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Date Posted: 10:55:07 10/08/05 Sat
Author: OnM
Subject: Comments on "Serenity" (*** SPOILERS ***)
In reply to: KdS 's message, "My comments on "Serenity" the movie" on 08:55:16 10/08/05 Sat

Good review.

Some brief thoughs on:

*** To a minor degree I'm talking about River managing to slaughter an entire horde of Reavers, even if she does have super combat conditioning, but I'm mostly talking about what happens with The Operative. Sorry, but this man has been painted throughout the film as a totalitarian fanatic who believes that anything is justified to improve the human race, even down to the slaughter of relatively innocent bystanders by the thousand. ***

Of all the lines uttered by any character in the film, Wash's "leaf on the wind" bit probably holds the most connected subtext in both philosophical and political areas.

Consider that in the Star Wars series, the equivalent phrase "Use the Force, Luke" suggests that one may find success by enlisting divine guidance, although Lucas tries to de-specify the brand of religion by using the generic "Force" as a stand-in for "God".

But consider just what a "leaf on the wind" is. On the surface, it would seem to mean casting one's fate to the wind, or embracing random chance in hopes of a lucky result. This might be literally true, but it's hardly very inspiring, and it isn't what Wash and River are doing. One the other hand, if one interprets the phrase to mean something akin to Paul Simon's lines:

Have you ever experienced a period of grace
When your brain just takes a seat behind your face
And the world begins The Elephant Dance
Everything's funny
Everyone's sunny
You take out your money
And walk down the road

It's not about embracing randomness, it's about tapping into and then directing the power already hidden within. The effect Simon is talking about is one that many of us have experienced, although it's ususally something that happens by accident, and attempts to bring it on voluntarily often result in disaster.

In the cases of both Wash and River, attempts to begin The Elephant Dance have what could only be politely referred to as mixed results. Wash lands the ship, but is killed seconds after doing so. River takes on a ludicrous number of Reavers and kills them all-- only to be confronted by ludicrous numbers of Alliance troops.

But what was the real "period of grace" that saved things? The Operative telling the Alliance men to stand down. And why did he do this? Because Mal believed that even this fanatical man could still be reached, and he turned out to be right.

The Operative's mind exists within a doublethink construct-- he wants to see a better world, a world free of sin, but he can do this only if he ignores any evidence to the contrary on the part of the Alliance, and he has structured his mind to allow doing exactly this.

(I'll avoid going to the current U.S. political realverse for any examples of this concept in action, but those who whish to go there are free to do so-- I suspect Joss didn't miss the connection.)

In the end, Serenity flies again because Mal (and for that matter, all of his crew) embrace the belief in "something" that Book tells him/them to foster.

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