Talk:Serenity (film)/Themes

message: [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 Whedon's point with this, and with Mal saying he is a "fan of all seven", is that sin is "outdated" and that it is just, quite simply, who we are as humans.[Director's commentary, track 17]
-----
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)
replies: text: 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)
replies: text: 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)
thread_title: Themes [a re-do]