The Hunger Games Retrospective: Mockingjay – Part One

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay saw a big change in story, setting, and aesthetic as it turned the series from a Young Adult Dystopia to a war story.

Katniss has been extracted from the Third Quarter Quill and taken to the secretive District 13. Peeta has been taken captive by The Capitol and District 12 has been firebombed out of existence. President Coin (Julianne Moore) is leading the rebellion against The Capitol and she wants Katniss to become a rallying point for the citizens. Haymitch Abernathy proposes a radical suggestion, sends Katniss to the frontline, and records her actions.

Catching Fire was seen as the high point of the Hunger Games series. It earned the best reviews from critics and had strong audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes, IMDB, and Metacritic. The Mockingjay films suffered in comparison, having much lower scores and generally considered the weakest films in the series. The producers of the films followed the trend started by Harry Potter and Twilight where the final book in the series was split into a two-parter for the film adaptations. Their argument was to ensure their respective series could have a proper send-off; cynics would say it was a simple attempt to milk as much money out of the fanbase.

The issue with many two-part films is each entry is only telling half a story. The first part is usually just set up, whilst the second part was more action-focused. This happened with the Mockingjay films. Part One had the least action out of all the Hunger Games films.

Mockingjay – Part One had a notable change in look and tone to the previous films. The first film had a gritty look and told a more personal story about Katniss and Peeta, whilst the second expanded on the universe and there was colour and grandeur. Mockingjay – Part One was danker and claustrophobic since a majority of the film took place in District 13. District 13 was the opposite of The Capitol since The Capitol was bright, colourful, and opulent, whilst District 13 was austere and monotone. Life in District 13 was more disciplined and it was notable that everyone in the district wore jumpsuits like they lived in Oceania. District 13 offered a different form of oppression to The Capitol.

The most interesting aspect of Mockingjay – Part One was the media warfare. The Capitol and the Rebels were fighting on the TV screen as much as on the battlefield. Katniss was the rallying point for the Rebellion, but she had no media presence, hence why she was sent to the battlefield because she worked best in off-the-cuff situations. Katniss’ compassion and fury were what drew people to the young woman. Peeta was rolled out by The Capitol to encourage the Rebels to surrender and try to make him a Lord Haw-Haw/Tokyo Rose-like figure. A scene that embodied this theme was when Peeta was being interviewed by Caesar Flickerman and Beetee Laiter was able to interrupt it in a move to humiliate The Capitol.

Suzanne Collins was influenced by the Iraq War when writing The Hunger Games series. The Iraq War was one of the most documented wars in history due to the 24-hour news cycle. The fight for ‘Hearts and Minds’ plays in the American mindset because this was rhetoric the military spoke during the Vietnam and Iraq Wars. It was easy for the Rebels to win over the people of Panem due to all the atrocities The Capitol committed during the film.

Whilst Mockingjay – Part One was more focused on the media and mind games, there were some strong war visuals. The best was the ambush in District 8 where the Rebels tricked the Peacekeepers into a minefield. It was the most striking moment. Katniss’ shining moment was when she shot down a Capitol bomber and made her impassioned speech towards President Snow.

The personal duel between Katniss and Snow escalated in this film. Snow toyed with Katniss when she visited the ruins of District 12 and discovered a white rose in her old house. Within the film, the conflict culminated with Katniss speaking to Snow during the Rebel’s raid into The Capitol, so she could distract him. However, Snow was one step ahead of Katniss and the Rebel and he showed how cunning an operator he can be.

One of the draws of The Hunger Games series was the love triangle between Katniss, Gale, and Peeta. However, in the first two films, she spends most of her time with Peeta. Gale finally gets a chance to shine since Katniss got to spend time with Gale and audiences got to know about him as he became a soldier. At this point in the story, Katniss and Gale’s point-of-view on the war was beginning to be diverse, and more conflict was happening between the pair.

The big new addition in the film was Julianne Moore as President Coin. Like Donald Sutherland, Woody Harrelson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Jeremy Wright, Moore gave The Hunger Games series more prestige. Moore doesn’t need much of an introduction and she’s a professional. In the books, there was hostility between Katniss and Coin since the President saw the teenager as a threat to her power, yet in the film, this wasn’t felt. Coin was simply a cold and professional leader, similar to Snow. It was like she was the other side of the coin.

Mockingjay – Part One was an unconventional blockbuster considering its action-light nature. Mockingjay – Part One had interesting ideas about information warfare, but some people would consider the film the least compelling in the series.