First off: I do not recommend this movie, or the books to most people, mostly due to the intensely graphic and disturbing nature of them. However, I have spent quite a bit of time pondering what the author was trying to accomplish by writing them, (as I believe that every author or director has a message they want to get across, in addition to the entertainment value itself) and I definitely think the underlying philosophies of the book/movie deserve some attention.
The first of these several commentaries on society is extremely well-integrated and somewhat ironic. The people in the book who enjoy watching the hunger games are the vain, selfish, prideful, disconnected, over-indulgent, ignorant, thoughtless, idle members of "The Capitol." The bad guys are the ones who really like the hunger games for their entertainment. I think that Suzanne Collins thought it necessary to have the gladiator figures in her book be children. Just like Lord of the Flies, I think it was a way to kind of give people a shock to their system, because we are already used to watching adults kill each other, we would not give that a second thought. But when it is kids, just maybe some people will stop and think: "This is bad, this is a problem that we enjoy reading these so much." The fact that the books and movie are so successful begs the question: "Is our society so similar to that of the Capitol, that we enjoy watching people kill each other for entertainment?" That is the irony, the books entertain by describing horrific events, and in the books, the ones entertained by them are the bad guys. When the author was asked what she hoped readers would come away with after reading the books were questions about how elements of the book might be relevant in their own lives, and if they're disturbing, what they might do about them. There are many elements that might be relevant to life, but I pose this question to you: "Did you, as I did, consider the books and/or movie to be entertaining?" If so, you might want to think about why you were not more disturbed by it. My wife left the theater upset, surprised that so many people enjoyed it so much. As one who enjoyed it, her comment made me realize that I am too quick to desensitize myself to portrayals of death and suffering. I was saddened that I did not share her disgust right off the bat. After all, if we are not disgusted at children brutally killing one another, what are we disgusted by?
I will try to not get to political in this next section, but there is another similar theme that Collins pointed out as a catalyst for the hunger games. She explains the Greek themes of the story, Katniss as a modern day Theseus, and the Roman themes of the Capitol and the gladiators, and how her knowledge of those stories shaped the idea, but she said that it "was channel surfing between reality TV programming and actual war coverage when Katniss’s story came to [her]. One night [she's] sitting there flipping around and on one channel there’s a group of young people competing for, I don’t know, money maybe? And on the next, there’s a group of young people fighting an actual war. And [she] was tired, and the lines began to blur in this very unsettling way, and [she] thought of this story."
Thought provoking, no? How has reality TV and movies shaped our view of the actual world? I think that many people have a much more difficult time discerning between reality and fantasy when both come from the same source (tv). We see people die and suffer so often that we have to desensitize ourselves or else we'd have a mental breakdown. The problem is, when we see actual people dying, we have already become disconnected mentally, and then it just seems less real. Over a hundred thousand people have died as a result of the Iraq "war" and many of those people are no older than the kids in the hunger games. A line from the movie stood out to me, I think it was Gale, who was pointing out the depravity of the games and said something along the lines of how sick it is that people watch it and cheer for their favorites when they kill someone, and cry when their favorites die. I really think this is more similar to what is going on overseas than most people would like to think. When a US soldier dies, many people express remorse, and rightly so. But when you find out an Iraqi dies, or even a hundred Iraqis, people probably take another bite of cereal and keep waiting until the weather comes on.
I fear that it has become too easy for us to dismiss these atrocities. To say "well, that's sad, but there are causalities to every war." I have heard that statement several times recently while trying to explain to people why we should bring the troops home, but now I am getting political and I apologize. I better wrap this up before I start preaching about Ron Paul...
Final thoughts. If you had to identify with someone in the hunger games who would it be and why? Are you like anyone from district 12? Starving, oppressed, downtrodden, and impoverished, powerless to do anything about it or stand up to those in charge? Are you like someone from District 1? Affluent, and you aspire to the spotlight, to be the champion of the games and train hard for it so that you can be better than everyone else and gain riches, fame and glory? [Side note: It is worth noting that the winners are often worse off than the losers, typified by Haymitch who survives but lives a miserable life as an alcoholic haunted by visions of the past. Even the Katniss and Peeta, whose physical wounds are mostly (and quickly) healed, never fully recover from the emotional/mental scarring that took place during the books.]Or maybe a Capitol citizen? You enjoy the voyeuristic thrill of watching people being humiliated, or brought to tears, or suffering physically, but only from a distance, fostering a "fascination of the abomination" and relishing so much in tragedy and drama that when the real thing is presented to you it lacks appropriate impact?
These are hard questions, and I think overlooking them robs the series of its real power. Think what you want, but I choose to give her the benefit of the doubt and believe that rather than perpetuating the problem of desensitization to violence, poverty, and oppression, Suzzanne Collins is trying to wake us up to those very issues. I think she uses kids on purpose because that is the only way she could speak the message loud enough. I hope that we are not all too deaf to hear it. Hopefully we can all think of these books as a wake up call, rather than "kind of disturbing, but really entertaining if you don't think too much about it." (A typical comment that I have heard in regards to the books/movie, btw)
My final words on the matter: Think about it.
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