The Hunger Games

$153 domestic opening for a film about schoolchildren killing one another? And you thought Americans disliked documentaries.

“Why do we have a winner?” queries President Snow (Donald Sutherland). Why indeed? History teaches that oppressive societies don’t lack for ways of keeping the masses in their place with an all stick, no carrot approach. This particular iteration is especially cruel – selecting two “tributes” randomly among the teens and pre-teens from each district and making them fight to the death. That’s a pretty big stick. Yes, why does The Hunger Games have a victor at all? “Hope” is the answer. And it’s a good one. Of course, from Snow’s perspective, the glimmer of hope is simply another tool for oppressing the masses, but for the rest of us, hope is a damn good reason to do anything. Why do we still love horror? Hope. It’s the retrieval of something positive in a sea of awful. And this is the power of The Hunger Games.

Because what is more awful than making children fight to the death? You know, if you can answer that question, I wish you wouldn’t – just know I empathize.

We are in the postwar dystopian future country of Panem. The central capitol is a glorious shining beacon and treats the surrounding districts not unlike the way plantation owners treated slaves. Our heroine is arrow-slingin’ underdog Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), the girl tribute from District 12, where life sucks, a lot. Early on, Katniss volunteers to be tribute in the place of the selected, her younger sister Prim. She’s then whisked away to a world of opulence she’s never known. It’s weird that the redemption for being summoned to your death at the hands of a fabricated peer group is that you get to live high on the futuristic hog-like beast for a week or two beforehand.

Good news: you get to leave your crappy district!
Bad news: you have to fight to the death.
Good news: you get live like a queen!
Bad news: your court jester is Woody Harrelson.
Good news: you’re going to be on TV!
Bad news: it’s reality TV.

I’m always so amused at films that assume television habits. In reality, would you watch The Truman Show? Heck no, you’d find it positively boring; no life can have enough emotional extreme to accommodate a daily audience — well, no adult life at least – a person would go insane. But you’d watch The Hunger Games. Yes you would. Even on the down days. The reason is death is just a tad more compelling than a silly $1 M prize. Not that you’d have any choice, of course. Totalitarian societies almost certainly lack for on-air variety, “Tonight on ‘Bootlick,’ John Q. Public takes heroic action by informing on a dangerous neighbor … “

One of the striking points of Hunger Games is the contrast between the lifestyles of those in the capitol and those in the districts. Katniss’ D12 fellows look straight out of a dustbowl Oakie setting … until a hovercraft descends from the sky and you’re reminded that this is the dystopian future, not the past. On the former point, I find a small quibble with the art design. Jennifer Lawrence has already played a starving, but determined and independent teen provider among squalor. Check out how she looks in Hunger Games (left) compared toWinter’s Bone (right):

I find Winter’s Bone a tad more convincing on the squalor side, don’t you?

Despite a minor detraction or two, I loved both the Suzanne Collins novel and the Gary Ross film. This is the stuff I’m proud to show my teenager. The tale hits very close to the heart for very good reason: teen life bites and everybody knows it. Truth is your teen may want the life of the drinking or partying so celebrated in film today and your teen may well fantasize of having a sparkly vampire or hunky werewolf for a boyfriend, but more often your teen will find that Jr. high and high school far more closely resembles an environment of Big Brother oppression, in which adults make you do things, say things, and wear things you don’t want to. And this barbarous cruelty juxtaposed with friendship and sometimes even love makes the latter all the more precious. An adult authority figure gives you a spear and trains you to kill on site, and you find the humanity to share food with somebody you don’t know? In my book, that gesture is worth 100 sparkly vampires.

The Hunger Games is the first movie in over a year that I have wanted to see again immediately after the first viewing. For someone who treats new releases like Kleenex, I’m not sure I can give higher praise. So run, don’t walk, to see this movie; slay the nearest teen in your path if you have to.

Rated PG-13, 142 Minutes
D: Gary Ross
W: Gary Ross, Suzanne Collins and Billy Ray
Genre: Overhyped adaptation
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Teens
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Fascists