favorite song friday: an unlikely hit

In the popular young adult movie franchise Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 Jennifer Lawrence plays Katniss Everdeen, a reluctant symbol of a revolution. in one of the strongest (and most quiet) moments in the film the haunted Katniss sings an old folk song as she and her rebel crew are relaxing by a riverside. The song has a folk music sound to it, which is appropriate, as Katniss is supposed to hail from a part of her post-apocalyptic country of Panem that closely resembles Appalachia.

The lyrics to the song were written by The author of The Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne Collins, and were included in her original Mockingjay novel. The music was composed by Jeremiah Fraites and Wesley Schultz of American indie folk band The Lumineers.

Katniss's song was one of the film's most powerful moments, so it is interesting that it is now climbing the charts as a dance remix. When I first heard it, the EDM beat spliced in seemed more than a little jarring. But the simple power of the song and its mood still shines through. "The Hanging Tree" seems to be the latest in a growing number of folk-inspired music. Neo folk?

Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Where they strung up a man
They say murdered three.
Strange things have happened here
No stranger would it be
If we met at midnight
In the hanging tree ...

mockingjay, part 1: post-traumatic stress katniss

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 picked up right where the second film, Catching Fire left off, but viewers may still feel like they got caught in a different film franchise, though it is following the original story, written by Suzanne Collins, (who also gets a screen credit for adapting her novel). This film is very deliberately paced, some may even feel slow-moving. But it is a very different story than the first few films, which followed Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) as she tried to survive two Hunger Games, an annual ritual that pits young people from each district in the country of Panem in a fight for survival — only the strong, and the last person standing — make it out alive. But in both instances Katniss thwarted the powers that be, which distinctly upset oligarch President Snow (Donald Sutherland). In her first Hunger Games she managed to also save fellow District 12 resident Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson). Snow sent the pair and a host of other champions back the following year, trying to kill all of the insurgent birds with one stone. But Katniss destroyed the game zone and was airlifted out with other contestants Finnick (Sam Claflin) and Beetee (Jeffrey Wright), but Peeta was left behind, his whereabouts and fate unknown.

A rose by any other name — President Snow leaves a gift for Katniss

As the new film begins the Hunger Games are no more, and Katniss is bereft. She wakes up in the vast underground bunker of District 13, which had perviously been assumed to have been destroyed by Snow and the Capitol forces. But it has been built into a hidden fortress, led by the steely President Coin (Julianne Moore) with ex-Capitol advisor Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman) at her side. Plutarch is convinced that Katniss, as the "Mockingjay" is the symbol they need for a successful revolution. Coin listens to him, but doesn't always agree. Katniss is reunited with her mother and sister Prim, who seem to have (mostly) adjusted to the totalitarian environment, and old pal Gale, who still seem to carry a torch for her, when he isn't busy becoming an uber-soldier for Coin. But Katniss can't connect with much around her, haunted by her guilt over the destruction of her home, District 12, and especially the missing Peeta's and her feelings for him. Mockingjay Part 1 is about war and its after-effects, from Katniss grappling with post-traumatic stress disorder to Snow's attempts to match District 13's rebellion with attacks on all of the country's districts — innocent lives lost to make a point.

The first film in the series to be shot digitally, Mockingjay Part 1 is dark, with much of the action taking place underground in District 13. Also the first not to be released in IMAX, the film didn't bow to the blockbuster de riguer 3D, which it had no need of. But what really sets the film apart is the quality of its cast. It is fascinating to watch Lawrence as Katniss, a raw nerve, and more of a pawn than ever, being buffeted by the political and emotional forces around her. Philip Seymour Hoffman is also a wonder, as always, bringing layers of nuance to his role as the main brain of the war room. The film is dedicated to his memory.

Philip Seymour Hoffman and Julianne Moore appear in their fourth film together (Boogie Nights, The Big Lebowski, and Magnolia)

As dark and serious as things are for Katniss, there are also some welcome moments of levity. It is great to see her trainers Haymitch (Woody Harrelson) and Effie (Elizabeth Banks) again. Both actors have a blast with their fish-out-of water characters, a dried-out Haymitch without his requisite bottle of spirits to help him through the day, and the irrepressible Effie suffering from all the gray-on-gray surrounding her. A big silly cat called Buttercup also brings not just a touch of humor to a few scenes, but provides for a silly, but necessary jolt of action mid-film.

