The Hunger Games (Gary Ross 2012, USA) is a harrowing sci-fi fantasy that is set in a dystopian society where a young girl, named Katniss Everdene (Jennifer Lawrence), defies their rulers and brings hope to the people. This film offers a rollercoaster of emotion with the fast-paced editing and fantastic performances as the audience is immersed into this futuristic world of mayhem, where the price you pay for freedom is very high.
The Hunger Games is set in Panem, which represents New York in the future after many disasters, both natural and man-made. The society is controlled by The Capitol, which is the governing state and is positioned in the centre of all the districts. There are 12 districts that surround the Capitol and the further away one ventures from the centre the poorer the districts become.
Katniss Everdene comes from district 12, the poorest of them all, at least since district 13 was completely destroyed. Since the uprising, that lead to the obliteration of district 13, every year each district has had to offer up a young man and woman aged between 12 and 18 years for the Hunger Games, where they fight to the death in a televised battle until one lone victor remains. These games serve as a reminder of the fact that the Capitol controls the land and people and there is no escape from this. With so much desensitised violence, it seems unlikely that there is any humanity left in the society. However, everything starts to change; people gain hope, when Katniss offers herself up as a volunteer tribute in place of her 12 year old sister, whose name was pulled out for the games.
With 24 opponents the odds are stacked against Katniss. Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), the boy picked out from District 12 to take part in the games, expresses how he desperately wants to show the Capitol that they do not own him. That if he is to die then he wants to still be himself. He does not want to be consumed by them, leaving nothing but a murderous monster.
Katniss, herself, expresses her disgust at the Capitol and the society in which she lives when she confides in Gale (Liam Hemsworth), in the woods before the reaping, that she does not want children. She does not want to bring them into such a place. Gale suggests running off into the woods with Katniss, but this would be futile as they both know that they would be hunted down and either killed or mutilated.
In such a place, what is the price one has to pay in order to gain freedom? They can fight, and Katniss will have to in the games in order to survive, but is death the ultimate price one has to pay in order to be free? It seems that the blood thirsty Capitol is willing to do anything they can in order to keep the districts in line.
This consumerist society, where people consider senseless violence and brutality, such as the games, as entertainment and a chance to bet against the odds, offers a self critique of our own vision of reality and the society in which we live today. In our capitalist consumerist society we entertain ourselves on the expense of others, we become mindless consumers. We regularly watch people fighting wars, being killed, trying to win money and respect, everyday on Television and sometimes even with our own eyes. Yet, we except this, we gorge ourselves whilst others starve and we watch terror unfold whilst we laugh and joke amongst ourselves. We ignore the brutality that life can throw at us, because we are mindless consumers and there is no escape from this ideological state, as the film clearly shows.
The film, however, focuses on the adolescents in society, fore-warning them of what might come if they continue living in this consumerist society without taking action. With only Katniss, Peeta, and Rue (Amandla Stenberg) represented positively in the games, the other adolescents are presented as influenced consumers as they are killers, conspiring in packs and hunting down their opponents like animals. This suggests that it is the adolescents in society that are in need of change in order to gain their freedom from this society, which offers a culture of fear much like our very own media run society.
Survival, however, is promoted at any cost. Therefore, Katniss rebels in such a way that defies the Capitol’s authority and dangerously stirs the other districts. Only the next two films will show us the price that they must pay in order to receive the freedom that they so long for.
This exhilarating film opens our eyes, through its brutal violence, to the consumerist society in which we live. It immerses us into dystopia where we root for the survival of Katniss and cling to the hope that she brings.
Take away the hullabaloo surrounding the film adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ best-selling young adult book and what you have is an absorbing film with a dire premise that stands pretty much on its own. Lawrence is also the stand-out here as Katniss and makes her seem like a real person rather than just another book character brought to life on film. Good review Shirley.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much. Yes the adaptation has been done very tastefully and carefully, as even though sections of the book were not present in the film, the characters and story remain intact and dont seem to have lost their essence. I also think its good that the film presented Katniss as a strong young woman, who can fight for herself and did not focus too much on the romance that the book introduced. I just hope this stays the same in the next two films!!
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