The Hunger Games Retrospective: The Hunger Games

2012 was a monumental year for big-budget blockbusters. It saw the releases of films like The Avengers, Skyfall, and The Dark Knight Rises. It was also the year that saw the start of The Hunger Games film series.

In the future, the nation of Panam has replace the United States. After a failed rebellion the Districts of Panam are punished with The Hunger Games, an annual fight to the death between children from the ages of 12 to 18. Each District must send two tributes.

Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) volunteers as a tribute after her sister, Primrose’s (Willow Shields) name gets called out during the Reaping ceremony. With her fellow tribute, Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), she must gain support from the public as well as fight in the arena.

The release of The Hunger Games was massive. I was in America at the time and the buzz was high. It was being talked about on CNN and merchandise was in many stores. There were Mockingjay pins and wristbands saying ‘Down with the Capital.’ I saw the film on a busy opening night, and it was the first film I experienced where the audience applauded. The books became even more popular after the release of the film.

The Hunger Games came out after the success of the Twilight Saga and they targeted a similar audience: young female adults. Both franchises focused on female leads and had a love triangle. The Hunger Games filled the gap Twilight left behind. The success of The Hunger Games led to imitators like the Divergent and Maze Runner series.

The Hunger Games was the most straightforward out of all the films in the series. The catalyst of the story was a teenage girl trying to protect her younger sister and Katniss’ only goal was to survive. She wasn’t aware that she was becoming a symbol of rebellion. The Hunger Games was the first act of a much bigger story.

The story of The Hunger Games was split into two parts. The first half was the Katniss preparing for the battle and the media campaign. The second half was the child combat. The Hunger Games had been compared to Battle Royale since they had a similar premise where teenagers were forced to fight to the death as a form of collective punishment. However, there were differences. The most obvious was the rating, since Battle Royale was a hard-R, no-holds-barred actioner and deserved its cult status, whilst The Hunger Games was a more mainstream PG-13 film so nowhere near as bloody. The Hunger Games was still hardcore for its rating, the uncut version on Blu-ray in the UK had a 15 rating. The massacre at the opening of the games was tough and bloody, but it was masked with shaky cam cinematography.

The rules differed. In Battle Royale, the kids had three days to fight or have their heads blown off, whilst there was no time limit in The Hunger Games. The Japanese film showed a whole class being forced to fight, which meant there was more of a personal connection. The tributes in The Hunger Games were made up of a variety of ages – there was potential that a 12-year-old girl would be forced to fight an 18-year-old boy.

The Hunger Games did emphasis that it had parallels to the gladiatorial contests in Ancient Rome. The setup was like a futuristic version of the Roman Empire where people from the provinces were forced to fight as a form of entertainment and made temporary celebrities. The imagery of the tributes making their entries was like Ben-Hur and Gladiator due to the grandeur of the costumes, chariots, and drummers.

The most interesting aspect of The Hunger Games was the media game. Not only did someone have to be good in the arena, but they also had to be media savvy and sell a story. Peeta was great at this since he had a natural charm, was easygoing, and was able to sell a love story with Katniss. The tributes had to win public support to ensure they could get gifts in the arena. The games were made as entertainment for the residents of the capital, but Katniss was able to expose the weaknesses of the system due to her friendship with Rue (Amanda Stenberg).

As an adaptation, The Hunger Games was mostly faithful. It stuck to the story, but there were some changes. The biggest involved Katniss and Peeta’s injuries since Katniss lost the hearing in one ear and Peeta had to have a leg amputated. This had a major impact on the later stories. Other changes were understandable, like cutting out the Axioms, which didn’t add anything to the main story. There were moments in the book I liked but would have been hard to implement in the film like poorer people in the districts were able to get more food and resources, but the cost of more entries for the Reaping, and hinting that the Mutts at the end of the games were reanimated mutations of the fallen tributes.

The Hunger Games was a film that drew a lot of talent. Directors linked to the film included Sam Mendes, David Slade (30 Days of Night), and Andrew Adamson (Disney’s Chronicles of Narnia movies) before the job was given to Gary Ross, known for directing Pleasantville and Seabiscuit. He gave the film a more gritty, grounded look, especially in District 12, which was a poor coal mining territory, and the area and people were austere compared to the luxury and excess of The Capital.

Katniss was one of the most sought-after roles in Hollywood with the likes of Saoirse Ronan, Hailee Steinfeld, and Chloë Grace Moretz being considered before Jennifer Lawrence was named for the role, making her an A-Lister. It was understandable why she was cast since she was nominated for an Oscar for her role in Winter’s Bone, an indie-drama about a poverty-stricken 17-year-old girl with survival skills forced to find her runaway father. Lawrence shined during the aftermath of Rue’s death.

The Hunger Games had a strong cast of emerging talent and established actors. Josh Hutcherson was already a child star, Liam Hemsworth was seen as a potential heartthrob, and Isabelle Fuhrman made a splash with the first Orphan movie. Other members of the cast became successful after the series, like Alexander Ludwig and Amandla Stenberg. Woody Harrelson and Donald Sutherland were the biggest named actors in the film and offered a lot of gravitas to the picture, especially Sutherland who was a cunning figure as President Snow.

President Snow’s role was beefed up for the film. He was shown speaking with Seneca Crane (Wes Bentley), the Head Gamemaker and he gave his subordinate important lessons about the importance and meaning of the Games. Snow stated that the games offered a little glimmer of hope and were a distraction for the masses. His message was given more importance after reading The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, since Snow proposed many of the ideas that made the Games into a spectacle, like introducing sponsorship and gambling. Sutherland gave the character a calm menace and an imposing threat to the main character of the film.

The Hunger Games did set up the standard for the YA teen dystopia sub-genre and it was a good start to the series. The film sets the world and shows how a girl unwittingly became a symbol of resistance.