Did Shakespeare write The Hunger Games?
One of the characters in the film The Hunger Games remarks “…it’s only a television show”.
I went to see the film, curious and open to the story, having not read the books. The future world setting distracted. Thoughts of Africa. The story became less dystopian and more of the present tense.
When the palatial AMC Mainstreet theater first opened, I saw District 9; a film pretty ugly for such a pretty place. District 9 evaporated from Kansas City area theaters in two weeks…too disturbing and alarmingly true. Hunger Games features Districts too. District 9 shocked people by placing a mirror in front of them. In the The Hunger Games, the two tributed-children from District 9 die. The kids from District 11 have dark skin. Lenny Kravitz plays a caring stylist.
Hunger Games serves up a buffet of reality television shows we know, placed on a Shakespearean dinnerplate…Shakespearean given the added steak, I mean stake, of death.
Romeo and Juliet with an alternative outcome, a bow, arrows. Adults lose. Children teach them some simple truths. Resourcefulness, gratitude, compassion, loyalty, love. But, be wary. The adults are angry, frustrated, and confused.
It’s more than a film (of a book derived cleverly from a play)…it’s quite a few television shows. I liked them and it.
Phil Cardarella
1 year agoOK, so we do not actually force young poor kids to fight to the death on TV for our amusement.
Technically.
On the other hand, we arm lots of kids with guns — the results of which entertain us not only on the evening news, but as thinly veilled plot lines on out popular TV shows. We do not technically choose them by lot — but we have an educational “system” and a drug prohibition policy that allows many to “self-select”.
There is a real difference between the dystopian world of Hunger Games and reality: The body count there is only 24 kids per year. That would be a slow day in the USA.