3.4 family meeting #1

[wposflv src=http://www.wiredcrow.com/serenity_analysis/videos/03-04-01.flv]
  • This discussion is happening in the kitchen implying a much more family-like discussion which is a sharp contrast to some of the previous conversations like the one in the hangar
  • When Jayne asks “Why did you bring him back on?”, Mal can’t answer, unlike his sharp immediate retort when Zoe questions him about leaving the man behind in the Reavers attack in Act 1
    • There are lots of implications to this but one interpretation is that Mal’s actions and instincts of survival comes from a place of logic, while his rescue of River, of acting against the need for survival comes from a more instinctual place.
    • This is another important aspect of the theme, of the desire to act based on a belief greater than oneself.
  • The camera work here is panning back and forth quickly to show the escalating anger again, with the speaker whose point of view is being expressed, taking the dominant lower right half of the screen.
    • This perspective is used when Mal talks about River as whether she’ll wake up as the girl or the weapon. The camera pans to Kaylee, to emphasize “girl” and Jayne, to emphasize “weapon”. As we have seen so far, Kaylee is the fairly innocent, definitely non violent one, where as Jayne is only too happy to use weapons. This may reflect how Mal sees them as well. Due to the challenge of the movie based on the series, Whedon has to rely on a lot of this kind of subtle camera work to explain roles and perceptions in order to not estrange new audiences, especially since much of it has been already explained through the series.