In the land of the drab, Effie makes it work

Is Mockingjay Part 1 a film that can stand on its own? Yes and no. It works well as a set-up for the final installment, due this time next year. Could it work without the greater context of the Hunger Games? Not really, but it wasn't really intended to. This is serial story-telling. It is hard to call it a cash grab, however, as might be said about the bloated approach to The Hobbit taken by Peter Jackson. Mockingjay's themes of war and its aftermath, especially the toll it takes on the young is worthy of exposition. A single film may have had to rush Katniss's experiences in favor of a fiery finale. Mockingjay may not be the blockbuster movie that everyone thought they were going to get, but in this age of televised torture and warfare, it may be the deeply emotional film that we need.

the hunger games — on film

I'm not a big fan of jittery camera work, which the film adaptation of The Hunger Games uses in abundance, but I have to admit that it suited the story perfectly. If you have managed to skip the books or all of the hype surrounding the movie, it features sixteen year-old Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), who lives with her mother and sister Prim in District 12 in the country of Panem, what remains of North America. After a civil war, only 12 of 13 districts have survived, and they are kept under the tight control of a vengeful Capitol, led by a vindictive President Snow. To punish the districts and keep them in line the Capitol each year holds the Hunger Games, which pits 24 children, 2 per district, in a fight to the death, much like Roman gladiatorial combat. In just a few deft scenes the film was able to depict District 12, where Katniss, her childhood friend Gale, and acquaintance Peeta all hale from, giving the audience the feeling of what Appalachia might be like in a dystopian future.

Katniss and Peeta are forced to train for the arena

"May the odds be ever in your favor."

Katniss is thrown for a loop when her younger sister Prim, only 12 years old, is chosen, and volunteers to be the female contestant for district 12 in her sister's place. She is rushed through a series of hasty goodbyes and a whirlwind exposure to the excesses of food and fashion that the Capitol enjoys, all the time being filmed constantly. Seeing the Capitol depicted onscreen, with all of its inhabitants' garish costumes and make-up was a huge contrast to the blood and guts arena. The casting was perfect down the line, with Jennifer Lawrence a standout as Katniss. Josh Hutcherson, who is frequently called on to play a bratty (Zathura: A Space Adventure), even obnoxious (Journey 2: The Mysterious Island) teen, was convincing as the sweeter, gentler Peeta, who knows that without Katniss he has no chance of winning in the arena.

I was wondering if the book's critiques of reality television and warfare would be able to survive such a hyped film — would the audience be guilty of being hungry for the Hunger Games? But the film was never exploitive of what the kids were put through. The fast-paced editing definitely sped past some of the deaths, but I don't think longer shots would have deepened their impact. On the reality television side, Stanley Tucci, was the perfect, oily host, Caesar Flickerman, who framed the contest in pre-Games touchy-feely interviews with the contestants and play-by-play, or death-by-death, coverage once the Games had begun.

Katniss watches Peeta yuk it up in his interview with Caesar Flickerman

Although hardly seen, Donald Sutherland was menacing as the white rose-fancying President Snow. It may seem strange to some viewers how meekly the citizens of Panem take the fate of their children, and how those 24 teens immediately fall into the kill-or-be-killed gameplay rather than banding together to fight The Man. Caesar Flickerman introduces the 74th Hunger Games — after almost three quarters of a century, most of the fight seems to have gone out of the people — at least until Katniss lights a spark that will burn in the future.

By being herself, as stylist Cinna (Lenny Kravitz) advises her, combined with a bit of showbiz that mentor Haymitch (Woody Harrelson, perfectly cast as drunken past Hunger Games champion) coaches her to employ, she shows compassion for some of her fellow contestants and flouts the rules at crucial junctures in the Games, much to the dismay of the controlling President Snow. Kravitz, sporting Cinna's trademark gold eyeliner, only had a few scenes with Lawrence, but he managed to make their relationship seem as close and true as the characters in the book. He made me wonder if author Suzanne Collins had taken the story in a slightly different direction, Cinna might have blown the Peeta/Gale/Katniss love triangle to bits and Katniss could have run off with him.

