I feel like I'm the last person in Western Civilisation to see 'Hunger Games', but after being away from the cinema for several months I could hardly stay away any longer given the epic reviews this film has been hoovering up from across the media. Tales of box office records being broken are hardly novel in an age of inflating prices, but there does seem to be something different about this. With a relatively unknown story (except to teenagers apparently) and a relative newcomer in the lead role (Jennifer Lawrence was Mystique in the recent X-Men prequel), there was either something special to this or it's teen fanbase have been turning out in their droves.
I cycled up to an almost deserted Bracknell Odeon on Easter Sunday for the matinee showing knowing very little about the story. From what I had been told, I was in for a westernised version of Battle Royale. What I was presented with though was a much less gory yet hugely more subtle story of politics, deception and control versus emerging human spirit. Jennifer Lawrence plays Katniss - a girl from a mining town in the '12th district'. The 12 districts of the future USA are the areas of that nation that once rebelled against the union and have ever since been reminded of their place by being forced to annually supply 1 boy and 1 girl to the national 'Hunger Games'. The games are a fight to the death in which only one can emerge a winner, a winner who will be paraded through the nation as a hero, a winner who gives hope to the downtrodden peoples of the 12 districts. Through an act of immense selflessness, Katniss is selected as the participant for district 12. She is whisked off to the glamorous capital city where she and 23 other participants are turned into superstars and prepared for their encounter.
The first thing to say about 'Hunger Games' is that it is a hugely powerful story. Its main character Katniss becomes a powerful warrior, but her real strength lies in her empathy. Where she wins, she does so by building alliances, winning friends and only striking out when struck - not by projecting power. It's a story of how a downtrodden majority can be controlled by a cloistered elite, simply by providing them with enough entertainment and hope in the form of winning the Games. It presents an interpretation of the classic Brave New World view of civilisation's demise; in which a vapid culture can be built on a structure of brutality, propped up by a calming drug for the masses - entertainment.
Better still, the film doesn't have its head up in the clouds. I initially wanted more from the film's resolution, but since Sunday I've come to believe that the writers of the film understand realpolitik. Rather than Katniss emerging from the Hunger Games as a modern Robin Hood, she is advised to not stick it to the man, to claw back her rage against the system and bide her time lest the powers that be crush her.
What with all this politics going on it'd be easy to forget that there's some enjoyable science fiction in 'Hunger Games' too. It's set in a near future world complete with 3D virtual screens, miracle healing gels and genetically engineered wasps(!). Like all good dystopian science fiction it portrays the haves and the have-nots in this world, Katniss' friends and family in District 12 toil in terrible conditions while the people of the capital city are living in futuristic opulence. The haves harbour little compunction over the X-Factor style gladiatorial contest they insist the have-nots participate in for their satisfaction.
I can forgive the slightly flat ending to 'Hunger Games' on the basis that this is a series of books and they're going to want to make more. With the amount of money this has taken I can hardly see them failing to do so. I really hope that later books/films don't focus on the potential love triangle hinted at as the film reaches its final scenes, but that rather they emphasise the politics of what's going on. Two things are clear though, Jennifer Lawrence is destined to be a star and I have an early contender for my films of the year list.
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