30,000 maniacs: what was <em>Serenity</em> trying to say?

Read the Wikipedia backgrounders here, and put emphasis on the reaver backgrounder here.

Read a review that almost surpasses the film itself here.

My take? "Legislation does not engender more moral men."

"Send a gentleman to take on a madman, not another madman."

"Belief is dangerous -- the good kind of dangerous."

(An interesting aside: writer and producer Joss Whedon claims that he is quite a bit more liberal than the main character. "Mal's politics are very reactionary and 'Big government is bad' and 'Don't interfere with my life'," Whedon explains. "And sometimes he's wrong." Frankly I don't believe him. Left-wing political thought is the dress code of the entertainment industry, and I believe that Whedon is simply dressing appropriately.)