I saw Serenity today. I’ve been waiting for that movie ever since I watched all of the episodes of Firefly last fall. I was not disapointed. I’m still trying to assimilate stuff from the movie and I want to write about it, but I don’t want to ruin the movie for those who haven’t seen it, so I’m going to use an LJ cut. Beyond the cut and in the comments there will be movie spoilers. Read further at your own peril.
In enjoyed the whole romp of a movie. I loved the way they introduced back story by making leaps forward in time to clarify who River is. I love the way that the crew of the Serenity takes peril so matter of factly. Rain’s fight scenes were beautiful. She was dancing, only at the end of each dance move there was blood and death. I was a little frustrated with some of the characterizations. For the sake of the movie they had to crank up the tension between the Tam siblings and the Serenity crew. Those tensions had been less tense in the series. But by far the most stunning and affecting scene for me was Wash’s death.
There I was tense-happy with the Serenity diving through that battlefield. Feeling the triumph of their crash landing. I knew they would survive because that is how movies go, but I was loving the ride. Then without warning Wash was suddenly and permanently dead. I went into emotional shock. Part of my brain went into denial and spun wild theories about how he could be saved, but that piece of wood was huge. He was dead and the rest of the crew had to leave him.
From a writer’s standpoint Wash’s death was brilliant, because I as a viewer suddenly believed that all of the other characters could die. Joss Whedon stripped away the security that the heroes would survive. That upped the tension in the rest of the action sequences. Not only that, but I was forced, like the characters to put aside my shock & grief for the duration of the battle. But once battle was over, the tears started and I grieved. That grief lingered through the credits and into the dinner that Howard & I shared afterwards.
Halfway through that dinner I figured out WHY Wash’s death affected me so much. There are few television portrayals of good marriages. Wash & Zoe had a good marriage. I’m mad at Whedon for breaking that up. Not only that, but of all the characters, I identify most with Zoe. We both have happy marriages. We’re both married to non-heroic-appearanced-yet-attractive men who crack jokes and make us laugh and are capable of coming through very thoroughly in time of need. Now Zoe is alone and facing something I never want to have to deal with. She has to go on living without her husband. No wonder I cried so hard.
EDIT on Oct 3 2005: I realized that there are two more things I wanted to say about Serenity and I want to keep all the thoughts in one place. Hopefully none of what I add will invalidate any of the comments below.
First thing: Wash’s dinosaurs were still on the console at the end. Those dinosaurs were how we were first introduced to Wash. After that they just sat there and were never referred to again. It made me cry to see them still there after his death. It is odd how little things can sharpen grief so much.
Second thing: I hate movies that make me cry. And yet I cried harder at the end of Serenity than I have for any other movie in recent remembrance and I loved it. Somehow Joss Whedon made my grief REAL rather than a cinematic trick. So many times I attend movies and am introduced to characters (like children or babies) whose sole purpose is to be threatened and make the audience cry. I may cry, but I hate it, because logically I KNOW I have been tricked. Wash’s death had no sappy music (well until the funeral, but that’s where it belongs), it had no long drawn-out last words, he was suddenly dead and the characters had to move on without him. That is so much more like real death than any other movie portrayal that I’ve ever seen. Death comes suddenly and all chances to say things are gone.
I know exactly what you mean. As an aspiring film maker, Serenity was everything that I could want in a film (I have now seen it twice and will try and hit the theaters at least once or twice more because it was just so good). Anyway, you are totally right about Wash’s death. It was a like I was hit in the stomach and killed myself. Anyway, the 2nd time I watched it, I was absolutely enthralled with the cinematography. Some of the shots were absolutely gorgeous and breath taking. I can only hope that I can do have so well when I make my own movies. Anyway, I’m glad you enjoyed it. I’m trying to introduce the show to as many people as I possibly can…You know…spread the love…well back to homework…ciao…
Exactly exactly exactly.
I’m still aching about Wash.
I relate their relationship, its joshing and love and loyalty, to my relationship with. Zoe and Wash were my absolute favorite tv romance ever.
We’re both married to non-heroic-appearanced-yet-attractive men who crack jokes and make us laugh and are capable of coming through very thoroughly in time of need.
Crap, now I’m crying again.
Zoe will go on. I would go on. I just can’t imagine it, and I don’t want to imagine it.
I saw it for the first time on Friday. I spent the rest of the movie in absolute denial. I left the theater cursing. In the parkinglot I was looking for a way he could be brought back for a sequal. When I got home I fired up the TiVo and watched the latest rerun episode of Firefly off of sci-fi and I wept through most of it. It wasn’t until I saw Serenity again on Saturday that I was able to accept it, and even come to embrace it as a remarkable piece of cinematography.
The second time I saw it, I was able to pay a little more attention to the audience. In the theater I saw it in, some lady literally screamed – as in a full-blown movie-style scream – at the moment the spike hit. Men were sobbing. It was surreal. It may have happened the first time, too, but I wouldn’t have noticed as I was too wrapped up in my own denial.
I have NEVER been effected so strongly by any form of entertainment. Nothing else has been even close. Bravo, Mr. Whedon.
