Welcome to the third installment of my series on the Hunger Games. Anyone who read my last post on Catching Fire and then watched this movie just might get the idea that I somehow support the Capitol. This is because they spend a great deal of time and energy trying to convince the districts to lay down weapons and resume peace. I too advocated for peace as a hypothetical alternative to the way the story actually turns out. Yet, there are two key differences: context, and hypocrisy.
First of all, my idea was a hypothetical that only would have worked if taken up from the beginning. In the first and second movies, Katniss and others very effectively create sympathy for themselves in the districts and in the Capitol. Recall in the second movie that all the victors were trying to motivate the public of the Capitol to demand that the games be halted.
At least in the movie, the various displays of friendship and the false story of the baby very nearly succeed in doing that. But, because fighting had already begun and because President Snow was so alert to the defiance of Katniss, he would not let up. Had the movement been consistently resistant but peaceful, the victors might have successfully undermined the President’s grip even on the people in the Capitol. But, again, that’s not what happened. The war happened.
Secondly, the offer of peace made by Peeta is obviously not sincere because Peeta is being coerced into saying it. Further, President Snow is the one making him say it and President Snow is obviously not interested in peace. He tortures people, executes even non-violent protesters, creates birds which mimic the voices of tortured loved ones, and bombs hospitals. In the face of such hypocrisy, the only effect answer is forceful resistance.
Once the war starts, the two threads of “violence” and “resistance” which I’ve been discussing shift. In the scenario of ongoing war, Love and Hatred take on different outward forms. It’s probably better to consider the influences in terms of “cruelty/hatred” versus “just war.” In my mind, the real dilemma throughout the rest of the story is the question of how to respond to cruelty, hatred, and oppression without succumbing to cruelty, hatred, and oppression yourself.
President Snow is ruthless, and the viewer is basically encouraged to see him as the very epitome of evil. This is really summed up in the scene with Finnick’s broadcast and Katniss’ coversation with Snow. Here we learn of the ruthlessness and plotting of Snow. Here we see Snow openly taunting Katniss, refusing any offer of peace, and hinting at his final psychological attack on Katniss: the warping of Peeta’s mind.
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| “If you refused, then he’d kill someone you love” |
After being thoroughly convinced of the kind of evil which the world faces in President Snow, the final scene of Part 1 prepares viewers for the final showdown. President Coin of district 13 is giving a dramatic monologue while Katniss slowly walks toward the room where Peeta is being contained. Coin’s speech literally lays out the terrain for the final battle and then explains why they will succeed. There is music in the background that is a little ominous and bit eerie. Julianne Moore (President Coin) has been accused of delivering flat lines, but I think she is acting quite brilliantly in this scene. The coldness, the flat stare, the odd inflections all subtly, but cleverly convey something significant. Rewatch the scene here… Look at the way she smiles and her face as she’s talking about the battle and about their unity… Maybe I’m reading into this, but it looks to me like shes hiding something…
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| “there…lies the Capitol’s principle military facility…” |
Finally, the movies closes with Katniss’ face in agony as she looks in on the torment writhing of Peeta, the man whom she loves. Right there, the viewer is left with a sense of her struggle – what is the answer? What will it take? How do we respond to such evil?
Here we are, on the cusp of the conclusion. Katniss’ tumultuous journey from the being the poor daughter of a dead coal miner to being the most significant person in Panem has forced her to face unimaginable evils and now shes staring at what is probably the worst of them all. From the beginning, her motivations were mixed, her methods not always black and white, and her feelings foggy. Love for two different men, love for her sister, hatred for the games and Snow, pride and defiance towards the world in general, a desire to be left a lone and a desire to be held in love. Where will the conflict end? What feeling, what motivation, what primordial force, if any, will prevail? We will find out soon. Come back in a few days and join me in a look at the final chapter in the Hunger Games, a story which has touched millions and in some way represents us all. Until then…