The Hunger Games' 10-Year Anniversary: 10 Things That Still Hold Up
The Hunger Games movie turns 10 years old on March 23, 2022, and audiences are eagerly looking back on what made the series so great. There are always some shows and movies that don't match up to how viewers remember them, but this movie will not be one of them. It is still just as powerful as it was ten years ago and lays some great seeds for the following movies.
The first time a person watches a movie, they will probably be caught up in understanding the characters and the plot. If they watched it during its original hype, Hunger Games fans might also remember the fervent Peeta vs Gale controversies. Even a decade after the first film's release, these are the details that still hold up.
When looking back at the worst atrocities of history, many people wonder how they could have happened, how so many people could be not just complicit in them, but actively participate in the senseless slaughter of others. Scholars like Hannah Arendt explain it through "the banality of evil," a concept which very basically breaks down to mean that many people detach from the horrors they are a part of, just thinking about career advancement and personal security.
This concept is translated to film in The Hunger Games, where the audience is frequently shown Hunger Games workers who are participating in the death spectacle, seemingly with no sense of its horror. Other than President Snow and Seneca Crane, everybody is just doing their job. It's extremely clinical and distant between the work they do and the perpetuation of the killing of children.
The film does a great job showing off the completely different worlds of the Capitol citizens and the residents of the various districts. This is shown in a variety of ways, but one of the most obvious is the color schemes, with the Capitol being full of color and chaos in contrast to the muted tones of the districts.
More than just the colors, the Capitol citizens seem completely out of touch with the realities of so many citizens. They are extraordinarily wasteful with their food while people in the districts starve to death, and one family is even seen giving their children toy swords to play Hunger Games.
This is a movie that lets the hopelessness of the situation sink in. It's a futuristic gladiatorial ring, but there's nothing heroic about anything. It's all heartbreaking, all the time. These are children who are forced into killing each other, and even the career districts have only adjusted by training their children into being killers nearly from infancy.
The worst thing this movie could have done was make it an exciting action flick, where there are good kids and bad kids, and thankfully, it avoided that mistake. Everything is tragic, and everything seems hopeless in the face of the Capitol's tyranny.
Everything in the Capitol is a matter of image, which is part of why the people are so accepting of the Games. To them, it's not child massacre; it's entertainment. This is emphasized by talk show host Caesar Flickerman interviewing the contestants and narrating the killings, making it all into a fun bit of reality TV.
Peeta quickly figures out the way things work, and he helps Katniss survive in the propaganda game. Peeta's greatest strength is his knowledge of how the world works and his charm to play the game, and he, along with Cinna, makes Katniss the perfect heroine for not only the districts but the Capitol citizens as well.
Katniss is a survivor, like Haymitch, but she is not very good at playing games. She and Haymitch connect over their shared horror at the world they have found themselves in, which allows her to quickly figure out the strategy he's leading her to and what she must do to fulfill it. With his knowledge of the Capitol and the rebellion, he guides her to become the Mockingjay.
Katniss was lucky enough to have an excellent mentor in Haymitch, but that doesn't mean he didn't have a special connection with Peeta too. Peeta is less cynical than either Katniss or Haymitch, but he understands the way the world works better than Katniss, which allows him to put together a compelling story and make her the star of it, with Haymitch's assistance.
This is the heart of the Hunger Games, and what makes the events of Mockingjay the saddest thing to happen to Katniss. Katniss was like a mother to Prim after their mother couldn't take care of them properly, and from the very beginning of the film, audiences can feel the connection between them.
More than just volunteering to take her place, Katniss fights through her hopelessness because she made a promise to her sister. She connects with Rue because she reminded her of Prim. Katniss is never fighting for herself; she is always fighting to get back to her sister and to keep her safe.
One of the best things that The Hunger Games does is make its audience feel things without telling them what they should be feeling. This is done through moments that are either completely silent or only have instrumental background music.
The movie doesn't need to tell its audience what it's doing. Showing the hopelessness on characters' faces, or their grief, or the final scene with Seneca Crane where he is locked in a room with berries, is enough to communicate the message. The movie trusts the audience to be smart enough to figure out and feel out what's going on, and it uses silence to signal that it's doing that.
Although many of the other tributes are nameless or opponents, the audience gets critical beats of mourning where they can connect with each fallen character. Rue is obviously at the heart of this, but there is also the small boy from District 4 who dies at the Bloodbath, the horror of Glimmer's death, the eulogy of sorts after they find Foxface dead, Thresh letting Katniss go in Rue's name, and Cato's breakdown on the cornucopia.
Each moment is intended to make audiences see that regardless of the Capitol's narratives, none of these children is the enemy. The people who forced them to kill each other are.
This goes along with the humanity of the other tributes, but Katniss has a savior complex that goes beyond loving her sister or having any sort of romantic relationship with Peeta. She wants to get out, but she also has a desire to protect as many people as possible along the way. She barely knew Peeta, much less loved him yet, but she immediately rushed to find him because she wanted to keep him safe if she could.
Katniss's worst decisions tend to come from her caring too much about the people around her, but some of her best decisions come from that same desire. Although she became a symbol against her own will, it was possible because the desire to save others was genuine and critical to her personality.
The mob is always an important part of a revolution, and the audience gets to see moments where the mob comes together, as well as what inspires them to do so, throughout the movie. This begins with District 12 giving Katniss the three-finger salute when she volunteers for the Games, continues through showing various populations watch the Games unfold, and is most powerful during the rebellions in District 11 after Rue is killed.
This idea is expanded on in later films, but audiences can feel the revolution starting up in The Hunger Games as the characters unintentionally create the moments which will become so important to their movement.