Auteur, James Cameron
Auteur theory is a filmmaking concept that states the main person or author behind the creative force of a movie is the director. It can be unusual to think that one person is responsible for a whole film's creativity, considering the collaborative nature of filmmaking, especially when that person isn't the script writer. However, for a director, it's more than just being an author of a book or screenplay. The director helps everyone and everything come together for his vision and execution of the script. He foresees everything from audio to the visual elements of the movie. These components of lighting, scene length, and camera position communicate the overall message of the movie more than the screenwriter ever could. More so, supporters of this theory say that the most successful movies will have the distinct stamp from the director, a signature style that can be seen throughout their movies. Whether viewing the blood and gore of a Tarantino film or the dark and gothic style of a Tim Burton film, it is clear that the director plays a robust role in the movie’s creation. Describing Auteur Theory, it is apparent that James Cameron exemplifies qualities of being an Auteur director considering his involvement in the filmmaking process and his trademark styles seen throughout his movies.
James Cameron has made a lot of blockbuster movies and, with each viewing, you could tell he has this certain style he brings to every film. One aspect that can be seen in both Avatar and Titanic is scale. When Cameron shows you the world of the movie, it’s usually from fleeting aerial shots of massive things like the floating islands of Pandora or the Titanic ship itself. The world is busy, everything is moving with everyone having a particular part in it like the engine workers getting the gears pumping on the Titanic to the soldiers in exo-suits hauling equipment to the Pandora facilities. There's an excitement in the air and Cameron shows you this every step of the way when discovering this new world. This scale could be accounted for by Cameron's ability to have the biggest budgets in Hollywood. Titanic and Avatar at the time had huge budgets of over 200 million dollars.
Another staple of Cameron film is his focus on strong female characters. In his film Terminator, Cameron shows us Sarah Connor. In the beginning, Sarah is just a victim to Skynet’s intentions to change the past, but later she ends up taking up her situation and turning into a vital figure in the battle towards the machines. In Terminator 2, she finds strength from her son and decides to fight back. In Aliens, Cameron does the same with Ellen Ripley, giving her motivation to protect a little girl. It shows Sigourney Weaver's maternal side and her extremely protective nature for this child substitute. The emotional core of the movie comes from these relationships of strong mothers. You can really tell these characters aren’t just action heroes who happen to be female. Even in Titanic, Rose isn't your standard female love interest. She is going through hard family problems at the beginning of the story but by the middle, she ends up saving Jack when he gets shackled down in the basement level of the Titanic. By the end, when the Titanic sinks, it jumps back to the present to Rose’s character as the storyteller. The film is staged from Rose’s perspective looking back in the past. Cameron, by giving this perspective of Rose, shows her character's strength and what she’s gone through. Lastly in Avatar, we see Neytiri as a very strong female that fights with Jake when the soldiers come to take their homeland.
Another aspect that James Cameron utilizes in all his films is technology. In Terminator, Cameron made use of stop motion special effects and sophisticated prosthetics mixed with special effects which ended up being a big part of the film. In Aliens, Cameron used miniatures and mirror shots to make the film appear bigger. For Terminator 2, Cameron built technology to create the morphing T-1000. It set a new standard for CGI, having the most CGI effects in any film at the time which ultimately won the Academy Award in 1992 for best visual effects. In Titanic, Cameron not only used CGI special effects, but also built massive sets to create his vision for realism. He mixed model work with CGI people to make the ship appear in all its glory. Also, for the other major shots of Titanic, Cameron himself went underwater in a submarine to capture the footage. Titanic also won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects in 1998. For Avatar, Cameron was so insistent in making the world how he wanted it that he waited twelve years after Titanic was released to make sure the technology was up to par with his creative vision. He used cutting edge 3D motion capture technology to show characters and scenes in 100% CGI. Avatar ended up becoming an innovation in CGI and performance capture technology.
A big theme James Cameron explores in a lot of his films is mistrust for big business and machine vs nature. This can be seen in Terminator. The film focuses on the relationship between man and machine.  It tackles mankind's dependence on technology and how it can eventually turn to the downfall of the world if not stopped. In Aliens, the idea of man vs nature takes a more real sense when marines fight of the Xenomorph. Mankind uses their technology to go against the Xenomorphs, but it proves insufficient. The danger of nature is seen even more in Titanic. In the movie, Cameron explores the overabundant confidence in mankind's technology. The ship is described as “Unsinkable” but with this overconfidence, nature runs its course and takes out the Titanic. For Avatar, Cameron had intentional means to explore the conflict that can happen between nature and technology. In the movie, mankind is using technology to mine precious materials on Pandora. While this can benefit humanity, it endangers the Na’vi and their environment. This conflict ends up being a full battle between the humans and the Na’vi. Cameron takes the side of the environmentalist and how tribal and nature-loving people are the good guys in opposition to a technologically advanced society.
Lastly, contrasting James Cameron to someone who isn’t considered Auteur, we could see a lot of differences. Someone who’s not Auteur, for example, is someone who can direct a movie, but if taken away from the director's seat, there would be no major changes in quality or strength of the movie. This can be seen in movies like the Disney remakes, Avengers movies, or just someone who is a practitioner of filmmaking like John Sturges. Non Auteur directors are usually unknown and are hired to get the job done according to what’s popular or just what’s needed. We could immediately see this isn’t the case for James Cameron considering if we were to take James Cameron off the seat as the Director of Titanic it wouldn’t be what it is today. Also for Avatar, its commercial tagline wasn’t big explosions, action, and sex, but it was commercialized as being a James Cameron film or coming from the brilliant mind behind Titanic.
It is clear that a lot of things make a movie a James Cameron film. It can be evident that James Cameron can be described as auteur but even still, some would disagree and say that his styles aren't visible or distinct enough to be considered Auteur. Also, another thing to note about Auteur theory is that in its strictest sense, if the director is also the writer, then that person shouldn’t be considered an Auteur Director which would disqualify James Cameron. The clear thing about James Cameron is his love for filmmaking, especially the science fiction genre, which makes up the majority of his films. His creative passion can be felt throughout all his movies and most people would seem to agree considering his movies were once the highest grossing movies in the world by a long shot with Titanic and Avatar having a worldwide gross of over 2 billion dollars.