Saw The Hunger Games last night, and as a fan of the Suzanne Collins trilogy of books, I was pretty impressed with what director Gary Ross and his crew turned out.
Before getting into the film, it’s worth making a few comments on The Hunger Games and Twilight. Many people I know seem to be under the impression this as a Twilight-like franchise. It’s hard to blame them – the marketing machine has set it up as such, and I would say, financially, this was a wise decision (as evidenced by the historic opening weekend). However, while both were originally young adult novels and are defined by an extreme popularity with girls, it’s a shortsighted comparison. The Twilight series (the films at least – I haven’t read the books) is a piss-poor and drawn-out love story featuring a shimmering mopey vampire, a self-righteous possessive werewolf, and a manic-depressive teenage girl who can only be defined by her relationship with men. Meanwhile, The Hunger Games is an intriguing dystopian nightmare that examines the pitfalls of government control and the importance of personal identity and features a compelling central heroine (Katniss Everdeen) that is far more closely aligned with Ellen Ripley than Bella Swan. They may be targeting the same audience, but these franchises are operating on completely different levels.
The Hunger Games is a futuristic tale set in Panem, the nation that arose following the destruction of civilization. It was originally made up of 13 districts, each one of which operated a different industry necessary for survival (i.e. farming, coal mining, etc.), and was lorded over by the oppressive Capitol. Due to the harsh conditions, the districts banded together to attempt a rebellion, but they were beaten down (with the 13th district getting completely obliterated). As punishment, the Capitol started a yearly gladiatorial event in which two “tributes” (a boy and girl aged 12-18) from each remaining district are chosen via a lottery system to compete in a 24-person battle-to-the-death known as the Hunger Games. The event is televised 1) for the amusement of the citizens of the Capitol and 2) as a reminder to the districts about who is boss.
There’s a lot to love here. For starters, the casting is excellent. After getting an Oscar nomination for Winter’s Bone two years ago, Jennifer Lawrence has been approaching stardom. Last year, she continued her upward trend, featuring prominently in an indie darling (Like Crazy)and a blockbuster (X-Men: First Class). Here, she takes full advantage of the opportunity to emerge as a full-fledged star, easily carrying a huge tentpole film, while communicating the complexity of Katniss Everdeen. She captures all the key traits – resourcefulness, cunning, resentfulness, compassion, rebelliousness – with very little dialogue.
Meanwhile, Josh Hutcherson captures both the private sensitivity and public magnetism of fellow District 12 tribute Peeta, while the rest of the cast – particularly Woody Harrelson, Stanley Tucci, Wes Bentley, and Lenny Kravitz (Yes, that Lenny Kravitz. I know, weird, right?) – fill in the margins nicely.
I was impressed with the script’s simplistic approach. That said, it was a gutsy decision not to go with an internal monologue for Katniss. So much of the book is her internal reactions, and while I do think it was the right call to avoid narration – it probably would’ve come across heavy-handed – it does result in some confusion. While they may lose some impact, most things (i.e. the significance of the three-finger salute) play fine. And the script does a great job of explaining many of the necessities in clever cinematic ways (i.e. showing Haymitch working sponsors, Gale watching the games, and the commentators giving their input).
Still, some things seem very unclear. For instance, while the book makes it obvious that Katniss believes her and Peeta are faking their love story throughout the competition, the film seems to imply she is, without a doubt, falling for him. As a result, it plays as a dumb love story with cheesy lines. It’s supposed to play that way for the audience within the film watching the event live on TV, but really shouldn’t play that way for us in the movie theater.
With that in mind, I thought it would be worthwhile to list some thoughts on a few other changes made in the transition from book to film:
Before getting into the film, it’s worth making a few comments on The Hunger Games and Twilight. Many people I know seem to be under the impression this as a Twilight-like franchise. It’s hard to blame them – the marketing machine has set it up as such, and I would say, financially, this was a wise decision (as evidenced by the historic opening weekend). However, while both were originally young adult novels and are defined by an extreme popularity with girls, it’s a shortsighted comparison. The Twilight series (the films at least – I haven’t read the books) is a piss-poor and drawn-out love story featuring a shimmering mopey vampire, a self-righteous possessive werewolf, and a manic-depressive teenage girl who can only be defined by her relationship with men. Meanwhile, The Hunger Games is an intriguing dystopian nightmare that examines the pitfalls of government control and the importance of personal identity and features a compelling central heroine (Katniss Everdeen) that is far more closely aligned with Ellen Ripley than Bella Swan. They may be targeting the same audience, but these franchises are operating on completely different levels.
