Talk:Serenity (film)/Themes

Below is the lastest version, which needs lots of reworking.... and perhaps some are not really themes so should go, and there could be others that need to be added (Love? Loyalty?).

Themes

Belief

Throughout the film, the beliefs of both the protagonist (Mal) and the antagonist (the Operative) are constantly being called into question, both by themselves and their enemies. It is the Operative and his actions, combined with the urgings of Shepherd Book and the discovery of the secret of Miranda, that convince Mal that he needs a belief in something in order to continue. In contrast, it is both Mal and the discovery of the secret of Miranda which forces the Operative to truly examine the Alliance, who he had willfully followed and blindly believed, and whether or not they are really worthy of his blind devotion.

Totalitarianism

In the film, the Alliance is presented as a mostly benevolent government that has over-extended itself. After waging the Unification War and bringing the whole planetary system under their rule, it set out to make life better for the common people. It brought in a system of government, cheap and available public services (health-care, police forces, etc.) and an enlightened way of thinking. However, the drawback of all the Alliance's benefits is that it demanded the sacrifice of basic personal freedoms. People are taught how to think about the world around them and the people in it. In effect, the Alliance is a benevolent Orwellian society.

It is this totalitarianism that Mal and the crew of Serenity are challenging in the film. They are content to ignore the Alliance and avoid it wherever possible until they discover the physical and ethical atrocities committed on the planet Miranda by members of the Alliance. The horrifying fact that the Alliance unintentionally created the Reavers, the ultimate in human brutality and evil, is secondary to the revelation that the Alliance attempted to biologically alter human beings to fit into its own view of how humans should think and act - and that it honestly believed that it had the right to do so.

During the Unification War, Mal and Zoe were soldiers for The Independent Faction, who were fighting the Alliance's belief that it had the right to govern how people thought and behaved. They believed in the freedom of a person to make their own decisions, either good or bad. In the film, the protagonist and his crew still fight for this.

Sin

In the film, The Operative discusses his ideas of sin. The Operative believes that sin is something that should be exterminated; that it is the scum of humanity that should be eradicated in order for the human race to realize its potential. Since he sees his actions on behalf of the Alliance as most definitely sinful, the Operative acknowledges that, even though he works to create a better world, he will never be able to live as part of it.

Sources found

In an attempt to rewrite this section I've started listing just some excerpts as a placeholder for some themes mentioned by critics or from the official site.

Freedom

this "is an exploration of the meaning of community, maybe even the meaning of democracy" Salon.com

Big Brother/Totalitarianism

"all-powerful Universal Alliance that runs everything in vaguely benevolent button-down Big Brother fashion." Houston Chronicle

"Like Brave New World and 1984, the movie plays like a critique of contemporary society, with the Alliance as Big Brother, enemy of discontent. But as River observes, "Some people don't like to be meddled with."" Roger Ebert

"they find themselves in an action-packed battle between the relentless military might of a totalitarian regime who will destroy anything - or anyone - to get the girl back " Official site

Order and Chaos

"The crew find themselves trapped between the Alliance, who seeks to bring order—wanted or unwanted by their subjects—to these various planets, and the Reavers, who seek wanton chaos and destruction." Official site

Misc

"Instead, it's a character-driven series about fundamental human issues: love, the morality of genetic engineering, big government, etc." Chicago Tribune

"Their nemesis is the Alliance, a sort of militarized United Nations that governs the Central Planets with a utopia-gone-wrong idealism.... The crew and Capt. Mal share a love-hate relationship built on loyalty and self-preservation that is tested at every turn" Los Angeles Times

Themes [a re-do]

[Note: none of this is OR, I've only rephrased what Whedon himself has said]

Totalitarianism - While the film depicts the Alliance as an all-powerful, Big Brother-style regime, Whedon is careful to point out that it's not as simple as that. "The Alliance isn't some evil empire" but rather a force that is largely benevolent. The main problem of the Alliance, is that it is in over its head dealing with all the myriad cultures that it can't control and should not try to.[Director's Commentary, track 11] What the crew of Serenity, and specifically Mal and his lifestyle, represents is that people have the right to be wrong. This is the main message of the film - that no one has the right to impose their views on others, even if it is a better way of thinking.[Director's Commentary, track 17]

Sin and Belief - The Operative embodies the Alliance and as Whedon stated the "perfect product of what's wrong with the Alliance". He is someone who is a force for good, who wants to achieve a "world without sin" and believes this so strongly that he will do anything to achieve it, including risking his soul; whereas Mal is someone who has lost his beliefs.[Director's commentary, track 2; Serenity Visual Companion, p. 21] Someone who cares and believes so strongly about something has the potential to be a monster, and we see in this film the Operative filling this role, and conversely, Mal who has not been an effective leader because he has tried to put that deadly conviction that he used to have (in the Unification War) behind him and knows what it will bring - "I start fighting a war I guarantee you'll see something new" (Mal to Inara foreshadowing his attainment of a belief). By the end of the movie, however, Mal finally believes in something so strongly that in a sense he approaches this potential to be a monster, for he asks the crew to lay down their lives for this belief. [Director's commentary, track 10; track 17] Whedon has said that the most important line in the movie is Mal's line to the Operative "I'm going to show you a world without sin." Whedon's point with this, and with Mal saying he is a "fan of all seven", is that sin is "outdated" and that it is just, quite simply, who we are as humans.[Director's commentary, track 17]

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Notes from me that I don't want to put in yet: Depicts, first line- seems to depict? May seem to depict? Also, not sure about the Big Brother reference. Maybe "authoritarian", or possibly even "orwellian"... Big Brother style just seems very pop culture and not encyclopedic. Really like the redone Sin/Belief section. Right to be wrong... maybe "Right to choose, even if the choice is wrong"? Barnas 01:22, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

I like "seems to depict" and I think you're suggestion to use authoritarian is a good one. On the last, those were his exact words (oops, which I should have put in quotes), so you're wording would be a good way to rephrase what he's saying....plange 01:25, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

If Whedon himself said it, we can use a highly authoritarian system of government, which Whedon himself refered to as "an all powerful, Big Brother style regime". Barnas 01:29, 6 July 2006 (UTC)