A pitfall posed by good art.
Oct. 6th, 2005 10:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grinninfooleI have just come home from seeing Serenity and I did not enjoy it. If you have not seen the film and don't wish to learn what happens then stop reading now, because I'm otherwise about to spoil it for you.
Serenity is an excellent movie. It's well-made in every respect I can think of. Tight, logical plot, well acted, well-defined and interesting characters, good effects, surprising twists and turns, pathos, drama, whole nine yards. Mr. Whedon made a great piece of art. He also killed off both of my favorite characters, and Wash in a particularly shocking fashion. It certainly served to heighten the tension, tear away any sense of safe distance or that our heroes would come through. Wash's death, especially in an entirely plausible (and yet arbitrary) way, was a bold artistic choice. Book's death made me very sad, as well, in part because I liked him most of all, in part because we'll never learn his story now, and finally because, story-wise, it didn't have to happen that way. It made sense, though. The deaths of Wash and Book filled me with grief, and anxiety for the rest of the crew. It's the mark of great art to provoke a strong emotional response, and to make us deeply believe in complete fiction. This Mr. Whedon has done.
All in all, though, I find myself in a funk after seeing Serenity, all the more for having expected a rush and lift from spending more time with these beloved characters. I had planned to give my mom the Firefly series DVD for Xmas, but now I don't think I will, because I think the movie will bum her out way too much. (She's already depressed because she expects to be dead soon, and, worse, may turn out to be right.) I needed to see it, because I needed to know what happened next, but I don't think I'll ever see it again, just as I don't plan ever to read Barefoot Gen again. Just because it's a great story doesn't mean I like it.
Serenity is an excellent movie. It's well-made in every respect I can think of. Tight, logical plot, well acted, well-defined and interesting characters, good effects, surprising twists and turns, pathos, drama, whole nine yards. Mr. Whedon made a great piece of art. He also killed off both of my favorite characters, and Wash in a particularly shocking fashion. It certainly served to heighten the tension, tear away any sense of safe distance or that our heroes would come through. Wash's death, especially in an entirely plausible (and yet arbitrary) way, was a bold artistic choice. Book's death made me very sad, as well, in part because I liked him most of all, in part because we'll never learn his story now, and finally because, story-wise, it didn't have to happen that way. It made sense, though. The deaths of Wash and Book filled me with grief, and anxiety for the rest of the crew. It's the mark of great art to provoke a strong emotional response, and to make us deeply believe in complete fiction. This Mr. Whedon has done.
All in all, though, I find myself in a funk after seeing Serenity, all the more for having expected a rush and lift from spending more time with these beloved characters. I had planned to give my mom the Firefly series DVD for Xmas, but now I don't think I will, because I think the movie will bum her out way too much. (She's already depressed because she expects to be dead soon, and, worse, may turn out to be right.) I needed to see it, because I needed to know what happened next, but I don't think I'll ever see it again, just as I don't plan ever to read Barefoot Gen again. Just because it's a great story doesn't mean I like it.
