The movie The Hunger Games comes out this Friday. If you’ve read the books(s) you know this isn’t going to be the Twilight-style teen flick that’s being marketed.
Can’t blame Lionsgate for the marketing; they want to make money and the Katniss-Peeta-Gale triangle offers a hook to the silly-but-moneymaking Bella-Edward-Jacob triangle that no marketer could resist. At least they’ve been doing their marketing very, very well; it’s been an elegantly teasing campaign. Have you noticed that, never once during all the buildup, have they actually showed the Hunger Games part of The Hunger Games?
Marketing aside, it looks like Lionsgate has made a damnfine movie. I’ll be headed to the Big City to see it soon as I can.
But the point is that this isn’t just a good-looking or entertaining movie. This is a meme, building on other memes, and this is about freedom.
Or at least, as John Tamny notes, it’s about the horrors of big government.
If you’re old enough, you remember when movies and TV shows never, ever, but never said a bad thing about government or its agents. The Soviet government or the Nazis, yes. But the U.S. government was always the Noble Protector. Its agents never lied, never cheated, never raped, never murdered, were never more violent than absolutely required. Government was approachable, responsive, humane, and preternaturally wise.
Then there came a few movies (e.g. Serpico) that showed something like a good cop crusading against bad cops. But that, of course, supported the “only a few bad apples” meme.
The first movie I ever recall showing a U.S. government agent being just plain bad, stupid, and destructive with no caveats was — oddly enough — Ghostbusters. Remember, it’s the Environmental Protection Agency man who pulls the switch that releases mayhem on the city while the unabashedly free-market Ghostbusters try to stop him.
I remember seeing that and being happily shocked. One of the most popular movies of all time said government could be arrogant, stupid, and destructive.
Well … gone are the days when government on the screen was all-holy. Now we see plenty of bad government actors. But only recently is cinema (does that sound like a hoity-toity term? I just don’t want to keep repeating the words movie, film, and flick) beginning to go into deeper territory: government — and specifically a U.S. government — as pure, unadulterated evil in its very essence.
V for Vendetta did it. But the government was English and the movie a cult hit more than a mainstream blockbuster.
Now The Hunger Games has dared to say it straight out. The country may be called Panem (“bread”), but the place is a recognizable future America. And its government is pure, stripped-down evil. It exists for its own sake and holds power by starving, terrorizing, and murdering its own citizens — even by forcing its young to murder each other.
Here’s the best review I’ve seen so far. It’s not a political review. It’s just one that says this is a big, good, important movie and not only for teens.
I’m not going to print any spoilers here. But if you haven’t yet read the books and are curious about this very anti-government movie, just know that in book three (and presumably movie three four), the message that free people don’t submit to government gets driven home even more … shall we say, pointedly.
The real point is that this is a meme building on other memes. We hear about the latest evil executive order or spy “enhancement” and we despair. But look around. A major studio makes a major film in which a government ruling over Americans is depicted as utterly, irredeemably evil.
That counts for a lot more than whatever bad news just flickered or twittered past our eyes today. Mindset is 90 percent of the battle — and mindset is changing right before our well-entertained eyes.
I hope that, even if people don’t “get it” consciously, they will get it subconsciously. And it will become a part of them, helping to color their perceptions of The State.
Loved book #1. Reading #2 right now. Can’t wait to see the movie!
Looking forward to it. One of my favorite pieces of “cinema” (doubt if I’ve ever used that word in my life 😉 last year was Winter’s Bone. Jennifer Laurence was excellent in that. You need to let us know if this is a “movie theater” movie or DVD movie?
“You need to let us know if this is a ‘movie theater’ movie or DVD movie?”
That’s always the question, isn’t it? For me “movie theater movies” come along rarely. But I suspect this one will qualify. If I get a chance I’ll go on Friday and find out. (Fortunately, this one will play at the local Big City and won’t require the odious trek to the real Big City that Atlas Shrugged did.)
