Has "Firefly" encouraged you to learn more about The Civil War or "The Wild West"? by Ringwraith

GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

Has "Firefly" encouraged you to learn more about The Civil War or "The Wild West"?

POSTED BY: RINGWRAITH
UPDATED: Friday, October 25, 2002 12:09
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VIEWED: 3588
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Wednesday, September 25, 2002 1:16 PM

This past week PBS has been airing Ken Burns epic documentary "The Civil War." I saw bits of it when it first aired but never did catch it in repeats. I've been watching it this week (I'll also be purchasing it on DVD in the future) but that's mostly because as a Canadian I find the Civil War interesting and would watch it anyway.

What I'm wondering is if anyone has gained interest in it (the Civil War--not necessarily the documentary) due to it being the inspiration for "Firefly" and if anyone has watched the PBS documentary because of it, or read books, etc?

Also, has anyone wanted to learn more about what life was like back in "the wild west"? Or maybe watch a few westerns? I like westerns anyway (which might be why I don't mind the pistols/horses aspect of the series) but maybe some people don't but might want to watch one or two "for the hell of it." BTW, can't go wrong with something like "Stagecoach," "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance," "High Noon" or "The Magnificent Seven" to name just a few.

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"How will this end?"
"In fire."
--Babylon 5, 'The Coming of Shadows'
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Wednesday, September 25, 2002 1:40 PM

MOJOECA

After hearing from Joss that FIREFLY was really just STAGECOACH and THE SEARCHERS, I rented both. They're great movies. And there is a lot of rather obvious story and character elements in them that are also present in FIRE.

Nathan Fillion said Joss told him to watch these films and another called ULZANA'S RAID. I haven't been able to find it at my local Blockbuster.

--- Joe

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Wednesday, September 25, 2002 1:42 PM

NESS

I was looking into finding the book that inspired Joss to create Firefly, The Killer Angels, but I haven't found it yet.

I also wouldn't mind seeing The Searchers. Supposely that has a connection to Firely, too.

"Sir, I think you have a problem with your brain being missing." - Zoe

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Wednesday, September 25, 2002 2:52 PM

DELVO

I'm not LETTING myself get enthusiastic about this show as I would otherwise, because I know Fox bigshots want to destroy it and the ratings will allow them to do so by not being stunningly stellar... and because the last show that I thought started off so awsome, Andromeda, has betrayed me.

Similarly, the last time a show inspired me to check out something brought up by the show, I was disappointed; Nietzsche and Rand are TERRIBLE authors.

But even without this, I doubt that I would have really thought of getting into anything "Western" because of this show. It's just not an interesting era to me and most Westerns I've seen have not been impressive. In short, to me, Firefly outdoes anything of the "Western" theme so far, to the point that the supposed association is not a good thing for Firefly, so why take the step down?

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Wednesday, September 25, 2002 4:06 PM

JAYNESGIRLFRIEND

Quote:
Originally posted by Delvo:
I'm not LETTING myself get enthusiastic about this show as I would otherwise, because I know Fox bigshots want to destroy it and the ratings will allow them to do so by not being stunningly stellar... and because the last show that I thought started off so awsome, Andromeda, has betrayed me.

Take heart, Delvo, as far as I know Kevin Sorbo is in no way involved in any aspect of the production of Firefly so I think we'll be Ok.

I almost picked up a copy of "Killer Angels" a couple of days ago, but I'm still not quite willing to admit that I'm that addicted to the show.

Oh and since I'm terribly biased against the singer Jewel, I'll go ahead and warn everyone to avoid the Civil War movie "Ride with the Devil". I know its about the Bushwhackers so it seems all relevant and stuff, but trust me, that way lies complete and utter boredom. And the extreme annoyance that is the singer Jewel.

"I was gonna get me an ear, too." - Jayne

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Wednesday, September 25, 2002 5:18 PM

JERRY

I've already read "The Killer Angels". It's a fairly old book, by Michael Shaara. If you haven't read it, it's well worth tracking down - not to make you love Firefly more, but just because it's a terrific book. It also served as the inspiration for the movie/TNT miniseries "Gettysburg".....

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Wednesday, September 25, 2002 5:49 PM

JASONZZZ

I assume that we are talking about the fictional wild west - ie. as portraited in hollywood movie westerns - vs. the real life wild west.

Are we talking about the landrush period wild west or the the one with the cowboy and ranchhands? I like the idealistic portrayal of the "wild Americas" that Hollywood provide; but the wildwest didn't really coincide with the cowboy periods. And cowboys were never the rough and tough Clint Eastwood types anyways. I don't think most Americans (let alone non-US folks) realize how much of a complete invention our history is.

Take for example, what ought to be a small and insignificant Russian Thistle (or Tumbleweed) is actually not a native American plant at all! Tumbleweed is actually a noxious plant contaminating the Russian wheat that was introduced into the country with Russian and slavic immigrants in the 1890's. Most Hollywood westerns supposedly portraying the wildwest period of the 1870-1880's include gunfight scenes with tumbleweeds 'tumbling' across the street. Those non-existent cowboys in the practically non-existent gunfights would not even have known what a tumbleweed was, let along seeing one. Because they would not have been introduced into the country yet. In fact, by the time, the tumbleweed was introduced, the cowboy way of life was on the wane as railroads were on the boom and would eventually drive out the cowboy way of life within the next 10-15 years.

Yes, most everything in Hollywood westerns doesn't jive with real life history - mere imagination of the snake-oil salesmen and likes of Buffalo Bill Cody in the 1900's. But who cares, it's all fun to imagine that things like gunfights in the streets and the shootouts (real rarities when they happened) really happened every other day!

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Friday, September 27, 2002 6:52 PM

CANTINERA

I enjoy History of the American West, so if I see a Western well done - I quite like it. I took a class on the AW, and it is very interesting to see the contrast with the Hollywood take on it. Some of the "legends" have very interesting background stories which don't resemble anything like the stories told of them.

Anyway, I will check out some of the recs made here when I get some time.

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Tuesday, October 1, 2002 4:59 PM

GTHING

I think I will watch Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid again sometime soon. I see many similarities between the crew of Serenity and those famous outlaws whom were portrayed extremely well on film.

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Friday, October 25, 2002 12:09 PM

GTHING

A couple of weeks ago I did watch a lot of Ken Burns' The Civil War on PBS. From there, I found out that The Killer Angels also inspired Burns to make that ambitious documentary.

Coincidence? -- I doubt it.

Exerpt from My Genre Geek Resume:
~huge Odyssey 5 fan
~former Andromeda fan

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