For Some Insight Into The State Of US Politics, Rewatch The Hunger Games
Feminista explains - and rates the performances of Jennifer Lawrence, Lenny Kravitz, Woody Harrelson, and more.
By Michelle B. Taylor
It’s time for a throwback!
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re aware that the United States is in the midst of political turmoil it has not seen since the mid-19th century when the humanity of African Americans was on the ballot. There are so many changes happening to our society taking place with breakneck speed, that it’s difficult to keep up with everything. However, some of it isn’t as surprising to those who keep up with dystopian fiction, be it literature or cinema. This week, I want to highlight one of the most prescient dystopian film series we’ve ever seen: The Hunger Games trilogy.
Many years ago, I came upon a book called The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I was unfamiliar with her as an author but when I read the summary, I was immediately intrigued by the premise. I went on to consume all of the books within a week. I was that enthralled. When I learned that the book series would be turned into a film series, I raised an eyebrow because I couldn't believe that it had been approved. It was such an indicting commentary on American society, particularly our obsession with reality television and trauma as entertainment. It seemed like making it into a film series would reach way more people and get people to think about revolution. I never trust the so-called “powers that be” to expose us to these things, but it got the green light, so of course I went to see it.
The story is about a young woman named Katniss Everdeen who lives in a post-apocalyptic world where class stratification is devastating and people are suffering because they dared to rise up against an oppressive government. People from different districts across what is called Panem are called to have two people from their region offered as tributes or people who will fight in a series of trials as part of a larger competition. It is a fight to the death and it is widely televised throughout the land. The winners are treated with lifelong respect... kind of. If you can survive the Hunger Games, I suppose you deserve the royal treatment. The games serve as a reminder to everyone that rising against the government can lead to your demise and it is a way to keep people in their place. But when Katniss comes along and challenges the status quo, things begin to change for everyone. A Revolution begins to brew and the people decide to stand up for themselves.
I want us to revisit the Hunger Games because the themes are relevant to our current times. First, we have to consider the manipulation of the media to push propaganda and force a particular narrative. Right now, we have a president who limits which press companies are allowed into the Oval Office or at his press briefings. This is a suppression of freedom of the press, which is guaranteed by the First Amendment of the constitution. By doing this, the capital, as it is known in the series, controls all of the mass communication and what people are allowed to hear and know about the world around them.
Class stratification is also a key theme throughout The Hunger Games. The opulence of the capital is starkly contrasted with the suffering of people in the destitute regions. Citizens barely have enough to eat and every day is a struggle. However, when they are selected to go to the games, they are treated like royalty and provided with all of the food, drink, and luxury one could imagine. It is a bit of a tease, a mindfuck really, and it represents the daily struggles of average people. In the United States, over 40 million people are food insecure and 13% of the population lives in poverty. That is shameful for a country like this, but mass media is used to convince us that somehow those people deserve it.
Our obsession with media consumption, particularly as it relates to what we find entertaining, is another key thing in The Hunger Games series. In 2007, the Writer's Guild of America went on strike and as a result, we were inundated with reality television. At one point, it seemed like at least half of the shows on television were some kind of reality-based competition or a show focused on following people around as they go about their daily lives. For some reason, we began to think that that was entertaining. It was far less expensive to produce reality television shows and they did not have to adhere to the same union limitations. This changed the course of American Media permanently. Collins makes an important commentary that we have become so desensitized by having access to people's personal lives, that we lose our respect for humanity in the process. People become spectacles and objects, and we forget that they are just as human as we are. The films do a fantastic job of calling us out even as we are consuming this story. They force us to question why we are so upset with peering into other people's lives.
While I did have some issues with how the film series strayed from the book, overall, I think they did a great job of telling the story. The casting was questionable at times if you read the books first. However, it was a joy to see rockstar Lenny Kravitz take a turn as a dramatic actor. I loved seeing Amandla Stenberg as Rue, even though she received a lot of racist backlash for depicting a character who was... Black. The fandoms seemed to want to erase Rue’s Blackness because they had empathy for her and couldn't reconcile how they could have empathy for a Black child. I will say that Jennifer Lawrence's performance as Katniss Everdeen was serviceable. She did not