Special Topics in Film Studies: Joss Whedon

1. Special Topics in Film Studies: Joss Whedon Dr. David Lavery Fall 2014 PH 322, M 600-900

2. What precisely did Whedontake away from Wesleyan? After making an obscure reference in an interview to Deep Rising (Stephen Sommers, 1998), Whedon acknowledges, “Yes, I'm quoting a Stephen Sommers movie—my knowledge of fimis that deep” (IGN-Film Force). With the help of the film studies auteur’s DVD commentaries and interviews we get a sense of just how deep. Not all the cinematic intertexts detailed below date back to Whedon’s film education, but his signature importation of theme and technique from film history into his (mainly) television art had its beginnings in Wesleyan classrooms. Special Topics in Film Studies: Joss Whedon What Whedon Learned at Wesleyan

3. At the outset of his commentary on “Innocence” (2.14), Whedon acknowledges that every aspiring television director thinks of his work, however, minor it may be, as equal in weight and importance to Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)—which, should we have forgotten, he describes as a “black and white film about a bald guy.” Special Topics in Film Studies: Joss Whedon What Whedon Learned at Wesleyan

4. The clash in the Buffy opening theme music, in which the drone of an organ, a staple of horror movie music, is replaced by rock and roll, was intended to signal that Buffy would not play by the rules of the traditional horror film. This collision is echoed, as Whedon also points out, in the frequent altercations between Giles, whose generic roots are in the Van Helsings of British horror, and Buffy. Special Topics in Film Studies: Joss Whedon What Whedon Learned at Wesleyan

5. The backward head-butt Buffy uses in the showdown with Luke in The Bronze (in “The Harvest,” BtVSS1.2) was inspired by Abel Ferrara’s China Girl (1987). • Describing the final showdown with The Judge in the shopping mall in “Innocence,” Whedon acknowledges that the slow-motion violence of the scene is his “incredibly low budget attempt” to “do Peckinpah.” Special Topics in Film Studies: Joss Whedon What Whedon Learned at Wesleyan

6. As Drusilla and Angelus flee from the oncoming rocket Buffy uses to destroy The Judge, Whedon admits his indebtedness to a similarly choreographed scene in Luc Besson’sThe Professional (aka Leon, 1994) (“Innocence”). Special Topics in Film Studies: Joss Whedon What Whedon Learned at Wesleyan

7. With images from Blue Velvet in mind, Whedon describes the sex scene between Buffy and Angel in “Innocence” as Lynchian. • Discussing his love of long takes (“one-ers”), he cites the influence of French New Wave director [Max] Ophüls and American auteur Woody Allen. And he seeks to distinguish his intention in using them from the style of “Brian DePalma-see-how-far-I-can-take-my-steadicam-before-I-run-out-of-film” (“Innocence”). Special Topics in Film Studies: Joss Whedon What Whedon Learned at Wesleyan

8. In Whedon’s eyes, the three-way standoff in “Innocence” between Xander and Jenny Callendar, Angelus (holding Willow captive), and Buffy (the scene in which Angelus first reveals himself without a soul to the Scoobies) evokes the style of a gunfight in a western (the films of Spaghetti-Western master Sergio Leone are alluded to). In the same scene, the shot of Angelus in vamp face standing in shadow, not quite visible, in the school doorway recalls for Whedon the Joker's first appearance before Boss Grissom in Tim Burton's Batman (1989). Special Topics in Film Studies: Joss Whedon What Whedon Learned at Wesleyan

9. Emphasizing his view that a horror narrative should abide by its own rules and exhibit internal consistency, Whedon speaks sarcastically of the scene in Blade (Steven Norrington, 1998) in which vampire Deacon Frost is able to walk in sunlight thanks to his use of a special sunscreen (“The Harvest”).* • “Restless” (BtVS 4.22) has several shots that are The Limey-ish(Steven Soderberg, 1999), and Buffy’s mom in the wall was suggested by Orson Welles’ The Trial (1962). • ______ • * With great embarrassment Whedon points out a few moments—the scene in “The Harvest,” for example, in which Angel is clearly standing in sunlight—in which Buffy unintentionally violates its own rules. Special Topics in Film Studies: Joss Whedon What Whedon Learned at Wesleyan

