A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days

The movie brings to a resolution many of the outstanding issues in the Firefly series. We know of the Alliance conditioning that has driven River Tam mad, but we learn of the external experimentation that tormented her psyche--experimentation that represents social engineering run amok and brings about the rise of the Reavers. The tension between Simon and Kaylee is at long last resolved--happily for fans. The tension between Mal and Inara is not yet fully resolved, but by the end, there appears to be a greater understanding between them for the feelings they quite obviously have for one another. And Browncoat fans suffer a heartbreaking loss when they see the fate that befalls the comic relief and the pillar of moral authority on Serenity.

Whether one likes Serenity over the television series will, of course, depend on one's taste. The television series was more humorous and perhaps more flippant (though endearingly so) than is the movie. The movie certainly does not lack for humor, wit and a well drawn set of characters (the Operative is perhaps the best villain I have ever seen--Chiwetel Ejoifor is masterful) and plot (to be sure, the television series helped in this regard). But it is darker. It is significantly more graphic and frightening than some of the things seen on Firefly (I certainly don't mean to say that Serenity is a horror flick). And it is deeply emotional. By the end of the movie, there were viewers who had to wipe away tears. Some of them were my own.

The political element was clear and present. The Alliance is every libertarian-conservative's nightmare. The younger River calls it "meddlesome" and castigates the Alliance for "telling people what to think." The response by her teacher that the Alliance does not tell people what to think, only how to think, is hardly reassuring. The social experimentation that brought about the Reavers and the rightfully negative commentary on it can be understood as an attack on the belief that social engineering and "meddlesome" policy can lead to human perfectability--"a world without sin" as the Operative puts it. The entire Firefly series can, of course, be plausibly and readily understood as an endorsement of libertarianism. Serenity takes matters up a notch with the presentation of a crisis and discover of great gravity and importance and the characters respond with equally great nobility in an eloquent expression of the finest sentiments of libertarianism mixed with personal virtue. Tired of running and hiding, Malcolm Reynolds resolves to take on the Alliance and to stake his ground on letting as many people as possible know of the Alliance's depraved policies. His crew follows him and puts their lives and fortunes at stake--a group of quasi-legal commercial operatives decide that Fate has called upon them to be heroes and respond to the call with heroism entirely worthy of the occasion. There is death. There is love. And there is great bravery and devotion to a beautiful principle. It may not be "Plan A," but Malcolm Reynolds--the ultimate cynic even given his idealistic libertarian inclinations--is prepared to die so that the signal is not stopped. There is a cause larger than oneself. By believing in it and by fighting for it, both the cause is ennobled and then self is served and made stronger.

Coincidentally, after the movie, I went and bought myself a new coat. You can guess the color.