Cinna wishes Katniss luck before she enters the arena

But the main focus of the film is the arena, the Hunger Games, and they were as brutal as they were in the book, maybe more so, as the audience had to watch the bodies fall. The film actually helped make some of the other tributes, if not more relatable, at least more identifiable, as the book is told solely from Katniss's point of view. The film also took us behind-the-scenes in the Capitol's control room, showing us how many of the trials the kids suffered in the field originated there — something Katniss suspects in the book, but is too busy running from threats, trying to survive to give it much thought.

The movie clocked in at over two hours and 20 minutes, but it was fast-paced and exciting all the way. As much as I knew what was coming, after recently reading the books, it still was suspenseful and edge-of-seat scary at times. It was interesting to see how certain stand-out scenes were translated to the screen — the "tracker jacker" wasps, Katniss's alliance with District 11's young Rue, the fabulous, burning gowns designed by Cinna that helped make Katniss "the girl on fire."

Former District 12 champion Haymitch gives Katniss some support and advice before she heads off to the Hunger Games

I saw The Hunger Games in IMAX, with a full crowd, evenly mixed of adults and teens, many of us not chaperones. The filmakers were pretty smart to release it during spring break, when kids home from college could attend the screenings in packs, like the gaggle of teenage girls seated in the row behind me. I was more than a little freaked out to see some folks walking out after the film with young kids in tow. I have taken my eight year old to a few PG-13 movies myself — Percy Jackson and the Olympians and the latest Tom Cruise Mission Impossible movie. But The Hunger Games doesn't have just a few scary scenes, or some shoot-em up chases. It features violence against children. That is the content of the whole film. It's not just a fantasy, but a deep, dark story set in a world not so incredibly different from our own. I wouldn't recommend my daughter seeing this one until she was thirteen, or mature enough to have read the books.

As much as The Hunger Games isn't really about which of two guys a girl should end up with, old Twilight habits die hard, as an audible and collective teenage girl sigh could be heard throughout the cinema (followed by quite a few adult giggles) when poor childhood friend Gale (Liam Hemsworth) watched Katniss kiss Peeta on the jumbo television screen back home. As much as both Peeta and Gale (and Cinna) think Katniss is hot stuff, The Hunger Games is not a love story, but the story of a young girl, a hero, coming of age. It's great to see a brave and resourceful and female hero, and in IMAX. The Hunger Games may be controversial, but in a good way. It gets people thinking and talking.

Related articles

• xoxoxoe's #CBR4 Review #12: The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins (cannonballread4.wordpress.com)
• xoxoxoe's #CBR4 Review #13: Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins (cannonballread4.wordpress.com)
• xoxoxoe's #CBR4 Review #14: Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins (cannonballread4.wordpress.com)

mockingjay

Steer clear if you don't want to know about major plot points in Mockingjay, the third and final book in the The Hunger Games series.

"War is Hell" may be a phrase heard so often to have become a cliche, but Suzanne Collins's final book in her Hunger Games trilogy, Mockingjay, doesn't let its heroine or readers forget the reality or power of those three words for an instant. The action picks up right where Catching Fire left off. Katniss Everdeen has been scooped up out of the arena of the 75th Hunger Games and taken to District 13, which has not only survived its rumored destruction, but has rebuilt itself into a police state, run uber-efficiently by the forbidding President Coin.

"My name is Katniss Everdeen. I am seventeen years old. My home is District 12. I was in the Hunger Games. I escaped. The Capitol hates me. Peeta was taken prisoner. He is alive. He is a traitor, but alive. I have to keep him alive…"

Katniss may have made it out of the arena, but her sometime fiance and friend, Peeta Mellark, was left behind and the evil President Snow has wasted no time in torturing and exploiting the boy, trying to quash Katniss's role as the Mockingjay, the symbol of the rebellion against the Capitol's tyranny. Katniss is so upset about her friend and so unsure about the way of life in District 13 that she is an unwilling rebel leader. President Coin, childhood friend Gale, mentor Haymitch, and others must persuade her to take on her role. But who can she trust?