I’ve decided I hope they don’t make a sequel. As much as I love Firefly and would love to see more of it, I have to admit that this was the most solid ending of an entertainment franchise it’s probably possible to make.
They’ve ridden off into the sunset and I conjure they should let them pass into legend.
i found this post thru, and you’ve phrased so many of our thoughts so eloquently, i think.
a friend of mine mentioned the other night hearing that Joss Whedon tells the story the way it needs to be told, regardless of if it’s the way we wish it went.
me and mine have a Zoe+Wash relationship, and as he has health problems, i am terrified of losing him. i cried thru the last half hour of the movie, and for a good half hour after, because he made us care about the characters, care a lot, and because i identified so strongly. thank you for phrasing it so well, and or not locking this post, so that i could read it.
i cried again later, when i thought of Mal piloting with Wash’s dinosaurs all around him. I am marrying my own man next summer, when we will have been together 7 years. longer than Wash and Zoe had. and Joss Whedon has made me value every damn day with him all the more.
Well, unless it does amazingly well internationally, it doesn’t look there will be a sequel. As much as that saddens me, I can accept this as a much more firm ending than we were left from Firefly. I still want to know what Blue Sun had to do with it all, though!
Followed a link to this post – I just wanted to thank you for sharing those thoughts.
I was/am one of the folks who identified deeply with Wash – partly due to the nature of his marriage, partly just because his character is the sort of person I aspire to be. His death hit me hard as well.
My boyfriend [who one day we intend to change to fiance and then husband] is Wash to my Zoe. We have the best relationship I’ve ever been in.
He’s so much the Wash to my Zoe that people mistook him at Dragon*Con for being in costume as Wash. But no — that’s his normal mode of dress.
As a result of my boyfriend being practically Wash and me being attached to the character before getting the boyfriend in the first place, Wash’s death devastated me.
As with others, I followed through a link to this post.
I only want to say, “Thank you.”
From a writer’s standpoint Wash’s death was brilliant, because I as a viewer suddenly believed that all of the other characters could die.
My thoughts exactly.
Oddly, while Shepherd’s death surprised me, it didn’t give me that sense of “Oh man they’re killing off main characters who else is gonna die?” that Wash’s death did. After Wash died, I was suddenly confronted with the possibility that yeah, no one might make it out alive. I still felt pretty confident that they were going to get the message out, but it suddenly seemed plausible that it might be gotten out over the dead and dying bodies of the entire crew.
It made the rest of the movie much scarier for me, and my relief when no one else was killed more profound.
But I am still really mad about Wash dying. ;_; Afterwards, I realized why when I named off to the list of protagonists in the order of my attachment to them, and Wash was something like fourth. Right after Kaylee, Malcolm, and Zoe.
If Kaylee had been killed, I’d’ve been utterly heartbroken.
I added a few more thoughts to my post, specifically about moviemaking. I loved the way that Joss Whedon managed to make me truly grieve rather than using cinematic tricks to trigger tears. That’s material for all kinds of analysis.
But if there is a sequel, it will be written by Joss Whedon. He’s the one who wrote the characters that made you feel this way in the first place. Part of me feels just as you do. Part of me very much wants to see what else Mr. Whedon might have in store.
Thank you for reminding me about the dinosaurs. I meant to put them into my original post. I’ve now edited it to add them.
You’re Welcome!
Shepherd was a character with unrealized potential. I did want to know more of his story, but his death didn’t affect me much. In part because he got a dramatic death scene with last words.
Wash’s character didn’t seem to have the development potential that Shepherd’s did. Instead he was like a piece of structural framework for characterizations. His absense becomes a focus point for ongoing character interactions.
Still Processing…
I saw the movie at 12:01am on opening day. I am still processing the last half-hour of the movie.
I am really not happy with Wash’s death.
I was already in “oh crap, they could all die” mode because, not 30 seconds before Wash’s demise, Joss killed the ship. He killed Serenity! To follow it up with Wash’s death… by the time the fight in the hallway was happening, I was prepared for any and all of them to die. I figured the message would get out, but it would be Blaze of Glory time for the crew.
I’m still not happy about Wash’s death. I’m through the Denial phase. I don’t know if I ever did Bargaining but I did a good spate of Anger there at Joss for killing Wash. And then I realized something:
Wash was complete. He was happy and doing what he loved. His song was not left unsung. Of all the characters in the crew, he was the only one who could die without regret. (Except, possibly, for not being alive anymore.)
At the very end, the gravestones were what got me. And now, I think back: they are the tombstones of the series and show, as well. Fitting tribute to the crew, the series, the franchise. And I think this is why his death is so riveting and keenly felt. This isn’t just good cinema: this is a release for genuine grief.
I think this will be the end of Firefly. A sequel would be… well, it would be filming with the dinosaurs still on the console.
Wash’s death was the part of the movie that I feel didn’t carry well if you hadn’t seen the TV series (which I hadn’t.)
Because I’m familiar with Whedon’s other work, I understood why it was such a big deal, that he would have introduced the character importantly in the series. But the fact is, in the movie he didn’t do a lot to make his death a big deal.
“We didn’t emotionally identify with him enough” is the phrase I realised I meant right after clicking “post”.