America is gone and in its place exists Panem, a country made up of twelve districts and their oppressive Capitol. Years ago, war broke out and the rebels were defeated. Now, in an attempt to remind everyone that The Capitol is really in charge, each district must send two tributes into an arena for a fight to the death. Only one can survive. Welcome to The Hunger Games!
The Hunger Games follows Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), a normal teenager from District 12, who volunteers for the Games after her little sister Prim (Willow Shields) is selected at the Reaping, a random lottery in which the names of children are placed in a bowl for drawing. Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) is selected as the male tribute for District 12 and accompanies Katniss to The Capitol for participation in the games.
The film is based on a book by Suzanne Collins, who helped to write the film, and is directed by Gary Ross. It also stars Elizabeth Banks, Woody Harrelson, Lenny Kravitz, Wes Bentley, Stanley Tucci, and Donald Sutherland.
The Hunger Games is a rare treat in the recent wave of book-to-film adaptations in that it uses its source material for plot and characters, but then it tosses it aside and creates a new medium that ends up being perfect for the screen. It is emotional, engaging, brutal, and completely original.
Ross uses many creative techniques in the film to create the world of Panem, a world so similar to our own, yet so very different. There are moments of absolute silence that feature only the natural sounds that one would normally hear in the same situation. Instead of the terrifying and pulse-pounding music that leads up to a shocking moment, you just get the character’s face, masked with their terror and their fear. And you feel it.
That is not to say that the movie does not feature music, because it does. And when it does, it’s great. But the use of sound is very effective for the movie. Whether it is regular sound, muffled or warped sound, silence, or musical score, the film takes sound editing to a whole other level.
The camera angles in The Hunger Games take on an entire life of their own; they create the movie. There are relatively few steady shots, with most of the film using handheld shots. The camera moves, it jumps, it runs, and it shakes. In a sense, it is human. And since when we watch a film, we see it through the camera’s point of view, it places us into the movie. We are running next to Katniss, we are an arrow hitting a target; we are a little girl looking up at the trees as she dies. We are there.
Death, and more specifically the death of children, is a vital piece of The Hunger Games puzzle. But this film (and the book) takes the murder of children one step further. To the citizens of The Capitol of Panem, it is not sad, harrowing, or tragic. It is entertainment; it is exciting. In one scene, a large board is featured in which the odds for each tribute are posted, as if the children are racehorses at a track. In the same scene, a small Capitol boy unwraps a present from his father and receives a sword. He then chases his little sister around trying to stab her while his father and mother laugh.
It may seem like a barbaric society that has nothing to do with anything going on it the real world, but think about it. Don’t we follow celebrities as they do drugs and get divorced and have affairs? Don’t we feed off their problems and sadness? Don’t we tune in to watch the Kardashians and other reality stars spiral out of control each week? Aren’t we hungry for more?
With our obsession and fascination with reality TV, as well as our problematic political system, The Hunger Games could be more of a reality than we think. Let’s just hope that the odds are in our favor.
Rating: 9.5/10 for terrific acting and editing, and a horrifying sense of realism.