tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5183542613074539087.post3787326089565481313..comments2023-07-14T07:58:00.664-04:00Comments on Once Upon a Time in the Cinema: Hungry, Hungry Allegory - 'The Hunger Games'James Gilmorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04735893606983663339noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5183542613074539087.post-4225338202098500302012-04-09T11:23:53.370-04:002012-04-09T11:23:53.370-04:00All great films. Thanks for the elaboration.
I...All great films. Thanks for the elaboration.<br /><br />I've actually been told by several who've read the book (I have not) that my interpretation of the film as a post-Civil War Reconstruction allegory is completely off the mark. So either I'm crazy or the adaptation explicated these elements.<br /><br />Either way, thanks for the responses. Always appreciated.<br /><br />Cheers.James Gilmorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04735893606983663339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5183542613074539087.post-12727585540567254532012-04-03T15:12:50.600-04:002012-04-03T15:12:50.600-04:00Thank you for the comments. For a very, very simp...Thank you for the comments. For a very, very simplistic look at a few random examples of what I perceive as better allegories:<br /><br />The Quiet American (Caine and Fraser never stop to care about the Vietnamese woman at the center of their love triangle, just like how major powers never stopped to think about the country in the middle of their ideological struggle)<br />Caché (how individuals and, by extension, society, cope with their own mistakes by closing their eyes and forgetting)<br />Borat (in terms of its satirical elements, which I suspect a lot of people missed)<br />The Seventh Seal (the human experience of facing one’s own mortality)<br />Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (blind faith in technology v spiritual faith)<br />The Third Man (vanquishing ‘the other’ as a function of forming a new world, clashes between realism and idealism)<br />Fargo and No Country for Old Men (the difficulty of maintaining a sense of hope in the face of true and unending evil)<br />Blade Runner (what it means to be human in an empty world) <br />The Dark Knight (the impossibility of responding to our post-9/11 conceptualization of evil while maintaining our own sense of morality)<br /><br />I don’t mean to get carried away on an emotional rant. Again, I haven’t actually read the book or seen the film, so maybe I’m completely wrong. It’s just that given what I’ve read from critics and heard from many fans, I don’t see the ‘oppressive-future-society-makes-kids-fight-each-other’ story as anything more than a means to an end and a thinly-veiled excuse for providing entertainment through the sight of kids fighting to the death. I felt that Ender’s Game (one of my favorite books) dealt with these subjects with incredible insight and maturity. I don’t see a mature metaphorical exploration of cultural perceptions of violence here in much the same sense that I didn’t see a worthwhile environmental message in Avatar.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5183542613074539087.post-26310787896964314692012-04-02T20:27:11.422-04:002012-04-02T20:27:11.422-04:00Hi Anonymous,
I'm curious, given your rant ab...Hi Anonymous,<br /><br />I'm curious, given your rant about the simplicity of allegory, if there is an example of a filmic allegory you find particularly compelling or multi-faceted?<br /><br />I would caution against judging an entire film's audience without having seen said film. That kind of rhetoric leads to quite a few assumptions.<br /><br />I don't particularly enjoy the film, but I don't necessarily find the ideas *behind* it inherently stupid. Underdeveloped and unoriginal, sure, but I think it at least makes an effort to critique our spectatorial lust for violence.James Gilmorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04735893606983663339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5183542613074539087.post-69948021660319703932012-04-01T21:02:42.163-04:002012-04-01T21:02:42.163-04:00The reason that I do not feel at all compelled to ...The reason that I do not feel at all compelled to see this movie or read the books is what seems to me like the shallowness of the metaphors and social criticism. Listening to people praise The Hunger Games reminds me too much of a lot of the praise other films got where I found the messages silly and simplistic: 28 Days Later - "Look, the infected are really just liked us" Dawn of the Dead - "Look, the zombies are going to the mall, just like us!" District Nine - "Look, they're discriminating against the aliens, just like racial discrimination in South Africa!" Not to say that any of those movies are 'bad' (I liked all of them), just that the principle messages that most people took away and discussed weren't very deep or interesting. One of the many reasons I couldn't stand Battle Royale as that I saw no point to the violence. A.O. Scott (I think, it might have been a different critic) went on and on about how Battle Royale was a brilliant analysis of generational tensions ("The kids and the parents don't get along, just like in real life!") but all I saw was a skin-deep message and a lot of kids killing each other, which I found no way to enjoy. I fear that The Hunger Games is the same way ("Look, it's like reality TV!"), although since I've avoided the books and film entirely I could be wrong. What matters more to me is that our society has no problem watching PG-13 film about kids murdering each other. The whole - 'future society is exploiting these children' angle so many people take sounds too much like moral justification for people who like to pretend that they're watching anything other than the exploitation of violence amongst children. I don't think that most people watching The Hunger Games care at all about the allegory. Incidentally, the allegory is stupid. "Look - it's the north and the south, just like in America!" Who cares? Answer: people afraid to admit they enjoy watching children brutally kill each other - at least as brutally as a more profitable PG-13 rating allows. Fans of this film like the action, adventure, and romance. We're the ones watching violence between children and we're the ones enjoying it, and the fact that the film implies this doesn't give us a free pass to sit back and relax.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5183542613074539087.post-40959990039685517232012-03-31T13:35:19.675-04:002012-03-31T13:35:19.675-04:00The camera thing was really annoying at the beginn...The camera thing was really annoying at the beginning it stopped later but it made me really nauseous!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5183542613074539087.post-53840698769969822402012-03-25T15:12:57.705-04:002012-03-25T15:12:57.705-04:00Thanks for the comment, Dan. I don't doubt it ...Thanks for the comment, Dan. I don't doubt it has things to say, but my qualms are chiefly with the conventional and underdeveloped ways it goes about saying them.<br /><br />I read your review, and am interested that you seemed to find the spatial arrangements of the film spectacular. While well designed, I found its uses of space very dull, an issue more with the cinematography/direction/editing than the art direction. The exception being Appalachia, which was photographed beautifully.James Gilmorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04735893606983663339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5183542613074539087.post-34463708457878205712012-03-24T17:41:27.227-04:002012-03-24T17:41:27.227-04:00The Hunger Games has as much to say about oppressi...The Hunger Games has as much to say about oppressive politics and the bloodthirsty, heartless media as it does about the internal struggle among the combatants. Still though, everybody here is great, especially Lawrence in a star-making role, and definitely has me pumped up for the sequel. Good review James. Check out my review when you can.Dan O.http://www.dtmmr.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.com