I Have More to Say About "The Hunger Games"

I tried to avoid giving away any major spoilers in my review of "The Hunger Games" just in case the one person who hasn't seen the film yet somehow stumbled upon it. But I have even more to say, so I'm doing a post for anyone who has seen the movie or just doesn't care about spoilers.

The first thing I want to discuss is the over the top scene I mentioned in my review. In the film, there is an added scene after Rue's death that shows a riot breaking out in District 11, Rue's home district. It starts out with a guy that I assume is Rue's father going into an angry fit. People around him start acting out as well and it escalates into a full scale revolt. Now don't get me wrong. I love Rue as much as the next “Hunger Games” fan, but I think a riot is a bit of an extreme reaction. Obviously Rue's family would be angry, and I would have been fine with the scene if it just showed her father getting upset. But I would think the other citizens in District 11, as well as those in every district, would be used to seeing a 12-year-old get killed in the Games considering this is the 74th competition. That should especially be true for the more poverty stricken districts, such as District 11, where the children are malnourished and most aren’t strong enough to compete against the well fed tributes from the richer districts. Also, the riot takes away from Katniss's experience, which is what this part of the story is really about. After Rue is killed, Katniss decorates her body with flowers as a way to both honor Rue and show the Capitol that she and Rue are more than pawns in their game. While this is shown in the film, the riot is so jarring that it kind of ruins the somber, emotional mood of Katniss mourning Rue’s death. I believe the filmmakers added the riot scene to foreshadow events in the sequel, “Catching Fire,” which is where we will learn more about what goes on in the districts as a result of the Games. The riot scene gives the idea that Rue’s death sparks a revolution in the districts. While Rue’s death was part of a chain of events, the dissension in the districts is supposed to be more a reaction to Katniss’s defiance of the Capitol.

One thing I found interesting about Rue’s death in general is that, as much as I would have liked for her to survive, her death is a necessary part of the story. It is a strong reminder to the audience that this is a world where very young children are sent not only to die, but in most cases to die brutally. Seeing 17-year-olds killing each other isn't as disturbing as seeing a 17-year-old killing a 12-year-old. In movies, older teenagers look and are oftentimes played by adults so the viewer doesn’t necessarily think of them as children. Plus, horror movies have been featuring teenagers getting murdered since at least the early 70s so viewers are used to seeing that. Other younger tributes were killed in the bloodbath at the start of the games but the film doesn’t focus much on them. But these deaths, as well as Rue’s, also serve as a reminder of just how sick and bloodthirsty the spectators are in the Capitol. The last thing I’ll say about Rue is that I would have liked to see a little more of her before she was killed. I thought the filmmakers could have added a conversation between Katniss and Rue about the conditions in District 11, how Rue had to work in the fields and how she loves music. Rue could have also mentioned how she used the four note song she and Katniss used as a signal during the Games back home in District 11 to signal the end of the work day. That could have showed Rue was known by a lot of people and could have explained the uproar that took place in District 11 after she died. 

I think some other important plot points from the novel could have easily been added to the film with just some slight changes to certain scenes or extra dialogue. For example, at one point later in the movie, Peeta refers to the red headed female tribute from District 5 as “Foxface,” but there is no explanation for this. In the book, Katniss comes up with the nickname because she doesn’t know the girl’s real name and probably because it sounds catchier to the reader than “the girl from District 5.” I know that isn't exactly a major detail, but it could be confusing to some. I think the filmmakers could have easily avoided that by having Katniss mention the girl to Peeta and say that she’s been thinking of the girl as Foxface or something like that. Earlier in the film, the video shown at the reaping mentions that Panem began with 13 districts but afterwards it is said Panem only has 12 districts with no explanation. I think it would have been easy to add another line in the video or a line of dialogue in another scene to clarify that District 13 was obliterated in the Dark Days—the war caused by the districts’ rebellion 75 years or so before the beginning of the story. In another scene early in movie, Katniss mentions that her sister’s name will only be in the bowl at the reaping once and it is mentioned in a following scene that Gale’s name will be added to the bowl numerous times with no explanation. In the novel, Katniss says that potential tributes can have their names added to the bowl extra times, thereby increasing their chances of being selected, in exchange for tokens, or tesserae, that are traded for a small amount of grain and oil. This would probably take more than a line of dialogue to explain but Katniss and Gale could have discussed it or an extra scene could have been added showing them signing up for tesserae.

One of the aspects of the novel that I really wish the film version had retained is how rough the conditions are for Katniss during the Games. In the film, once she escapes the bloodbath she gets set up in the woods and finds water and food pretty quickly. In the novel, however, it takes Katniss a couple days to find a source of water and, before she does, she nearly dies from dehydration. Also, both Katniss and Peeta suffer from near starvation as well when they are holed up together in the cave. Peeta also suffers from blood poisoning while they are hiding in the cave due to his leg wound and he nearly dies. Another aspect that I would have liked to see in the film is how Katniss figures a lot of things out for herself in the novel, such as what the gifts from Haymitch mean. In the novel, Haymitch wasn’t allowed to include notes in the gifts like he did in the film, so Katniss had to interpret why he sent her gifts at certain times and refrained from sending gifts at other times. For instance, before she first found water she wondered why Haymitch didn’t or wasn’t able to send any to her but she eventually realized that meant a water source was nearby. I understand that a lot of that stuff had to be cut for length but in my opinion removing these aspects definitely took some of the bite out of the story.

I could probably go on and on analyzing "The Hunger Games" but I need to stop somewhere. The last thing I’ll discuss is something else I think the film could have done without. In the movie, the Gamemakers seemed like they were trying to kill the tributes; particularly in the scene where they hurl large fireballs at Katniss. In the novel, they used tricks like the fireballs merely as a means to drive the tributes to the same location so they would be forced into confrontations. Manipulating the environment was meant to make sure the Games didn't get boring for the viewers in the Capitol. However, they were not supposed to kill tributes. That seems like it would be counter intuitive to the point of the Games, which is to have to tributes kill each other. I haven't finished reading the trilogy though so that could also be some form of foreshadowing for information that comes out later about how the Games are operated, but I like the idea that the Games at least has some level of fairness. Then again, the government officials in the Capitol are so cruel that I wouldn't put anything past them.