The Hunger Games--More Than Meets the Eye

Rating: 9/10 (29 April 2012)

With so many reviewers in attack mode I'm almost hesitant to enter this arena. But, I feel bound to do so, to step past the multiple critiques of actors and technique, to examine The Hunger Games in am alternative way.
We can never be sure how the stories we read evolved. Are they superficial flows of ideas, bound together by a simple plot or did the author or screenwriter fill the book or movie with complex literary devices that tested our attention during endless lectures in college?
Here, in The Hunger Games, the simple premise of a long past conflict was the stated basis. But, there is much more—many hints and suggestions, that encourage us to imagine our own back story—simple or complex as we wish it to be.
First of all, this destructive conflagration occurred at least 75 years in the past, hence the 74th Hunger Games. The President, Donald Sutherland, in all his ungroomed splendor, was probably the only resident of the Capital old enough to remember which explains a sensitivity to any hint of solidarity and rebellion. The Districts were splinter groups, cast into the wild, relegated to provide elemental sustenance for the Capital whose residents were obviously successful in bringing the great rebellion to a bitter end. Scattered and fenced, these Districts were guarded and forbidden from contact with others.
In this context, The Hunger Games was an effort to establish competition among these districts, to engender hate as a common bond with each other and against all other districts. That there was one winner focused this hatred on that district. The games deflected mutual hatred for the Capital and substituted it for the competition. In this role, the competitors became the gladiators in a futuristic but just as deadly coliseum. The victor presented as hero for a year, touring other Districts as a proxy of the Capital and its power.
This was centralized power in its most potent form. The Districts were kept hungry, near starvation, and worked in an environment reminiscent of pre-union industry. Indeed, glimpses of District 12 reminded us of America's own Appalachia during its rugged coal mining days.
This was the backdrop against which The Hunger Games were held—Olympic pageantry meets Roman arena. Hints of this volatile situation were common: the symbolic salute of assembled masses, the battles between Peacekeepers and workers on factory floors, and the paranoia of the President that ended in the demise of the Gamesmaker.
The Hunger Games was a splendid effort. It was a condensation to be sure and a better experience for those of us who read the book(s) beforehand. For those who criticized Katniss as too svelte for District 12, consider that she was a hunter whose family ate better than most. That the cat had a scene in the film and the goat did not—well, there must be some compromises.
This is the first chapter in what will be, based on its success, a trilogy and we'll learn much about these characters and the Districts. Like Harry Potter, a series of books written for a teen-aged audience has captured the imagination of adult readers. That the reality of death was downplayed so completely in the film was both a tribute to the director and a gift to a younger audience who otherwise would not be able to see the film at all.