The Hunger Games is a futuristic tale set in Panem, the nation that arose following the destruction of civilization. It was originally made up of 13 districts, each one of which operated a different industry necessary for survival (i.e. farming, coal mining, etc.), and was lorded over by the oppressive Capitol. Due to the harsh conditions, the districts banded together to attempt a rebellion, but they were beaten down (with the 13th district getting completely obliterated). As punishment, the Capitol started a yearly gladiatorial event in which two “tributes” (a boy and girl aged 12-18) from each remaining district are chosen via a lottery system to compete in a 24-person battle-to-the-death known as the Hunger Games. The event is televised 1) for the amusement of the citizens of the Capitol and 2) as a reminder to the districts about who is boss.
There’s a lot to love here. For starters, the casting is excellent. After getting an Oscar nomination for Winter’s Bone two years ago, Jennifer Lawrence has been approaching stardom. Last year, she continued her upward trend, featuring prominently in an indie darling (Like Crazy)and a blockbuster (X-Men: First Class). Here, she takes full advantage of the opportunity to emerge as a full-fledged star, easily carrying a huge tentpole film, while communicating the complexity of Katniss Everdeen. She captures all the key traits – resourcefulness, cunning, resentfulness, compassion, rebelliousness – with very little dialogue.
Meanwhile, Josh Hutcherson captures both the private sensitivity and public magnetism of fellow District 12 tribute Peeta, while the rest of the cast – particularly Woody Harrelson, Stanley Tucci, Wes Bentley, and Lenny Kravitz (Yes, that Lenny Kravitz. I know, weird, right?) – fill in the margins nicely.
I was impressed with the script’s simplistic approach. That said, it was a gutsy decision not to go with an internal monologue for Katniss. So much of the book is her internal reactions, and while I do think it was the right call to avoid narration – it probably would’ve come across heavy-handed – it does result in some confusion. While they may lose some impact, most things (i.e. the significance of the three-finger salute) play fine. And the script does a great job of explaining many of the necessities in clever cinematic ways (i.e. showing Haymitch working sponsors, Gale watching the games, and the commentators giving their input).
Still, some things seem very unclear. For instance, while the book makes it obvious that Katniss believes her and Peeta are faking their love story throughout the competition, the film seems to imply she is, without a doubt, falling for him. As a result, it plays as a dumb love story with cheesy lines. It’s supposed to play that way for the audience within the film watching the event live on TV, but really shouldn’t play that way for us in the movie theater.
With that in mind, I thought it would be worthwhile to list some thoughts on a few other changes made in the transition from book to film:
- The biggest difference was in the extended look at The Capital. Seneca (Bentley) was almost a nonfactor in the book, but here he’s the fourth or fifth lead. I thought that played well, and it was a very nice touch to have the berries sitting there like that in his last scene. I also appreciated that this film set up the trilogy’s big bad (Sutherland’s President Snow) far more than the first book did.
- Odd that they had Peeta talk about showers in his interview and not the soup he loved so much. Both anecdotes would still allow him to be funny, and mentioning the soup there would make the scene with the soup in the cave play better.
- The Rue stuff was handled really well, but I was surprised they didn’t have a brief flashback/audio clip to Peeta’s comments about not wanting to be changed before Katniss made the gravesite. It would’ve made far clearer to the audience that Katniss was intentionally acting rebellious with that gesture and wasn’t just grieving a friend.
- Having said that, the flash to the insurrection in District 11 (something that we only find out about in the second book and that does not happen immediately following Rue’s death) was a nice add that made clear how the action was perceived in the districts. This was strengthened by Snow’s comments to Seneca about the usefulness of hope, provided it is controlled.
- Peeta doesn’t lose his leg here. This makes a lot of sense and will probably save some time in the second film, but I was sad to see this aspect go.
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