Ceci n’est pas une Western
Oct. 21st, 2005 12:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hazelkFirefly was often billed as a Western in space and it’s hard to argue with that. Serenity has the space part but the Western? I think it’s really not.
I’m thinking what makes a Western is more than cowboys and Indians, than hoop skirts and ten gallon hats. True, the genre has its origins in a period of American history when those were the style of the day. But, whatever the clothes they wear, history is written by the victors and for the victors of that time and that place the story was about bringing civilisation to a wild country. In Westerns the enemy is nature. Hostile, uncomprehending, vaster than empires, implacable, inhuman, chaotic, enduring. In the early years of the genre embodied by the Apache, by the lawless elements of pioneer society, cattle rustlers, gunslingers, gypsies, tramps and thieves. Later it became more complicated as to who the white hats were. Authority figures, the cattle barons, the defenders of chaotic old West values fell under suspicion and the Indians were often the good or at least the innocent guys. With the rise of the psychological Western in the 50’s the enemy was internalised, the passion for revenge. And by the time of the genre’s final flowering, in The Wild Bunch and its ilk, the antagonist was progress, but progress perceived from the viewpoint of those left behind, as implacable and incomprehensible an opponent as the desert ever was.
In Firefly the Alliance is a shadowy non-entity and the enemy is space, it’s the black that enters a man’s soul and drives him mad. But in Serenity the scariest place in the ‘verse is inside River’s head and the Reavers are man made. Serenity is not a Western. Serenity with its zen stylings, its cherry blossom on the wind philosophising, its ninja assassins, Serenity is a Japanese horror movie with guns.
I’m thinking what makes a Western is more than cowboys and Indians, than hoop skirts and ten gallon hats. True, the genre has its origins in a period of American history when those were the style of the day. But, whatever the clothes they wear, history is written by the victors and for the victors of that time and that place the story was about bringing civilisation to a wild country. In Westerns the enemy is nature. Hostile, uncomprehending, vaster than empires, implacable, inhuman, chaotic, enduring. In the early years of the genre embodied by the Apache, by the lawless elements of pioneer society, cattle rustlers, gunslingers, gypsies, tramps and thieves. Later it became more complicated as to who the white hats were. Authority figures, the cattle barons, the defenders of chaotic old West values fell under suspicion and the Indians were often the good or at least the innocent guys. With the rise of the psychological Western in the 50’s the enemy was internalised, the passion for revenge. And by the time of the genre’s final flowering, in The Wild Bunch and its ilk, the antagonist was progress, but progress perceived from the viewpoint of those left behind, as implacable and incomprehensible an opponent as the desert ever was.
In Firefly the Alliance is a shadowy non-entity and the enemy is space, it’s the black that enters a man’s soul and drives him mad. But in Serenity the scariest place in the ‘verse is inside River’s head and the Reavers are man made. Serenity is not a Western. Serenity with its zen stylings, its cherry blossom on the wind philosophising, its ninja assassins, Serenity is a Japanese horror movie with guns.
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Date: 2005-10-21 01:10 pm (UTC)I mentioned they dropped the western frontier theme too. But I don't think that Serenity was a Japanese horror movie with gun. The Asian style is just on the surface, the spirit isn't Asian at all.
Chani
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Date: 2005-10-21 03:49 pm (UTC)The Japanese thing was more of a joke but I have big problems trying to classify the film at all (and am beginning to feel like my father-in-law who could never laugh at a movie untill he's been told it was a comedy). It's easier to see what it's not. More than one person had pointed out the missing Western elements, I was trying to pin down the thematic difference. But the ending is too happy for a horror movie and while the Operative could be a character in a martial arts movie (the whole blind duty thing) but it's not about him. The science doesn't make enough sense for hard sci fi but its' too gritty for Star Wars style fantasy and so on. Joss did say he was aiming for a Hong Kong sensibility a sort of genre chop suey. Maybe that's the answer.
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Date: 2005-10-22 03:35 am (UTC)I have yet to see this film though I know Joss was deeply influenced by it and mentioned the Angel finale drawing on it. But boy, if that doesn't describe the Firefly concept.
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Date: 2005-10-22 04:10 pm (UTC)And changing subject completely, I noticed you recced Luminosity's Mr Brightside a while back - she has a new site
(http://www.slum.slashcity.com/lum/eyecandy/) and a new and wonderful Illyria and Wes vid (There, There) at the top of the Angel section. See what you think.
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Date: 2005-10-23 01:24 am (UTC)