ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod
Just got back from seeing The Hunger Games a la silver screen. And you know what? It was better than the books. Yup, I just said that. Now, caveat time: I say this as someone who read the books then saw the movie; if you saw the movie and then read the books, I'd see how the books would be better. They engage the reader more, pull you in more, make you feel like your the one in the games and its your life on the line and ohmygodi'msofuckinghungryandthatguyhasaswordandohmyfuckinggod--
Ahem. Excuse me, and let me just take this moment to mention that there be movie spoilers ahead.
Now. Like I was spazzing out over, the movie isn't told explicitly from Katniss's point of view. It shifts around, introduces us to Seneca Crane (Head Gamemaker at the 74th games), shows us the people in the control room actually launching fireballs at children and siccing dogs on them. The movie shows us the District 11 uprising being sparked by Rue's death, by her own agonized and grieving father. To me this was so powerful and it wasn't something that I inferred from the books. The way things were presented in the text, it sounded like Katniss was the Icon Of The Revolution all by her Super Special Self (that was not meant as a dig at Katniss). In fact that was the scene where I was like "ohsnap, the movie is better than the books!" Especially with the use of high-pressure water as a weapon employed by the peacekeepers against a district with a significant Black population. You may have fucked up with your whitewashed cast, Lionsgate, but at least you acknowledged the books' allegory of racialized class oppression. (That link is to the blogpost Why Katniss Everdeen is a Woman of Color so go read it rightgoddamnnow.) The fact that we got to step outside of Katniss's bubble and see the politics of the Hunger Games--not just the Hunger Games in italics story, but the Games themselves--was fascinating to me. I didn't mind that stuff had to get cut out. Maybe I was irked that there was less damage done to the main cast, but there was so much violence in the movie already that it was okay. Obviously I had some issues with the casting, what with the whitewashing and the fact that Effie Trinket was not Betty White because in my head Effie was just a selfish, privileged, delusional little old white lady with a freakish pink afro-wig.
But I liked seeing more.
I liked seeing Eleven explode, where sparks fly, grain silos topple, water rushes, people fight back. Where Katniss isn't the Spark or the Martyr--Rue is.
I liked seeing (and hearing) Cato's bloody confession at the end, where he's at the standoff with Katniss, his arms in a death grip around Peeta's throat, the mutts howling beneath the Cornucopia. Where he's saying the opposite of what Peeta said the night before the games ("I want to show them that they don't own me. If I'm going to die, I want to still be me"). Where Cato acknowledges the fact that he is a piece of the Capitol's games, and he tells Katniss that he'll keep killing because it's all he knows how to do. Where we see it's not that Cato has become everything Peeta tried so hard to fight, it's that he always was a gamepeice, a monster, a hopeless little boy choking on his own blood.
I liked seeing Seneca Crane's final scene, where he's escorted by Peacekeepers into a decadent room, where the doors lock behind him, where he walks to a table and sees a crystal chalice of nightlock berries, where we see that Crane has just been put into a Hunger Games arena. Where he must starve or kill himself with the very berries that resulted in his death sentence (while letting Katniss and Peeta escape theirs). Where we see some truly fucked up poetic justice.
I just liked seeing. The story was made for a visual medium. It's a story about the use of televised propaganda to control a population with both fear (of state violence) and hope (that there's a chance to be lifted out of the soul-crushing poverty inflicted by the Capitol on the people in the districts). And we needed to see everything, because visualizing something you read in a book can only take you so far.
My mom doesn't agree with me. She thinks the books were better. Now, I don't want to see that her opinion is wrong, because it's her opinion and she's entitled to it, but her opinion is wrong.
So yeah. I'm like emotionally destroyed by this story. Again. And I want to go see it again tomorrow. Just like I wanted to read the books again right after I finished reading them (read each book 3 times in less than a year). The Hunger Games tap into something revolutionary in everyone, something I can't adequately explain but that blogpost I linked above, Why Katniss Everdeen is a Woman of Color, can explain. Basically I need a copy of The Hunger Games on DVD in my hand, like, yesterday. It can sit on my book shelf next to Serenity and The City Dark (the only two full-length movies I currently own, tv shows not included), next to the The Hunger Games books and The Golden Compass books. It fucking deserves that caliber of company.
