The Hunger Games
Saw a matinee of The Hunger Games today. My fiancee had just finished the book last week. I have yet to read it, but it is on my list after I complete Heinlein's Stranger In A Strange Land.
I enjoyed the film but didn't quite become as emotionally engaged with Katniss as I'd hoped to. Don't get me wrong, I rooted for the heroine certainly and there were many tense moments during the competition itself--and no small share of cliche's found in your average TV action series (no spoilers here, though). The most disturbing scene in the film for me (yet not terribly shocking) was what ensued after all twenty-four kids stepped out of the lift tubes into the clearing and dashed for the supplies.
We've all seen or read tales of dystopian futures, benighted societies run by morally bankrupt governments, and themes of "survival of the fittest" and "fight to the death". Perhaps that's why I was not disgusted by watching children kill one another.
And that's a problem.
Our society today has become just that "desensitized" (to coin an overused buzzword), which is precisely what The Hunger Games seems to be about at its core (at least in my opinion). For the very reason of its prescience, then, maybe we should pay attention. Inner city street gangs populated by children kill one another on a weekly basis. How is that any less repulsive than government sanctioned brutality against children, pitting them against each other as a spectator sport disguised as "tribute" to your nation?
Overall, the film was well paced and acted with an excellent cast in Jennifer Lawrence, Stanley Tucci, Lenny Kravitz, Woody Harrelson, Liam Hemsworth, Elizabeth Banks, and many more.
I definitely look forward to reading the book and seeing where the film may have been deficient in the emotional aspects of the story. Let's face, isn't the book almost always better than the film?
Images above and below copyright Lionsgate Pictures, 2012.
I enjoyed the film but didn't quite become as emotionally engaged with Katniss as I'd hoped to. Don't get me wrong, I rooted for the heroine certainly and there were many tense moments during the competition itself--and no small share of cliche's found in your average TV action series (no spoilers here, though). The most disturbing scene in the film for me (yet not terribly shocking) was what ensued after all twenty-four kids stepped out of the lift tubes into the clearing and dashed for the supplies.
We've all seen or read tales of dystopian futures, benighted societies run by morally bankrupt governments, and themes of "survival of the fittest" and "fight to the death". Perhaps that's why I was not disgusted by watching children kill one another.
And that's a problem.
Our society today has become just that "desensitized" (to coin an overused buzzword), which is precisely what The Hunger Games seems to be about at its core (at least in my opinion). For the very reason of its prescience, then, maybe we should pay attention. Inner city street gangs populated by children kill one another on a weekly basis. How is that any less repulsive than government sanctioned brutality against children, pitting them against each other as a spectator sport disguised as "tribute" to your nation?
Overall, the film was well paced and acted with an excellent cast in Jennifer Lawrence, Stanley Tucci, Lenny Kravitz, Woody Harrelson, Liam Hemsworth, Elizabeth Banks, and many more.
I definitely look forward to reading the book and seeing where the film may have been deficient in the emotional aspects of the story. Let's face, isn't the book almost always better than the film?
Images above and below copyright Lionsgate Pictures, 2012.
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