May The Odds Ever Be In Your Favor
Minutes after finishing the book, I saw the Hunger Games last week.
The movie was not as good as the book. Of course, right? The movie never is.
I enjoyed it. Going into the movie I had read a little about the cast and was looking forward to seeing which actors played which characters. I knew Jennifer Lawrence was Katniss, and I’d seen on IMDB that Elizabeth Banks was Effie, and I had guessed (and my daughter confirmed) that Lenny Kravitz was playing Cinna. Just as we were seated to see the film, it occurred to me that Harrelson would probably portray Haymitch. I like the casting choices, but noone turned in a briliant performance if you ask me – not even Lawrence, who I think is or will be a real movie star.
The movie was shot too “tightly” for my tastes. Combine that with the fast camera moves and our ” close to the front ” possition in the theater and I was a littls sick from all the action and motion.
Otherwise, it was good. I’m not sure why they added the riot in district 11, or why they changed the details of the mocking jay pin, but I can live with both, I guess.
The bigget plus of the movie, if you ask me, is that it really drives home how much the culture of the games resembles our culture of fast food and reality TV. The point is not completely lost in the book, but seeing the games on the big screen moderated by a flamboyant, purple-haried Stanley Tucci made it all seem so real – yet it made the gamesmaker part of it less believable.
I read a review of the movie by Roger Ebert and he mentioned that his conservative friends interpret the wealth vs. poverty in the film differnetly than he does. They see the capital as the elitists and the “good guys” of the districts as the tea party people. I don’t see it that way at all and one scene added in the movie (fairly, I think) reinforces my interpretation.
President Snow (Donald Sutherland) is meeting in a garden with Head Gamemaker Seneca Crane (Wes Bentley) and he explains that the games have a victor because it gives the people hope. The parallel to the Republican rhetoric is astounding to me. If we can convince poor destitute peole that they have the opportunity to one day make it or become a sucess or have a lot of money, than we have them convinced our agenda is a good one. It’s a sinister thing and I wish it would stop.
Sure, America is, and has always been, the land of opportunity. That’s great. But let’s face it – we don’t all have the same opportunity. Perhaps theoreticaly we do – but not in practice , not in the real world. In the real world, some people have more opportunity than others. Some are born rich, or good looking, or white. Some are born with no talent, or possibiltiy for rising above their circumstances. To ignore this reality is unfair – to everyone.
I cannot pretend to understand how to deal with this reality – but I know one way not to deal with it. We can’t ignore it. We can’t pretend something else is the case. We can’t simply convince those who have no chance, that they do have a chance – just because we want them to support us.
It all reminds me of multi level marketing. Convince enough people that they can make it so they prop up a system that relies on them “at the bottom” so those “at the top” succeed – and continue to succeed. It’s a terrible system. It’s unfair and it preys on the week. I used to hear an Amway speaker who said “we need poor people” (to clean toilets and such) and I’ve hear my share of Christans remind me that even Jesus said “the poor will always be with you.” If you ask me, these are just excuses to turn a blind eye to injustice.
Anyway, it wasn’t a great movie but it got me on a rant here, didn’t it?
*The movie was approved by the author of the book and I’ve been told that this scene is in harmony with the events of the subsequent books