The Hunger Games and Redemption

August 23, 2012

The Hunger Games and Redemption

I think I’m beginning to understand why The Hunger Games movie so bothers me: No redemption—or is there?

I have not read the books. I saw the movie with my wife, a children’s librarian, because I thought it would be an interesting experiment—a movie buff who hasn’t read the book watching the movie with a reader who generally doesn’t appreciate movies. Plus, it was at the bargain theater.

I walked out of the theater, dejected and oppressed rather than encouraged and freed. Read my post today at Novel Rocket to see why.

Michael Ehret, for Writing on the Fine Line

Michael Ehret, WritingOnTheFineLine

Movies and writing

15 responses to “The Hunger Games and Redemption”

anemulligan

August 23, 2012

Now I know I’m not going to read it or see it. Who needs to be depressed and without hope in today’s society?

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1. writingonthefineline
  
  August 23, 2012
  
  Yeah, I agree. Probably won’t see the last two unless Deb wants to follow the story.
  
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Bonnie S. Calhoun

August 23, 2012

The movie is nothing at all like the books. And you can hardly make an opinion about a title from a movie knowing that movies are only visual, while the written word is internal.

I had to keep explaining to my husband why things happened in the movie because they just seemed like random events. The books are awesome and have a redemptive quality that is totally unobserved in the movie. The themes of hope, sacrifice, and overcoming run throughout the books. But to each his own.

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1. writingonthefineline
  
  August 23, 2012
  
  Bonnie,
  
  Thanks for the added info. My wife had to keep explaining things to me, too! LOL. But she was also disturbed by the lack of redemption in the movie. Not sure if she would agree that there IS redemption in the books. Will ask though. 🙂
  
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  1. bonniescalhoun
    
    August 23, 2012
    
    Did she only read one…or all three?
    
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bonniescalhoun

August 23, 2012

The books are nothing like the movie. I had to keep explaining to my husband why things were happening because it was just a bunch of random events in the movie. You should never just a title by its movie. Movies are made to be totally visual, while books are made to be totally internal.

The books are great, and a great example of human endurance, hope, sacrifice, redemption, and the resilience of the human spirit..

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writingonthefineline

August 23, 2012

Bonnie, she read all three books in rapid succession — within the last couple weeks.

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1. bonniescalhoun
  
  August 23, 2012
  
  Or she didn’t see the sacrifices so many people made to save Katness when they saw how important she was going to be to freedom from the totalitarian oppression? I’m trying not to give too much away. But I’ve got dozens of examples. Or how many times Katness bucked the system under penalty of death to show the people to fight the oppression (like when she gave the salute to District 11 when Rue got killed.
  
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bonniescalhoun

August 23, 2012

Not to give a spoiler but she didn’t see any redemption in several of the characters…who totally changed? Like in Haymitch for example?

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1. writingonthefineline
  
  August 23, 2012
  
  We haven’t talked about it yet. My comments are based on my own reaction to what I saw in the movie. That’s why I ended it with my question about whether I missed something by not reading the books.
  
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  1. bonniescalhoun
    
    August 23, 2012
    
    You missed a ton! Katness willingness to sacrifice herself carries throughout the first book, and it rubs off on the people around her. Even at the end, she was willing to eat the berries and die rather than let them go back on their word. And she didn’t have to! Peeta would willingly have died to save her…and she did NOT love him. The act was just a way that she thought up to save them both since he had done so many things to feed her and her family when they were young. Ugh…I’m giving away too much.
    
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bonniescalhoun

August 23, 2012

As a writer I think you would enjoy the books. She is a phenomenal writer, and you fly thru them immersed in the story. Her character development is outstanding.

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Stephanie Prichard

August 23, 2012

My book club read HG, and we all loved it (but not the other two so much). Here’s an interesting snippet from our discussion: in an interview, the author said she wrote the story because she was dismayed by how our youth (the book is YA) have been desensitized to … well, senseless killing, anyway. (Think, video games.) This theme is carried by the two main characters, Peeta, who refuses to kill, and Katness, who is reluctant but pragmatic. Peeta doesn’t change because he’s got it right, but Katness is challenged by Peeta’s persepective (as we want our youth to be). Oh goodness, there’s so much more to the book, as Bonnie said! I encourage you to read it and then discuss it with people who see more than “kids killing kids” in it.

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1. writingonthefineline
  
  August 23, 2012
  
  Can’t speak for the book, but there seems precious little that’s positive in the movie.
  
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  1. Bonnie S. Calhoun
    
    August 23, 2012
    
    That’s because the movie seems to be just a bunch of unrelated visuals. I thought is stunk compared to the books.
    
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