Joss Whedon's Big Damn Movie: Essays on Serenity

by Frederick Blichert (Editor)

Overview

When Joss Whedon's television show Firefly (2002-2003) was cancelled, devoted fans cried foul and demanded more--which led to the 2005 feature film Serenity. Both the series and the film were celebrated for their melding of science fiction and western iconography, dystopian settings, underdog storylines, and clever fast-paced dialogue.

Firefly has garnered a great deal of scholarly attention--less so, Serenity. This collection of new essays, the first focusing exclusively on the film, examines its depictions of race, ableism, social engineering and systems of power, and its status as a crime film, among other topics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476632698
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Publication date:	03/19/2018
Series:	Worlds of Whedon
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	242
File size:	3 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Frederick Blichert is an independent scholar, journalist, and film critic. His writing has appeared in VICE, Paste Magazine, CBC, Senses of Cinema, and Bright Lights Film Journal. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Frederick Blichert is an independent scholar, journalist, and film critic. His writing has appeared in VICE, Paste Magazine, CBC, Senses of Cinema, and Bright Lights Film Journal. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Introduction: Spotlight on Serenity
A Reaver in the Writers Room: The Cannibal Approach
to Box Office Fear (London Brickley)
Completion of Character and Relationship in Serenity (S. Evan Kreider)
Death in the ’Verse (H.S. Hobma)
Cassandra Revisited: River Tam, Hysteria and the Politics
of Ecstatic Revenge (Aviva ­Dove-Viebahn)
“Better worlds”: Western Heroes and the Civilized ’Verse (Frederick Blichert)
The Miranda Job: Serenity as Crime Film (Ina Rae Hark)
Overconsumption, the Natural Environment and Lessons from ­Earth-That-Was (Eric Benson)
“Eat them all the time/Let them blow your mind”: River and the Unacknowledged Corporate Hand in Serenity (Erin Giannini)
Failed Experiment: Miranda and the Critique of Social Engineering
(Andrew Howe)
Miranda: Conflicting Anxieties, Ableism and Population Health
(Max Ferguson)
“She’s a creature of extraordinary grace”: Resistance Through
Dance to the Myth of “Civilized Cultures” (Joel Hawkes)
“The Indians ride over the hill”: Revisiting “On the Paradoxical
Construction of the Reavers” (Agnes B. Curry)
Unspeakable Darkness: Truth, Power and the Taboo of Race (Renee St. Louis)
Paint It Red (and Black and Blue): How Joss Whedon
and Jack N. Green Created the Bruised, Beautiful Look
of Serenity (K. Brenna Wardell)
Spaceships as Soundscapes in Serenity (Holly ­Randell-Moon and Arthur J. Randell)
About the Contributors
Index