Kent — you nailed it exactly.
water lily — I admit that I had a hard time getting through book one. It took a while for the series to really capture my imagination. But I’ve sure known a lot of people who took to it right away.
My daughter and I have our tickets to see it at IMAX Friday night. Can’t wait. In my job I drive a some high school kids around to various appointments and they have told me that they are going to see the movie on a field trip from school. I wonder if the school admins really understand that this is a big anti-government movie? I would love to be a fly on the wall when and (its a big if) if they understand what the movie is actually about.
Y’know, I took your advice Claire, and did finally read the set. I’m glad I did. Definitely worth a read, and yeah, I’m looking forward to the movie too. I’m really hoping Woody Harrelson nails Haymitch’s character, because man, oh man, he’s who I pictured as Haymitch from the beginning!
Yeah, it took me a while to get into book #1. I started liking it toward the end.
The last time we went to a movie theater instead of waiting for the DVD was for Atlas Shrugged. (We make exceptions for anti-government films. ;-))
WolfSong — From what I’ve heard, Harrelson is the perfect Haymitch. You’ve got a better eye than I if you picured him in the role from the get-go. But then I sill think of him as the dewy-eyed youngster he played on Cheers despite his having become grizzled and undertaking some very Haymitch-y roles (like the one he played to such hysterical perfection in Zombieland).
Mac The Knife. Oh, please drop a comment here after you’ve seen the movie. Maybe you could persuade your daughter to, as well. Yeah. A gummint school actually sponsoring a viewing of The Hunger Games … that about defines being Without Clue.
water lily — Same here on both counts!
I actually liked the beginning of book one, but didn’t enjoy reading about the games themselves (battles, strategies, etc. don’t interest me). Only when I got to the very touching death of that one character (you know who I mean) did I start paying attention again.
I suspect the parts I didn’t particularly enjoy reading will be much better onscreen.
The casting didn’t quite match my vision. The actor playing Gale is about right as is sister Prim. Effie doesn’t come close to my internal visualization. However, I can’t think of a better actor to play President Snow than Donald Sutherland. He just has that icky quality!
“Panem” sounds like Pan-Am, as in Pan-American, which reinforced the thought of it being US in the future.
Book 2 was my favorite of the set.
I don’t know if it was on Ms. Collins’ mind at the time or if it is just a rather strange ( and unintended) pun, but “Panem” is the latin word for bread (as in “panem et circensis” = “bread and games”). According to one of the last Roman emperors (I can’t quite recall which one) “Bread and Games” were needed to keep the common folk occupied enough not to care about government and its decisions during the waning days of Rome. It seems like a parabel on what’s been going on in this country lately; people caring more about their football/ baseball/…. than about all the small and not-so-small attacks on our constitution and freedoms in general. So, hopefully a lot of people will “get it” and we might just be able to stave off our own “Roman Empire moment”. I’ll probably watch the movie on saturday; having read the first and working on books number two and three.
I picked up the 1st one the other day and finished it in a couple days….I liked it, much better than what I was expecting. I’ll probably go catch the movie this weekend.
I’m pretty sure Panem, in the story, does mean bread — with the circuses implied in the horrible games. If I recall correctly, Collins makes that explicit at some point. And you don’t have to read far into the trilogy to catch that the Capitol is based on decadent Rome.
But I’m with zohngalt; I went nearly through the entire first book thinking it was short for Pan-America. I’ll bet anything Collins chose it for that double meaning.
Hi, winston. Damn, it’s good to see you around here again. If you get a chance, come back and give us a mini-review.
Thanks for setting me straight, Claire. I must have missed Ms. Collins explanation in the book. When a story gets interesting I tend to skip over some stuff every now and then. My apologies!
I did catch the part about the Capitol, though 🙂
Kyle — You might not have missed it! Possibly she mentions it only in one of the later books.
I hope to see a review which mentions audio quality. I stopped going to theaters after The 5th Element. Don’t know why things need to be so damn loud. It’s kind of funny; I read every now and then a screed against excessive compression in popular music releases, but in the video world, it’s wide dynamic range that’s become all the rage. I watch movies with my thumb poised over the mute button on the remote (or used to, I don’t actually watch on the TV these days).