"I’m sick of people lying to me for my own good. Because it’s really mostly for their own good."

Katniss is more at home in her beloved woods

Katniss is a free spirit. She thrives in the open air. But District 13 is the opposite of freedom. It is sterile, with every hour of the day of its residents accounted for; the food portioned out based on body weight. Coin and her team want Katniss to be the Mockingjay — on their terms. But she negotiates some terms of her own, including immunity for Peeta and the other Hunger Games champions who have been captured and possibly brainwashed, a la The Manchurian Candidate. As much as Katniss doesn't want to give up on Peeta, once he has been brought to District 13 she is so upset at his altered behavior that she avoids him. Katniss can't seem to function inside four walls. Outside in the arena, Katniss could be free and use her hunter's instincts to protect Peeta and others. Inside the cell-like atmosphere of 13 she shuts down.

"I sit back on my bed cross-legged and find myself rubbing the smooth iridescent surface of the pearl back and forth against my lips. For some reason, it’s soothing. A cool kiss from the giver himself."

Collins keeps hinting at where Katniss's heart really lies by having her cherish a pearl, a gift from Peeta. The pearl was such a nice symbol, it was a little strange that it didn't occur to the character (or author?) to have Katniss use it to help deprogram Peeta, or at least have her show it to him at some juncture. But it just disappeared after a point and was never referred to again.

Where Katniss finally does get an opportunity to feel more at home is on the field. Coin and Co. really just want to use the Mockingjay for pro-Rebel propaganda film clips, but Katniss manages to go on a few missions where she sees the horrors of war first-hand. Back at the weapons lab she is even more horrified when she sees her friends Gale and Beetee working on weapons that are meant to destroy the innocent. When will these games and toys that kill children ever end?

While she debates how deeply she wants to get involved in the rebellion, Katniss is also still bouncing back and forth a little between Peeta and her longtime friend Gale, but it should be clear to anyone who can read between the lines that Peeta is the one who truly holds her heart, even if Katniss can't quite see it until almost the last page. Sorry, Gale fans.

Katniss and Collins have much more on their minds than which cute guy she should choose. Katniss is in the middle of a horrible, bloody, civil war, and she is as much of a pawn as ever. She and her fellow arena survivors are all suffering from post-traumatic stress. Katniss has had to grow up fast and watch people she loves be tortured and even killed in front of her eyes. Mockingjay pulls no punches. It is violent and at times heartbreaking. There are no real winners in a civil war. Katniss learns that the Hunger Games never really end. One of the most harrowing passages happens right at the beginning of the novel, when Katniss tours the rubble that was once her home.

"I stared down at my shoes, watching as a fine layer of ash settles on the worn leather. This is where the bed I shared with my sister, Prim, stood."

As much as there are some shattering things that happen to our hero, Mockingjay is not ultimately a downer. Katniss grows up. She loses a lot, but she also learns what she needs. She will never really be free of the Games and the horrors that she lived through, but she can still sing and she can still get through each day and finally open her heart to love Peeta. She may worry about telling their children about their pasts — as her parents kept things from her, and many parents shield their children.

There were many scenes in the book that should seem familiar to anyone who has seen footage or interviews with people who lived through World War 2 or Vietnam or any other modern war. People will always seize at life and try to put starvation, concentration camps, and other horrors of war behind them, but they will never forget. There is a scene at the end of Mockingjay with Prim's cat Buttercup, that had me in tears, as it is often the little, human things, the day-to-day parts of life that we take for granted that are so often threatened or obliterated by war. Young people certainly need fun, adventure, and fantasy in their lives, and the Harry Potter series fills that bill, but The Hunger Games trilogy, as quick and addictive a read as they are, also has something to say. About life. About our past, our present, and hopefully, never about our future.

Related articles

• Mockingjay Review (Spoilers all throughout) (Ramble Alert) (bookrave.wordpress.com)

the hunger games

I finally decided to give this book a try, not only due of all the praise and hype, but because I am intrigued by Stanley Tucci's blue hair in the previews. The Hunger Games is technically a YA novel, but like the Harry Potter series, adults will enjoy it, even appreciate it more than teens. It's also a lightning-fast read. I finished the series in just a few days, but as fast-paced as it is, the characters and the problems of the world they live in stay with you long afterward. My reviews of the other two books are to come. Needless to say I will also be checking out the soon-to-be-released movie adaptation.