10. The one-er that follows the doctor from the morgue to his meeting with the Scoobies in “The Body” (5.16), Whedon acknowledges, was “borrowed” from Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia (1999): “What can I say?” Whedon confesses on the DVD. “I’m a hack.” Moments later, a wide-angle shot, “where everything is a bit too big, wide, and harsh,” evokes Stanley Kubrick. • Kubrick would be on Whedon’s mind as well in recollecting the filming of The Cabin in the Woods (directed by Drew Goddard): “We had been in the woods—we actually shot the cabin stuff first—and then to bring them to this stark, white Kubrick-esque place was so startling” (CW: OVC 36). Whedon is probably thinking of the Ludovico labs in A Clockwork Orange (1971) or perhaps the space station in 2001 (1968). Special Topics in Film Studies: Joss Whedon What Whedon Learned at Wesleyan

11. Buffy’s in-a-cemetery rendition of “Going Through the Motions” in “Once More with Feeling” was an homage to the “I Want” songs in Disney/Howard Ashman-Alan Menken musicals (Little Mermaid [Ron Clements and John Musker, 1989],* Beauty and the Beast [Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, 1991]). Spike’s number, “Rest in Peace,” on the other hand, was inspired by both Brigadoon (Vincente Minnelli, 1954) and West Side Story (Robert Wise, 1961). • _____________ • *Whedonlaments to Jim Kozak that “the animated musical died with Howard Ashman” (JWC 92). Special Topics in Film Studies: Joss Whedon What Whedon Learned at Wesleyan

12. The tone of “Doublemeat Palace” (BtVS 6.12) was suggested by Parents (Bob Balaban, 1989), which Whedon made screenwriter Jane Espenson watch (Kaveney, “Writing the Vampire Slayer” 114). • That early slow-mo of Angel walking toward the camera in “City of” (Angel 1.1)—John Woo indebted. • Whedonhad asked Russ Berryman, DP on Angel, to light the confrontation between Gunn and Wesley in “Spin the Bottle” (Angel 4.6) to make Angel Investigations’ “muscle” look like Michael Corleone in Godfather III (Francis Ford Coppola, 1990). Special Topics in Film Studies: Joss Whedon What Whedon Learned at Wesleyan

13. The “Moulin Rougeiness” and “almost mannered” stylization of “Waiting in the Wings” is an amalgam of Vincent Minnelli, BazzLuhrman, and Douglas Sirk (Angel 3.13). • The second fight outside “The Well” in “A Hole in the World” (Angel 5.15) would use a “45 shutter thing” indebted to both Gladiator (Ridley Scott, 2000) and Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg, 1998). (He also acknowledges a possible dept in the name of “The Well” to the “Well of Souls” in Raiders of the Lost Ark (Spielberg, 1981). Oh, and a shot of Wesley and Fred at the beginning of the 4th act elicits an unexplained “Ingmar Bergman” from Whedon. Special Topics in Film Studies: Joss Whedon What Whedon Learned at Wesleyan

14. John Ford’s Stagecoach (1939) was a major template for Firefly, though at the urging of Fox to amp-up the action and the gunplay it became more like The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969) (Firefly: The Official Companion 6). • The cgi zoom-in on Serenity at the end of the Reaver chase (Firefly, “Serenity,” 1.2) would have been perhaps the first use of the technique—if Star Wars: Attack of the Clones (George Lucas, 2002) hadn’t been screened first, a fact that, Whedon admits, “pissed” him off. Special Topics in Film Studies: Joss Whedon What Whedon Learned at Wesleyan

15. McCabe and Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 1971) and Die Hard (John McTiernan, 1988) influenced the look of the ship in “Serenity,” Part I. • The character of the bounty hunter Jubal Early in “Objects in Space” (Firefly 1.10) was in part inspired by Vann Siegert (Owen Wilson) in Minus Man (Hampton Fancher, 1999). Special Topics in Film Studies: Joss Whedon What Whedon Learned at Wesleyan

