Of Teenage Slaughter as Cultural Phenomenon

*CAUTION: MINOR SPOILERS PRESENT*

           The Hunger Games will be remembered, if for no other reason, as one of the weirdest movies to ever reach the level of cultural phenomenon (if such degrees of success can be quantified.) There is something in the film’s approach to its oftentimes gristly material that seems different from that taken by the traditional blockbuster, which frequently tries to translate the language of fantasy and imagination into something that an ordinary audience can understand. The Hunger Games, instead, remains comfortable in its own skin. The film approaches matters with an at times ironic aesthetic that borders on the surreal and bizarre, as its dystopian future is filled not by the colorlessness misery of Orwell, but with a collage of candy coated colors. While many elements of the narrative are drawn from sources both ancient and modern, the set and costume design of the film appears to be a product all its own. There is, to my mind at least, nothing like it. But this aesthetic does not simply exist to provide a unique set decoration, as the film also contains a parallel aesthetic that seeks to normalize its world, as if the viewers are themselves a part of Panem. The film embraces this aesthetic completely, presenting its dystopian future in such a matter of fact way that the insanity of the film’s proceedings rarely registers, the viewer instead reliant upon isolated moments of clarity to process what exactly they are watching.

At one point, Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) is hiding up a tree in the Arena (the forested area where the gladiatorial title event takes place) while she eavesdrops on an alliance of nearby Tributes, the group of young men and women who have been selected to compete in the annual Hunger Games, an event where they will fight to the death until only one remains. The teenagers gloat about the other competitors their age that they have murdered, mocking the weakness of the others, and mimicking their unheeded pleas for mercy. For me, moments such as this, where the more competitive of the film’s Tributes extol their bloodthirsty accomplishments, were the most striking moments of clarity. It is not that the very presence of teenage psychopaths such as these in a mainstream film is particularly unusual. The Scream series has a long tradition of them, but the difference is that the Scream series clearly establishes that these characters are psychopaths. Within the world of The Hunger Games however, this psychopathy is almost glossed over, with their comments heralding more of a threat to Katniss then a threat to any greater social order. The competitors are threatening because they’re good, not because they are evil (although they certainly appear to be that at times as well.) The policies surrounding the Hunger Games and their unfolding might be unfair, but no one seems to question the central morality of cheering on teenagers who are hunting and killing each other, just the fact that this hunting and killing is being done to support an autocratic regime, which in my mind is only the second most troubling aspect of the situation. The film never seems to directly question the morality of its universe, leaving that judgment for the audience to make. 

            I have enough faith in the creative forces involved to assume that this sort of ironic distance was intended, and that these moments of clarity are intended to arrive, if not always at the same time for each audience member. The film opens on the set of a talk show hosted by Caesar Flickerman (Stanley Tucci), as he interviews Seneca Crane (Wes Bentley), the designer of the games, the two expounding on Seneca’s skill at design as if they are discussing the logistics of some obstacle course intended for a reality show. Various interview pieces with Tucci return throughout the film, and the Games’ brutality is something that appears celebrated in them without any need for justification. Of course children getting slaughtered is entertaining. Why wouldn’t it be? The sheer cynical embrace of this by the film is surprising, given that most major film releases make an effort to share their audiences’ morality, believing that any trace of cynicism marks box office failure.

            While the film’s tonal aesthetic might be a welcome change, there is nothing welcoming about The Hunger Games’s atrocious cinematography. From beginning to end, the film is dominated by the rapid cutting and shaky camera work that is now in vogue, but which in this film accomplished nothing besides making me feel cross-eyed. This might be acceptable for a film purported to consist of “found footage” or which takes place in a warzone, but it seems misplaced during what are supposed to be establishing shots of the regal and glamorous Capital. The cutting is so rapid and the shots are so unsteady that it is often impossible to get a good view of the pageantry leading up the Games. I found myself feeling unsettled for the first third or so of the film, and not as part of some intended alienation effect, but as if I were wobbling around after getting off of a roller coaster, unable to sit down and fully gather my thoughts.

This pattern becomes most obnoxious during The Reaping ceremony, where Katniss’s sister Primrose is originally chosen to be the female Tribute of District 12 before Katniss herself volunteers to take her sister’s place. The film clearly intends to build suspense with this set piece, the characters silently waiting out their fates as the cheery Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks) selects two random participants who will fight for their lives for their nation’s amusement. The camera destroys much of this suspense however, frequently cutting to split second shots which are unstable and out of focus. There is more to suspense then just narrative setup. Suspense has to be created in the rhythms of the camerawork as well, and while cutting might be effective in building up suspense for a complex procedure, for something as simple as pulling a name out of a fishbowl, a more fluid style would have been appreciated. As it is, the completely fractured Reaping produced a feeling in me, but it was not one of suspense.

            Despite the at times radical divergence from convention, the film does not make any serious attempt at a political or cultural statement, which serves to temper any potentially subversive elements that might be present. It’s not hard to view the film’s depictions of elites controlling and manipulating the masses and draw a parallel to the complaints of the Occupy movement, but while this explains the film’s appeal to a sort of national zeitgeist, it is not a reading that is necessarily invited by the film itself. The universe of Panem is one of many alternate futures that the United States could devolve into, but the sociocultural precursors that led to this moment are never revealed. I am sure that both conservatives and liberals could find an explanation as to how the other ideology was the one that produced Panem, but the film leaves that distinction up the audience.

In many ways, the world of The Hunger Games appears to be an outgrowth of our contemporary, media drenched, increasingly unempathetic society, where power and pleasure are the ultimate goals. While it should come as no surprise that the film has an (almost) happy ending, the film’s conclusion does nothing to rectify the society or the human behavior on display. The individual characters might have triumphed, but the society itself remains infused with the toxin of a poisonous fruit, and its ideology remains unrepudiated.  I have not read any of the book series the film is based on, and while am sure this is addressed in them and will be addressed in the film’s sequels, for the moment it is refreshing to see such a cynical turn in an industry whose products are not always known for their cynicism. The film does not end on a cliffhanger, but it neither ends with everything tied up in a bow. The dictatorship still reigns supreme, and much like our current society, there is much work left to be done.

*Edited on 4/5/2012 to add a brief clarifying comment about my knowledge (or lack of knowledge) of the books.

 

 
Picture from: http://blog.zap2it.com/pop2it/2012/01/new-hunger-games-pics-effie-and-katniss-haymitch-and-his-hair-and-more.html