There was always something about Harry Potter that I found disturbing.
It was always just a little bit off. Here you had a story about an innocent
unassuming boy blessed with magical powers and a supremely important mission.
They were imposed on him through no actions of his own. He would assume through
accident of birth a unique status greater than all in the land. At the same
time the hero rejects his unwon fame. He miserates on his unlucky situation and
all it means. I am just a normal run-of-the-mill boy he asserts. All I want is
the simple things in life like all the good ordinary men and women. In fact, in
these stories those who seek fame and fortune above the simple things are
looked down upon. In many cases they are the villains. In this way the book has
its cake and eats it too. It allows the reader to vicariously live in fame,
fortune, and violent glory while assuring themselves that what they really want
is simply good friends, family, and love. By reading a book that abdicates the
responsibility for all the superficial qualities forced upon the hero the
audience earns plausible deniability for their own consciences. A reader can
identify with a hero that can handle the fast times but is not defined by them.
Or one that can state with a straight face: I could be the greatest most famous
most successful person ever but I choose to be one of the people because you
know that’s what’s important in life. It works of course just as long as one
ignores the insidious subtext: “Please Please Please don’t forget I could have
fame, fortune, and glory if I wanted it!” Because, seriously, who would have
read Harry Potter if he was just a guy who wanted friends and family. He also has
to be something extra. He has to be a wizard and not just any wizard, the best
one. (Full Disclosure: I don’t particularly care for Harry Potter).
There is an incredible undercurrent of narcissim in my least favorite
genres of storytelling Fantasy and Science Fiction. The Hunger Games a well
written, competently acted, and brilliantly produced beauty of a movie is no
exception. It stars Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, the blank slate
everygirl who is the best archer in the land and has two good-looking men she feels
so very guilty for having to choose between. Katniss Everdeen loves her family.
Particularly she is fond of her little sister the exquisitely named Primrose
Everdeen. To save Primrose and not for fame and glory she volunteered for the
annual Hunger Games in the first movie. The Hunger Games is a ‘Battle
Royale’-esque gladiator tournament between the thirteen impoverished districts
of a futuristic dystopian society that has the totalitarian Captitol city at
the head of it. It is a winner-take-all competition, kill or be killed. So
Katniss killed everyone (quite honorably I would say) in the first movie,
gaining in the process fame and fortune, though she really did not want to
because you know she is so ordinary in the ways that count.
So Hunger Games: Catching Fire starts off with the rising celebrity of
Katniss Everdeen presenting a problem to the totalitarian government headed by President
Snow, played by Donald Sutherland. He intends to discredit her by various means
that only encourage the population to revere her in even more rebellious
fashion. Because this takes place in the genre of Science Fiction/Fantasy the
movie can ignore many many things. For instance, the entire oppressive
government seems to be entirely comprised in only one person, President Snow.
In the real world, you would need some sort of bureaucracy to oppress a people.
This is generally overlooked. Secondly we can overlook the realistic notion
that celebrities that gain fame through reality TV contests don’t have any
political power. As far as I can tell power (if you choose to distill it down
to its essential essence) comes from the ability to hire or fire people, i.e.
control over jobs. Think about that definition and see where it can get you.
But as this is the future, a TV celebrity can move the world. And please try to
forget what the economy of the extravagant Captitol is comprised of given that
it has no commercial class or trading partners. Or what it really takes to not
only stoke a rebellion but also to competently carry it to realization, see Battle of Algiers. In the real world,
inspiration is the least of all problems. In Hunger Games, it seems to be the only thing that’s missing. But
because this takes place in some fantastical land (or a long time ago in a
galaxy far far away, or on Middle Earth) we can set up a story whose plot
functions can rely almost entirely on character whims for better or worse. If
you wanted to do that in a realistic genre, you would have to confine all the
characters to a house and make the story take place within a day. But you can
have interpersonal opera on a grand scale with world changing consequences in
fantasy/science fiction because once again, you can pretend that reality does
not apply in this far distant land.
We can be very glad that Hunger
Games: Catching Fire is not a preachy metaphor designed to make us think
about the problems of everyday life. Some movies within this genre do just this
and become horribly insufferable monstrosities. Instead Hunger Games is far
more concerned with costumes, hair, and makeup. I suppose we will just have to
get used to this as studios start paying due attention to the other half of the
population. If Hunger Games is a portent of the future of blockbusters though
we should be seeing much to appreciate. For instance take a look at these
names: Katniss Everdeen, Primrose Everdeen, Effie Trinket, Ceasar Flickerman,
Claudius Templesmith, Plutarch Heavensbee, Haymitch Abernathy. Don’t those just
roll off the tongue in some perfect mosaic of sound and diction? Or take a look
at the great flair in hair of the game show host Ceasar Flickerman (playbed by
Stanley Tucci) and his sidekick Claudius Templesmith (Toby Jones). Or consider
the Girl on Fire costumes of Katniss Everdeen and her counterpart Peeta Mellark
that catch fire during a chariot parade to the delight of the crowd. Or the
even more impressive bride/mockingjay costume that not only makes Jennifer
Lawrence look great but is also imbued with important story revealing
symbology. This is the first blockbuster I know of that gives the hero/heroine
a stylist in a major role. Lenny Kravitz does the job here doling out wisdom
the way Obi Wan Kenobi would tutor Luke Skywalker in swordplay. The most
impressive creature in all of this superficial exuberance is the presence of
Effie Trinket, a woman who changes elaborate costumes and hairdos in every
single scene. She is played by Elizabeth Banks and in the most markedly
superior aspect of this sequel compared to the first movie, we get some depth
to the character peeking out of the ditzy cheerleader persona in a way that
very surprisingly doesn’t undercut all we have previously seen from her. I
haven’t seen anything else quite like her in movies. Effie Trinket is an
original.
Oh and look we have several notable new castmembers. Phillip Seymour
Hoffman is the new gamemaster and a fairly competent and entertaining one as we
see in the final third of the movie. And there is Jena Malone, who I have
spoken good graces of before. She tends to pop her head up from indie stardom
in character roles in bigger movies every now and again. She plays Johanna
Mason, the warrior woman Katniss Everdeen would be if she wasn’t so like the
rest of us. The movie’s third act in a new series of Hunger Games does not
dissapoint and ends in a very satisfying way. I am a little interested in seeing
the next one.
Here’s another curiousity. Michael Arndt co-wrote this screenplay with
Simon Beaufoy (also very good). Michael once won an Oscar for writing one of my
favorite movies, Little Miss Sunshine.
That movie had an entirely opposite take on the world compared to these types
of narcissistic tales. But since then, his career trajectory since then has
been almost entirey focused on big budget sequels in the realm of fantasy
science fiction (Toy Story 3, Hunger
Games, Oblivion, Star Wars). Et tu, Arndt?
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