If you’ve missed the series Firefly, you may go to Hulu right now and start catching up. It was canceled after one season but managed to produce not only a huge cult following but also a feature film entitled Serenity.
Following up on the series, and assuming for the most part that you know the characters and their ways from there, the film focuses on the desire of the
intergalactic alliance (think “the Empire”) to recapture River, a young woman who has taken up with a former freedom fighter (think “the rebel alliance”) and his crew–a posse that now steals and trades whatever they can to make a buck off of their Firefly Class spaceship named Serenity.
This is called a “space western” on many of the sites, and the name is apt (think “first three Star Wars movies, with their western hero Han Solo / Luke Skywalker”). Heck, so long as I’m making Star Wars references, there’s even a scene where the good guy and bad guy duke it out on some catwalks. But I digress.
A few interesting themes pervade the movie, and I’d encourage you, should you dive into this world with its cult following, to keep your eyes and ears open for them.
One of the characters is a “shepherd,” a futuristic sort of monk/pastor. He encourages the main cowboy type, Mal, to believe–even if he doesn’t believe in God, to believe in something. There’s a running theme in the film about the power of belief itself. It’s worth keeping your ears out for that.
One of the core conflicts in the movie seems to revolve around that idea of belief. The alliance believes that it can compel people to be better, to a better way of life. Mal and his posse represent the opposite. Mal says he doesn’t believe we can make people better.
As Mal dukes it out with a guy who always seems to be dressed in black (or dark purple), their different beliefs come to the fore again. Evil dude is a top flight assassin, who is striving to create “a world without sin”–a world that will hold no place for himself, he well knows. The conflict of the film is resolved when Mal presents an alternative means to that world without sin: not killing the girl, River, but telling the galaxies the truth about the Alliance.
In the end, Mal tells the secret of survival to River as they fly off for their next journey: love. It was love that enabled River to be freed from the Alliance in the first place. It is love that allows the crew of Serenity to survive.
Especially for a “space western,” this was a well-told story whose thematic riches might be easy to miss within the otherwise predictable action-hero adventure.
Ah! At last we find ourselves in hearty agreement. I need to dust of Firefly again.
I remember this scene in particular between River and Shepherd Book.
Book: What are we up to, sweetheart?
River Tam: Fixing your Bible.
Book: I, um…
[alarmed]
Book: What?
River Tam: Bible’s broken. Contradictions, false logistics – doesn’t make sense.
[she's marked up the bible, crossed out passages and torn out pages]
Book: No, no. You-you-you can’t…
River Tam: So we’ll integrate non-progressional evolution theory with God’s creation of Eden. Eleven inherent metaphoric parallels already there. Eleven. Important number. Prime number. One goes into the house of eleven eleven times, but always comes out one. Noah’s ark is a problem.
Book: Really?
River Tam: We’ll have to call it early quantum state phenomenon. Only way to fit 5000 species of mammal on the same boat.
[rips out page]
Book: River, you don’t fix the Bible.
River: It’s broken. It doesn’t make sense.
Book: It’s not about making sense. It’s about believing in something, and letting that belief be real enough to change your life. It’s about faith. You don’t fix faith, River. It fixes you.
” It was love that enabled River to be freed from the Alliance in the first place. It is love that allows the crew of Serenity to survive.”
Well said! I loved that final scene and I think it gives the foundation/underpining through which to view not only the film but the entire series. Strong theme of community running through the series as well…
Yeah, love that quote too!
This past winter I knit a “Jayne hat” for each of my daughters and mailed them with a nearly verbatim copy of Mother Cobb’s note to her son.. I know this bit of trivia doesn’t really address the post here, but diehard Firefly fans will know what I’m talking about.
I feel obliged to tell you his name isn’t Max. It’s Mal, as in short for Malcolm.
Oops. I got it right once, fingers went into auto pilot on the others. O, the horror, the horror!
Thanks!
Incredible series. Watching it through for the third time right now (different crowd each time that need to see it!)
Ah Firefly and Serenity … I am a huge fan. I’ve seen the series at least 3 times now and I’ve lost track how many times I’ve seen Serenity. (I own the DVD.)
Jayne was my favorite character (next to Mal of course).