Well, there’s my rant for the day! 🙂
jed- “ear plugs”. I don’t leave home without ’em (even though I rarely find myself needing to use them).
I’ll probably do this in reverse order-see the movie first, read the books afterward(I saw Firefly in reverse order..never heard of the show ’til I saw the movie Serenity,then went and got the Firefly DVD set). I like going to the theatre-to me, it’s just fun. Have you ever been in a theatre and reached for the remote control?….I have..
Two other movies coming out now… both seem to have an anti-establishment theme. Gosh, I might even try to watch a movie…
“The Raid: Redemption” is the story of a SWAT team that becomes trapped in a huge tenement with a mob boss and his army of killers.
“Brake” stars Stephen Dorff and Tom Berenger. It’s the story of a secret service agent being held captive in the trunk of a car where he endures horrible car chases. A gang of terrorists wants information he has, so it’s torture by car trunk.
Then again… maybe not. Will depend on how the SWAT and SS are portrayed, and if the “mob” and “terrorist” guys are the “bad” ones or not. I wouldn’t know…
MamaLiberty — Raid is already in my Netflix queue. I hadn’t heard anything about it being anti-establishment; just a very highly rated (and gory) martial arts flick. I don’t usually watch those, but the critical praise piqued my interest.
Brake I hadn’t heard of. But with a 46% rating on RottenTomatoes, I don’t think I’ll be watching it, even if (as the NYTimes reviewer says) it has a “paranoid view of Washington.” 🙂
Ah, you and I were posting at the same time. I’m not sure either of those films are anti-establishment and I wondered if you knew something I didn’t.
Yeah… it is pretty silly for me to comment on movies, actually…. since I don’t watch movies. LOL Just saw those two movies listed somewhere else and wondered if maybe there was a slight trend developing with anti-establishment themes.
I’ll be interested in your review of the “games” one, however.
@Kent. No, earplugs won’t do. First, unless I get some of those sooper-dooper muffs that amplify quiet sounds, and clamp off the loud, then the wide dynamic range will still be my nemesis. The other thing (here’s my rant for today 🙂 is that actors can’t talk worth a damn. Now, nothing against Sigourney Weaver as an actress, but the Alien that took place on the prison colony is a prime example. The soto-voce passages were unintelligible, and too far below the median audio level. And that’s another reason I prefer to watch at home. I can rewind to try to figure dialogue that isn’t being spoken clearly.
Maybe I’m too much a nut about this, but I had a drama teacher in 7th and 8th grade who absolutely drummed into all of us the need to enunciate. I figure the ‘professionals’ ought to do at least as well as I did at 12 years old.
Haven’t read the books but from the TV ads & Infotainment shows (ET, Acess Hollywood, etc.) it would seem that there are no MEN in this world.
FATHERS kill TYRANTS so that the Tyrants can’t harm their Children.
The American Revolutionaries were quite explicit about this, that they were going to “settle” this question to spare their “posterity” the necessity of fighting the battle. “Freedom,” and “Liberty,” were gifts they wanted to leave their children, even if they left them nothing else. They pledged their “Lives, Fortunes, and Sacred Honor” to the cause, and not a few were “ruined” in the fight. But they considered it a price worth paying!
My concern with the acceptance of a movie theme like this is that if it repeated often enough, a la Goebbels, then the propaganda is accepted as merely status quo, not seen as looming, devastating, and acceptable…..
I started ginivg the film a bit more attention the more news that trickled and then when this trailer arrived I thought screw it, I was able to get all three books for less than $10. I just finished the books now and I rather liked them. I don’t think they’re the best books out there nor do I think it’s as good as Battle Royale but they were an entertaining read. There was always something for me to like through all three. But looking at the film trailer now ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. I can’t say it looks quite as interesting now. I’m not quite sure what it is but I can’t help but think that something has been lost from the translation from book to film.