The Hunger Games:

Food for thought

Ruwini JAYAWARDANA

Dystopian revolution is at the heart of Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy and director Gary Ross has taken the book’s essence and turned it into a fantasy-thriller which is the highest grossing movie of 2012.

This is Robin Hood meets Harry Potter in a different light. ‘The Hunger Games’ starts on an eerie note of foreboding danger. In the midst of food shortage, Primrose Everdeen wakes up from a nightmare in which she is chosen to represent her home in the yearly death match. Her nightmare soon turns into a reality but she is saved by her elder sister, Katniss, who volunteers to take her place in the deathly sport. Significantly Peeta Mellark is selected to team up with her in the challenge and he happens to be an upright baker’s son whom Katniss despises. This strikes a note of interest from the beginning because it makes the audience wonder how these two individuals will work together.

The ‘game’ is a chilling bloodsport which lays down creepy and deeply powerful stakes. 24 of the 12 district’s children who come of age are chosen each year to fight to death in a reality game show. This barbaric custom is a form of entertainment for the demonic bureaucracy. The chosen teens are brought to a gleaming futurist metropolis beyond their dreams where they can enjoy food, luxury and other comforts till the ‘game’ begins. This is much like the theory of fattening a calf that is due for slaughter.

A unique feature of ‘The Hunger Games’ is the way it combines the reality TV element with the plot. This comes in handy by means of giving additional information to the audience. In one instance Flickerman helpfully explains what a Tracker Jacker is. It is a sarcastic vision of the fast growing trend of reality shows which are mushrooming on the mini screens all over the world today.

Another impressive feature of the film lies in its character development. Peeta Mellark’s character is a fine example because he dons the robes of a villain at the beginning but we soon realize the heroism beneath his character.

The Hunger Games is aptly captured on lens and also shrewdly cast. Ross seems to have picked just the right artistes to give life to Collins’ roles. He makes us believe that Katniss and Gale are the prefect couple till we are proven wrong by the turn of events. Such sequences make us recall the Edward-Jacob rivalry in the Twilight series.

Jennifer Lawrence portrays Katniss’ role remarkably. Josh Hutcherson is commendable as Peeta. Elizabeth Banks plays Effie Trinket well. The other characters too chip in and make an interesting combination.

The movie’s backgrounds lack finer details. The grotesque make-up and hideous hairdos of the well offs fail to impress. Except for the fashion in which district 12 makes their entrance on a wagon before the crowd and their appearances on Caesar Flickerman’s show, the costumes are hardly worth a second glance.

The concept is good but the presentation is chilling. Violence plays a key role in the movie.

The bloodcurdling screams and scenes of dying teenagers seem too terrible for the young audience, who might have been the target viewers of the movie since it is about youth determination and sports.

That is what lets this film down. Some could argue that the director should have toned down on the violence but then does that help drive home the message? If you overlook these failures, The Hunger Games offers much food for thought.