Ahem. Excuse me, and let me just take this moment to mention that there be movie spoilers ahead.
Now. Like I was spazzing out over, the movie isn't told explicitly from Katniss's point of view. It shifts around, introduces us to Seneca Crane (Head Gamemaker at the 74th games), shows us the people in the control room actually launching fireballs at children and siccing dogs on them. The movie shows us the District 11 uprising being sparked by Rue's death, by her own agonized and grieving father. To me this was so powerful and it wasn't something that I inferred from the books. The way things were presented in the text, it sounded like Katniss was the Icon Of The Revolution all by her Super Special Self (that was not meant as a dig at Katniss). In fact that was the scene where I was like "ohsnap, the movie is better than the books!" Especially with the use of high-pressure water as a weapon employed by the peacekeepers against a district with a significant Black population. You may have fucked up with your whitewashed cast, Lionsgate, but at least you acknowledged the books' allegory of racialized class oppression. (That link is to the blogpost Why Katniss Everdeen is a Woman of Color so go read it rightgoddamnnow.) The fact that we got to step outside of Katniss's bubble and see the politics of the Hunger Games--not just the Hunger Games in italics story, but the Games themselves--was fascinating to me. I didn't mind that stuff had to get cut out. Maybe I was irked that there was less damage done to the main cast, but there was so much violence in the movie already that it was okay. Obviously I had some issues with the casting, what with the whitewashing and the fact that Effie Trinket was not Betty White because in my head Effie was just a selfish, privileged, delusional little old white lady with a freakish pink afro-wig.
But I liked seeing more.
I liked seeing Eleven explode, where sparks fly, grain silos topple, water rushes, people fight back. Where Katniss isn't the Spark or the Martyr--Rue is.
I liked seeing (and hearing) Cato's bloody confession at the end, where he's at the standoff with Katniss, his arms in a death grip around Peeta's throat, the mutts howling beneath the Cornucopia. Where he's saying the opposite of what Peeta said the night before the games ("I want to show them that they don't own me. If I'm going to die, I want to still be me"). Where Cato acknowledges the fact that he is a piece of the Capitol's games, and he tells Katniss that he'll keep killing because it's all he knows how to do. Where we see it's not that Cato has become everything Peeta tried so hard to fight, it's that he always was a gamepeice, a monster, a hopeless little boy choking on his own blood.
I liked seeing Seneca Crane's final scene, where he's escorted by Peacekeepers into a decadent room, where the doors lock behind him, where he walks to a table and sees a crystal chalice of nightlock berries, where we see that Crane has just been put into a Hunger Games arena. Where he must starve or kill himself with the very berries that resulted in his death sentence (while letting Katniss and Peeta escape theirs). Where we see some truly fucked up poetic justice.
I just liked seeing. The story was made for a visual medium. It's a story about the use of televised propaganda to control a population with both fear (of state violence) and hope (that there's a chance to be lifted out of the soul-crushing poverty inflicted by the Capitol on the people in the districts). And we needed to see everything, because visualizing something you read in a book can only take you so far.
My mom doesn't agree with me. She thinks the books were better. Now, I don't want to see that her opinion is wrong, because it's her opinion and she's entitled to it, but her opinion is wrong.
So yeah. I'm like emotionally destroyed by this story. Again. And I want to go see it again tomorrow. Just like I wanted to read the books again right after I finished reading them (read each book 3 times in less than a year). The Hunger Games tap into something revolutionary in everyone, something I can't adequately explain but that blogpost I linked above, Why Katniss Everdeen is a Woman of Color, can explain. Basically I need a copy of The Hunger Games on DVD in my hand, like, yesterday. It can sit on my book shelf next to Serenity and The City Dark (the only two full-length movies I currently own, tv shows not included), next to the The Hunger Games books and The Golden Compass books. It fucking deserves that caliber of company.