Jennifer Lawrence plays Katniss in the film adaptation of The Hunger Games

Author Suzanne Collins has woven some familiar ideas — Shirley Jackson's The Lottery, reality television shows, ancient Roman gladiatorial combat, the Greek myth of Theseus, Romeo and Juliet, The Wizard of Oz and much more, into a still original look at a dystopian future where 24 teenagers are forced to fight to the death in a yearly televised contest, the Hunger Games. The games are supposedly a lesson or a punishment for the sins of previous rebellious generations, but they have clearly morphed into the main source of entertainment for a spoiled Capitol that can cure practically any wound or disease and seem removed from death — hence a lust for bloodsport.

What takes The Hunger Games beyond just a mere will-or-won't-our-heroine-survive drama are all of the little moral dilemmas that keep cropping up as she tries to survive her time in the arena. 16 year-old Katniss Everdeen has been the head of her family for years. She is accomplished with a bow and arrows and hunts to keep her family and friends from starvation. When her younger sister Prim is selected as the female Games participant, the devoted and intrepid older sister volunteers in her stead. Katniss has learned survival techniques in her many hours hunting in the forbidden woods outside of the district where she lives, but she still assumes that she will be dead meat as soon as the Games begin. She just wants to die with some honor and ensure that her family won't suffer.

The boy tribute, the other competitor from her district, Peeta Mellark (the names!), is obviously besotted with her (obvious to everyone but Katniss), and doesn't feel he has much of a chance, either. Katniss at first distances herself from Peeta, who tries to help her at every turn, as she knows that she will ultimately be forced to kill him at some point in the games. The rules state that at the end there can only be one winner.

During the early days of the Games Katniss meets and befriends a younger girl, Rue, and the two briefly form an alliance. They bond instantly, much like kids do on the modern-day playground. But always hovering in the background are the rules of kill or be killed. Like Spartacus, these gladiators are never far from death.

The Games are broadcast live, and Katniss is at all times aware that what she is doing and saying is going straight back to the Capitol and her friends and family back at home. There are times when she is even mugging for the cameras. Like Survivor or Project Runway or The Bachelor or any of the other reality competitions we all tune in to these days, how much of the drama is real, or prompted by getting better ratings and sponsors? Katniss quickly learns that if she shows tenderness towards Peeta and plays up the romance angle everyone watching back home will lap it up — and sponsors will respond too, by sending in silver-parachuted, much-needed supplies.

There were a few loose ends or questions I had during the book that I felt weren't completely answered. Katniss's country, Panem, what is left of North America after a post-apocalyptic war, has been reduced to 12 districts (District 13 had been obliterated in a huge conflict that led to the current state of things). We learn that district 12, where Katniss and Peeta hail from, is what we call Appalachia. I was hoping for more clues to where and what the other districts were. Or how about a map? The Capitol seems to be located near modern-day Denver, but all of the other districts were a mystery.

Katniss is a great central character. She has been so beaten down by life that she can't pick up on the romantic (tri)angle, either at home, where she is "friends" with older boy Gale, or during the Games with Peeta. There is a lot of chaste kissing in the last third of the book that may give younger readers a thrill, but may have the older readers rolling their eyes. I sympathized with Katniss, who grew impatient with all of Peeta's lovey-dovey-ing, when she was trying so hard to keep them both alive under very harsh circumstances. The characters' priorities were very different, which kept them interesting.

Katniss may be naive in many ways, but she has naturally good instincts. Once she sees how things are going, she can quickly adapt. She is a brilliant hunter, but also has a huge heart, connecting to and feeling for the other contestants. Knowing that The Hunger Games is a trilogy, most readers won't be too worried about Katniss's ultimate fate. Collins is aware of this, and makes the conflict center around the life and death decisions Katniss has to make and how far she is willing to go to survive. The Hunger Games is a fast but absorbing read. It may raise more questions than it answers, but its characters and setting are more than compelling enough to make me snatch up the next novel and see where it takes Katniss next.