New Times - May 2012 - Uniting Church in Australia

ev i e w s
A satire of western culture
Louise Heinrich reviews popular new movie, The Hunger Games, currently playing in cinemas worldwide.
In a not-too-distant future, adolescents
fight to the death. Based on a young adult
trilogy of novels by Suzanne Collins, The
Hunger Games is set in Panem, a postapocalyptic
dystopia which is divided into
twelve districts. Ruled by a totalitarian
regime in the Capitol, the centre of wealth
and power, the surrounding districts live
in oppression and grey poverty.
At an annual event, two teenage
tributes are picked from each district, to
fight to the death in the Hunger Games,
which is televised to the whole country.
The broadcast of the bloodbath is a
reminder of the Capitol’s power and
control, and is very familiar to the reality
shows that are on our televisions now.
Jennifer Lawrence plays the resilient
seventeen-year-old protagonist, Katniss
Everdeen, who hunts in the forbidden
woods to feed her family. Katniss
volunteers for the Hunger Games in place
of her preteen sister, and is swept off to
the colourful decadence of the Capitol
before being thrown into the man-made
arena with twenty-three other contestants.
Visually, this film is impressive.
The Capitol is a technicolour feast of
outrageous and bizarre fashion, which
contrasts severely with the muted browns
of the surrounding poor nation. A shaky
hand-held camera style evokes feelings
of terror and chaos in moments of action
and murder.
Beyond impressive production design
and a riveting plot, The Hunger Games
evokes powerful themes which question
facets of our culture. The habits of
excessive glamour and endless feasting
on rich food in luxurious settings seen in
the Capitol are made to seem vacuous
and irrelevant when juxtaposed with the
miserable starvation in Katniss’s home,
District 12. It’s as if a horde of runway
models wearing next season’s Balenciaga
paraded through a West African famine,
chattering inanely about the colour of
their eye shadow. The Hunger Games
therefore questions the nature of the
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Western world’s preoccupation with
appearance and consumption, in light of
worldwide poverty.
The media mechanisms surrounding
the annual Hunger Games is a fantastic
satire of reality TV, in which agony and
drama are packaged neatly for the
shallow entertainment of the masses.
Regular commentary between styled
hosts is interspersed with the tension of
scenes in the arena. In order to attain
‘sponsors’ who will send medicines and
food when needed, Katniss and male
District 12 tribute Peeta pretend to
be in love for the camera. The Capitol
audience, costumed in enormous
eyelashes and a kaleidoscope of
lavender, mauve, powder blue and gold,
scream in worship of the star-crossed
lovers. It’s a similar premise to many
reality TV shows, and echoes Big Brother
and Survivor.
Standouts of the cast were Stanley
Tucci as the ostentatious blue-haired
Caesar Flickerman, and Elizabeth
Banks as the prim, wackily-dressed
Effie Trinket. Lawrence shines, not
only because she successfully displays
Katniss’s inner conflict, but because she
pulls off her role as a strong and fierce
woman. As this is a representation
of women that is not often seen in
Hollywood, many are hopeful that
this new breed of female lead will be
replicated in more big-budget films.
Don’t not see this film because it
sounds violent. Despite a gruesome
premise, The Hunger Games is not a
film that revels in gore, but remains
decidedly un-graphic in all scenes.
The film remains true to the age of the
original readers of the books.
A compelling experience, this movie
juxtaposes glamour and poverty, and
sharply satirises modern entertainment.
Would you watch a reality TV show
of Hunger Games if it appeared on
your TV?