizes academia and its shortcomings :)))
So Milo Thatch (white MC) is a linguistic anthropologist, which I say because while the movie only says he’s a “linguist” based on his interactions with the cultural context of his languages I would say he’s also in anthro, with an obsession with Atlantis. Now he’s not taken seriously at all but his passion never goes away. He got into academia because his grandfather was in it- one hallmark of academics. It’s normally people who come from college educated families meaning they’re well-off, and in the case of anthropology, far removed from their cultures of study.
Anthropology is historically a tool of violent colonization, literally just a way for colonizing forces to invade indigenous spaces and gather intel on them with the intent to missionize and/or colonize them. The movie takes place in 1914 which is right before WW1 and the use on an international stage of colonies by European forces. During this time, anthropology was also know as an “arm chair science“ meaning that although researchers were talking about intimate aspects of other cultures, they never actually interacted with the cultures they spoke about. Milo is kind of the same- he stays in the basement at the museum and does his research.
It’s not until later that he gets the opportunity to go out and do some hands on work with a long dead culture. He still doesn’t have to put in the work to understand and empathize with real life people- until they find Atlanteans still alive!!!!!!!! (Which is so exciting for me because they were black and extremely technologically advanced to the point where they humble the white people that come in, despite their lack of resources) Then Milo has to confront a living culture which undoubtedly changed beyond his expectations to be different in inumerably ways to afapt to their new location and also simple cultural shift over time.
And he does- he subjects himself to their cultural practices and doesn’t say they’re weird or gross or anything super obviously ethnocentric/racist. He even defends their sovereignty. The crux of the movie is his defense of their culture to not be a tool for white people or frankly to have any kind of relation to them. He risks his life and even more perilously in academia, his reputation to do so.
It reminds me of anthropology’s attempts to do better and advocate for the people it studies in recent years, which is why I an still continuing to pursue it :)
[side note this movie deadass created a whole language for Atlantean who h I think is by the guy who made Klingon. So not only can you speak it but there’s also an alphabet which is read like Ancient Greek in a back and forth motion per line. I also love that the most powerful and beautiful person in the story is a black girl who wants to save her people. She’s tough, fights but she also leads and laughs. I love Kida.]
source: I have a BA in Anthropology and a PhD in Atlantis the Lost Empire
Disclaimer: this isnt to aay the movie isnt free of problems but I just like it!
