"Make the Odds Be Ever in Our Favor"
According to this fresh review of the Hunger Games book trilogy and recent film adaptation, written from a unique Earth First! perspective: “Hands down, The Hunger Games is pop culture’s best contribution yet to the growing eco-rebellion.”
But some of the hype surrounding it is just the opposite:
http://charleneoldham.com/2012/03/22/the-hunger-games-supersized/
What is this pop culture bull shit? There hasn’t been a truelly eco-revolutionary chance in hell of a hit book/movie sparking a riot since Footloose!
The Hunger Games (film)
Meann Ortiz wrote, “it was Katniss’ emotions, the danger and life-changing effect of the(Hungry)Games, the political machinations” in his review of the Hungry Games. I have to agree. You think “political machinations” watching the characters in the capital, and representatives of this totalitarian regime. I found great their customs and there make-up. Effie Trinket is a good example of the gross nature of the regime’s fashion. Effie’s zombie and eccentric character came be seen at any GOP convention! I feel this contrasted to the Katniss’ plainness and simple beauty. The crowds in the capital resemble the Romans tossing Christian’s to the lions.The capital’s enthusiasm for blood resembles Americana’s callous watching of the wars in Vietnam;all the current televised warfare.This blood thirstiness
which clearly is the theme of Hungry Games has become the unspoken American curse. Obviously when no one stands up to the blood letting on campus’, workplaces, commonly called “going postal” this killing has become accepted.Ortiz used the term political machinations,I prefer political foreseeing. A must see movie
Over the weekend, I made time to see the movie after my 15 year old niece begged me. It was pretty good, I thought. I’m not familiar with the book, and it sounded like the Running Man from the 80s. Uncertain if I’d blog review the movie. But thumbs up over all as a movie. I wouldn’t say it’s eco-revolutionary.
So great was the bile-inducing reaction to this dreadful dog of a movie, I was compelled to run home and dash off a quick response to this review of “The Hunger Games” as it was the primary motivating factor for me taking my teenage son out to this YA flick, something I’ve religiously avoided since the prolonged torture of the first Harry Potter film, a movie that now shines like gold in comparison to this insipid bit of child death-porn/ survivalist exploitation.
A meaningless and unoriginal rip-off of “The Running Man” (a vastly superior and far more entertaining movie with its call for revolution against corporate consumer media more overt, the irony of being led The Governator only further provoking analytic debate on the schizophrenic dichotomy of our society), that this movie is geared to young audiences cannot be overlooked as children have much less discerning tastes when it comes to plausibility, plot, characterization, meaning and all other storytelling mechanics which this movie is completely sorely devoid of. In fact, “The Hunger Games” trots out the same clichéd story tropes we have seen countless times before; young white protagonists overcoming impossible odds, the cast-off black supporting cast becoming quick-kill fodder. Nor should the movie’s Civil War overtone of virtuous southern whites fighting against a decadent Federalist government be ignored, considering its somewhat racist undercurrent. The only redeeming quality is its setting in the Smoky Mountains and its shots of southern old growth, which any Earth Firster knows is incompatible with the future we are currently facing. For a better film dealing with a far more advanced critique of the south, and much more aligned with EF values, check out “Deliverance” (made by the self-same director of “The Emerald Forest” which, for all intents and purposes, should be considered the quintessential EF flick).
In summation, the only incitement to riot this mind-deadening bore is capable of would be the one where movie-going audiences demand their hard-earned, lack-of discretionary spending back. The only social commentary apparent has more to do with its audience than the film itself; the fact that we have turned something this shallow and vacuous into a pop culture phenomenon shows how little we as a people have to offer this world.
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