Sunday, August 27, 2017

Post 2: My favorite Movie

     "What is your favorite movie?"  That has to be one of my least favorite questions.  I have a very hard time trying to nail it down to one genre let alone one movie.  My usual answer is whatever movie I've seen recently that actually left an impression of some kind.  For the purposes of this post however, I'll nail it down to one movie in particular.  Serenity is my movie of choice.  So far as the literal meaning of the movie.  That is pretty basic.  There are bad guys chasing the good guys across the galaxy.  Backstory being the good guys are just trying to survive.  They do so in ways that might conflict with a set of values that are based upon a different perspective.  To fly and keep on flying as long as you can is the captains mantra.

The literal interpretation of the movie is a pirate crew flying smuggling missions in the face of the federation.  The easy motivation is money.  Obviously when you rely on fuel to live in deep space jobs that bring in credits become very important.  However, the rebellious spirit of the captain and the loyal crew quickly conflict with the nature of federation rule.  The struggle of man vs. monetary requirement quickly turns into man vs. system.  The fight against poverty coincides with the fight against the powerful central government.

     The literal fight that the crew of the Serenity has is man vs. environment.  As they are fighting against dying from the dangers of space travel and the pursuit of the federation.  The figurative interpretation is the crew against the oppression of a higher power that threatens not only their literal survival but the bonds that have been made between them.  It becomes a fight against "The Man" and "The Ship"  The fight against the man embodies all that we strike out against when it comes to equality and how we see ourselves rightly coinciding with our fellow man.  The captain who has already fought on the opposite side of the federation has to balance the needs of the crew with his own values.  He has to walk the line between figurative and literal interpretation of his own reality. 

     Captain Reynolds has to constantly make the choice between figurative and literal realities. It makes him seem uncaring in the short term but once you watch the entire (series and movie) you realize that he has balanced as best he can the two.  I think that once all is said and done.  The best story, character, motive you can have is split between the literal and figurative. 

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