The World will be watching.
The Hunger Games begins on the day of the reaping in District 12. Katniss Everdeen, the story’s 16-year-old narrator, sets out to meet her friend Gale so they can do some hunting and gathering before the reaping that afternoon.
As Katniss makes her way from her home to the Meadow and, finally, to the woods, where people of the district are forbidden to go, we learn about Katniss’ life in the impoverished part of her district, the Seam, and her family. She thinks about her sister Prim, who is 4 years younger, and her mother, both of whom have depended upon Katniss for survival ever since Katniss’ father died in a mine explosion when she was 11.
The reaping is a nerve-wracking time because it determines which boy and girl, ages 12 to 18, will serve as the district’s tributes in the Hunger Games. Two tributes are drawn in each of the 12 districts, and those tributes are sent to an arena where they fight until only one tribute remains alive. The victor gets to return home, and the victor’s district is showered with gifts – namely food. The Games, put on by the Capitol, are meant to punish the 12 districts of Panem as well as to remind them of the Dark Days and how the 13th district was obliterated for its uprising against the tyrannical and cruel Capitol.
Against all odds, Prim’s name is selected at the reaping. Katniss volunteers to take the place of her younger sister and becomes District 12’s girl tribute for the 74th Hunger Games. Peeta Mellark, a boy Katniss’ age and the son of the baker, is selected as the other tribute. She remembers Peeta and the kindness he demonstrated toward her when they were children, giving her a burnt piece of bread so that she wouldn’t starve. Peeta’s selection doesn’t bode well for Katniss, who feels that she owes Peeta for saving her life when they were children, which is inconvenient considering she’s now expected to kill him in the Hunger Games.
The Hunger Games is a 2012 American science fiction-adventure film directed by Gary Ross and based on Suzanne Collins’ 2008 novel of the same name. It is the first installment in The Hunger Games film series and was produced by Nina Jacobson and Jon Kilik, with a screenplay by Ross, Collins, and Billy Ray. The film stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Lenny Kravitz, Stanley Tucci, and Donald Sutherland.
The Hunger Games earned $408 million in the US & Canada, and $286.4 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $694.4 million. It made the largest worldwide opening weekend for a film not released during the summer or the holiday period, earning $211.8 million, which was just ahead of Alice in Wonderland’s previous record ($210.1 million).
Film Review for The Hunger Games
Like many science-fiction stories, “The Hunger Games” portrays a future that we’re invited to read as a parable for the present. After the existing nations of North America are destroyed by catastrophe, a civilization named Panem rises from the ruins. It’s ruled by a vast, wealthy Capitol inspired by the covers of countless sci-fi magazines and surrounded by 12 “districts” that are powerless satellites.
As the story opens, the annual ritual of the Hunger Games is beginning; each district must supply a “tribute” of a young woman and man, and these 24 finalists must fight to the death in a forested “arena” where hidden cameras capture every move.
This results in a television production that apparently holds the nation spellbound and keeps the citizens content. Mrs. Link, my high school Latin teacher, will be proud that I recall one of her daily phrases, “panem et circenses,” which summarized the Roman formula for creating a docile population: Give them bread and circuses. A vision of present-day America is summoned up, its citizenry glutted with fast food and distracted by reality TV. How is the population expected to accept the violent sacrifice of 24 young lives a year? How many have died in our recent wars?
The story centers on the two tributes from the dirt-poor District 12: Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson). The 16-year-old girl hunts deer with bow and arrow to feed her family; he may be hunkier but seems no match in survival skills. They’re both clean-cut, All-Panem types, and although one or both are eventually required to be dead, romance is a possibility.
In contrast with these healthy young people, the ruling class in the Capitol are effete decadents. Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks), bedecked in gaudy costumery and laden with garish cosmetics, emcees the annual drawing for tributes, and the nation gets to know the finalists on a talk show hosted by Caesar Flickerman (Stanley Tucci), who suggests what Donald Trump might do with his hair if he had enough of it.
The executive in charge is the gamemaker, Seneca (Wes Bentley), who has a beard so bizarrely designed that Satan would be envious. At the top of the society is the president (Donald Sutherland), a sagacious graybeard who harbors deep thoughts. In interviews, Sutherland has equated the younger generation with leftists and Occupiers. The old folks in the Capitol are no doubt a right-wing oligarchy. My conservative friends, however, equate the young with the Tea Party and the old with decadent Elitists. “The Hunger Games,” like many parables, will show you exactly what you seek in it.
The scenes set in the Capitol and dealing with its peculiar characters have a completely different tone than the scenes of conflict in the Arena. The ruling class is painted in broad satire and bright colors. Katniss and the other tributes are seen in earth-toned realism; this character could be another manifestation, indeed, of Jennifer Lawrence’s Oscar-nominated character Ree in “Winter’s Bone.” The plot even explains why she’s adept at bow and arrow.
One thing I missed, however, was more self-awareness on the part of the tributes. As their names are being drawn from a fish bowl (!) at the Reaping, the reactions of the chosen seem rather subdued, considering the odds are 23-to-1 that they’ll end up dead. Katniss volunteers to take the place of her 12-year-old kid sister, Prim (Willow Shields), but no one explicitly discusses the fairness of deadly combat between girl children and 18-year-old men. Apparently the jaded TV audiences of Panem have developed an appetite for barbarity. Nor do Katniss and Peeta reveal much thoughtfulness about their own peculiar position.
“The Hunger Games” is an effective entertainment, and Jennifer Lawrence is strong and convincing in the central role. But the film leapfrogs obvious questions in its path, and avoids the opportunities sci-fi provides for social criticism; compare its world with the dystopias in “Gattaca” or “The Truman Show.” Director Gary Ross and his writers (including the series’ author, Suzanne Collins) obviously think their audience wants to see lots of hunting-and-survival scenes, and has no interest in people talking about how a cruel class system is using them. Well, maybe they’re right. But I found the movie too long and deliberate as it negotiated the outskirts of its moral issues.
The Hunger Games (2012)
Directed by: Gary Ross
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Lenny Kravitz, Stanley Tucci, Donald Sutherland, Sandra Ellis Lafferty, Raiko Bowman
Screenplay by: Gary Ross, Suzanne Collins
Production Design by: Philip Messina
Cinematography by: Tom Stern
Film Editing by: Christopher S. Capp, Stephen Mirrione, Juliette Welfling
Costume Design by: Judianna Makovsky
Set Decoration by: Larry Dias
Art Direction by: John Collins, Robert Fechtman, Paul Richards
Music by: James Newton Howard
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for intense violent thematic material and disturbing images – all involving teens.
Distributed by: Lionsgate Films
Release Date: March 23, 2012
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