By Emily Sullivan
Opinion Assignment Editor
One of the most dangerous things a filmmaker can do is make a movie adaptation of a book. Fans of the worldwide phenomenon “The Hunger Games” gathered outside movie theaters March 22, anxiously awaiting what director Gary Ross had done with their beloved books.
Thankfully, the odds were in his favor.
“The Hunger Games” tells the tale of the dystopian society of Panem, which is separated into 12 districts. In remembrance of the dark past of the districts, the Capitol, the leader of all 12 districts, makes it a yearly tradition to take one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 from each district and force them to fight to the death in The Hunger Games. Each district is mandated to watch their friends and loved ones kill one another live on TV.
Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence, “Winter’s Bone”) volunteers as tribute from District 12 when her 12-year-old sister, Primrose (Willow Shields, “Beyond the Blackboard”) is chosen at random to compete. Peeta Mellark, (Josh Hutcherson, “Bridge to Terabithia”) the baker’s son, is chosen as the male tribute.
Katniss and Peeta must fight against each other and other tributes in a heavily forested arena to return home to their friends and family, including Katniss’s best friend, Gale (Liam Hemsworth, “The Last Song”), who promises to protect Katniss’s family if she falls victim to the vicious intricacies of the arena. But when food is scarce and water is hard to find, the tributes have more to worry about than each other.
Overall, audiences will be extremely pleased with the film whether they are fans of the book or not. Ross and screenplay writers, Billy Ray (“Flightplan”), and Suzanne Collins, author of “The Hunger Games,” did the book justice. The filmmakers made everything understandable for those viewers who had not read the book and were not familiar with the plotline.
One of the most applaud-worthy merits of the film was the relationship between Katniss and Prim. Lawrence and Shields did a beautiful job portraying the close-knit bond between the siblings. While there weren’t many scenes between Katniss and Prim, just like the book, you could still feel the love the sisters had for each other and their desperation to keep each other safe.
The casting was another brilliant aspect of the movie. All the characters resembled the descriptions from the book perfectly, especially Stanley Tucci (“The Lovely Bones”), who played the energetic talk-show host Caesar Flickerman. Fans of the book were pleased with his stellar performance as the beloved game commentator.
The only downfall of the movie is some of the relationships. Due to time restrictions, it is clearly impossible to film every page of the book verbatim. That being said, the relationship between Katniss and her stylist, Cinna (Lenny Kravitz, “Precious”), and little Rue (Amandla Stenberg, “Colombiana”), the 12-year-old tribute from District 11, was highly underrated. In the book, the relationship between Katniss and her stylist resembled a father-daughter bond. In the film, audiences were unable to see the full extent of their relationship due to the small amount of time they spent together on screen. The relationship between Katniss and Rue was strong in both the book and the film, even though the two had little interaction throughout the film.
Another slight issue with the film was the lack of moments between Katniss and Peeta. To earn sponsors (people who send much-needed items to the tributes during the games, like food, water and medicine) in the arena, Katniss must convince them she and Peeta are really in love so they can earn some sympathy votes.
In the book, there are plenty of moments between Katniss and Peeta that show them portraying the “star-crossed lovers” bit for the camera. They have to act so much, Katniss can’t be sure whether or not she is falling in love with him or if it is truly just an act. The movie only showed a few of those moments, which will be important in the next installment of the series.
“The Hunger Games” is sure to enthrall audiences throughout the world. With the amazing actors and intense storyline, all who see it will enjoy the film.
sullivec10@bonaventure.edu