16. The Operative in Serenity was strongly influenced by Bill the Butcher (Daniel Day Lewis) in The Gangs of New York (Martin Scorsese, 2002), while Mal was indebted to John Wayne in The Searchers (John Ford, 1956). (On another occasion Whedon would praise Nathan Fillion’s ability to go “from Harrison Ford to Franklin Prangborn on a very thin dime”* [Serenity 16].) _______ *Franklin Pangborn (1889-1958) was a great American character actor, who usually played fussy or officious characters in films like W.C. Fields’ The Bank Dick (1940)and Preston Sturges’ Sullivan’s Travels (1941). Special Topics in Film Studies: Joss Whedon What Whedon Learned at Wesleyan

17. The Operative in Serenity was strongly influenced by Bill the Butcher (Daniel Day Lewis) in The Gangs of New York (Martin Scorsese, 2002), while Mal was indebted to John Wayne in The Searchers (John Ford, 1956). (On another occasion Whedon would praise Nathan Fillion’s ability to go “from Harrison Ford to Franklin Prangborn on a very thin dime”* [Serenity 16].) • To help think through his concern in Serenity that “Mal’s in a Western and River’s in a noir,” Whedon consulted “noir westerns” recommended by Jeanine Basinger: Pursued (Raoul Walsh, 1947), The Furies (Anthony Mann, 1950), Johnny Guitar. • ____ • *Franklin Pangborn (1889-1958) was a great American character actor, who usually played fussy or officious characters in films like W.C. Fields’ The Bank Dick (1940)and Preston Sturges’ Sullivan’s Travels (1941). Special Topics in Film Studies: Joss Whedon What Whedon Learned at Wesleyan

18. River’s triggered explosion in The Maidenhead in Serenity Whedon thought of as “Robert Altman’s The Matrix” (Serenity 32). • We know, thanks to a series of rapid questions to Whedon (“Joss Answers 100 Questions,” the CHUD interview), Whedon’s favorite Western: Once Upon a Time in the West (Leone, 1968); his favorite science fiction film: The Matrix (The Wachowski Brothers, 1999); number one musical: The Band Wagon (Vincente Minnelli, 1953); all-time favorite movie: also The Matrix— Special Topics in Film Studies: Joss Whedon What Whedon Learned at Wesleyan

19. Despite everything that’s happened after” (Topel, CHUD Interview); and last movie seen in a theatre (at the time of the interview): Punch Drunk Love (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2002). • We know that “The Coen Brothers [Joel and Ethan Coen] still continue to amaze [Whedon] on a regular basis” and that he will “watch anything David Fincher shoots”—“he’s one of the few nonwriting directors who really excites me” (JWC 34-41). • _____________ • * “An all time favorite movie? For a long time it was a dead heat between The Bad and the Beautiful and Once Upon a Time in the West, but at the end of the day, my favorite movie is still The Matrix” (Topel, CHUD Interview). Special Topics in Film Studies: Joss Whedon What Whedon Learned at Wesleyan

20. We know the Cabin in the Woods-influencing horror films he watched before and after his college years. (See the section on Cabin in Chapter 12.) • As Ensley Guffey demonstrates in his essay on The Avengers in the Joss Whedon Reader, the director’s blockbuster is at heart a war movie greatly indebted to Professor Basinger’sThe World War II Combat Film: Anatomy of a Genre. Special Topics in Film Studies: Joss Whedon What Whedon Learned at Wesleyan

21. And we know the filmmaker whose “respect” he would welcome the most: • Actually, the person that has plagued me has been Spielberg because I keep like seeing bits of Minority Report [2002], Catch Me If You Can [2002], whatever he’s doing and I’ll come in the next day and be a wreck. It’s like I’ll watch five minutes of it and like every shot was sexy, every shot was useful. I’m a hack. I’m nothing. Somebody kill me. Wait, I’ve rethought this whole scene and it’s going to be totally wrong now. I don’t look at his stuff anymore. He’s just bugging me. He’s someone I think everything he’s done is totally fascinating. (Topel, CHUD Interview) Special Topics in Film Studies: Joss Whedon What Whedon Learned at Wesleyan