The Hunger Games:
Catching Fire (2013) Directed by Frances Lawrence
Prim: Since the last
games, something is different. I can see it.
Katniss: What can you
see?
Prim: Hope.
The second part of any trilogy has an uphill battle. The first part is the set up. The third part is the climax. The second part often has a little trouble
finding its own voice.
Not here. The twisted
world of Pan-Am makes sure that there are twists and turns, and raised stakes;
after all, the Hunger Games are all about showmanship.
Peeta Mellark (Josh
Hutcherson) understands showmanship.
His confession of love for Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) was brilliant showmanship. It is irrelevant that it is also true…for
Peeta. The crowd believes it, and falls
in love with Katniss Everdeen, a girl who is lovable precisely because she has
no use for or skill in pretense. Snow
doesn’t like the crowd loving Katniss.
Katniss has an unfortunate habit of speaking her mind. She has an unforgivable gift for making grand
gestures. What Snow wants is a tool he
can use to pacify the crowds. The Hunger
Games are bread and circuses…short on the bread, heavy on the circus. Katniss is supposed to be a symbol that the
best and the brightest of the 12 districts are nothing more than play things
for the Capital. But Katniss tends to
play by her own rules.
So does President Snow (Donald
Sutherland). This is the 75th
Hunger Games, and that means it’s a Quarter Quell, a time to remind the
districts how heavy is the boot of the Capital upon their throats. In the last Quarter Quell, they demanded
twice as many tributes. That was the one
where Haymitch (Woody Harralson) was
the sole survivor. This year…they are
drawing tributes only from the victors….
I could tell you about the rest of the movie, the strategy,
the clever machinations of the Gamesmaster, Plutarch Heavenesbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman) the 24
interesting ways to die, the alliances, the betrayals of the Hunger Games, but
instead I want to talk about why I think these movies and the books that
inspired them are important in today’s world.
Part and parcel of what makes Pan-Am such a hellhole to live
in is the extreme inequality of wealth; the districts starve while in the
capital, they throw up so they can eat more.
The capital cares only about appearance, and the latest thing, with
little concern for substance. They care about pain. They care about fear. They care about power. They want the populace to be so afraid of
losing what little they have, they can’t think about what they should have.
Mostly, they are concerned about symbols. Symbols can cut through fear, they can cut
through lethargy. Symbols like the Mocking Jay, symbols like Katniss Everdeen,
and Peeta Mellark who were willing to die rather than let the capital separate them.
There are so many good reasons why children should be
required to read these books, and to watch these movies. First, Katniss is a wonderful role
model. Jennifer Lawrence doesn’t starve
herself to fit into a size 2, and yet, no one could deny that she is a lovely
young lady. Further, Katniss’
competence, intelligence, and spirit make her far prettier than Cinna (Lenny
Kravitz) and his crew could ever do with any amount of special effects clothing
lines, eye-shadow and foundation.
The movie values courage, ingenuity, and doing the right
thing, even when the cost is high.
Most of all, I think the theme of the movies are, “I asked ‘Why
doesn’t someone do something?’ then I realized, I was Someone.”
That is a wonderful message at any age.
And the most delightful part of course is that this is only
the second part of the trilogy. We have
one more to look forward to, and I do.
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