The Hunger Games: Grade, Review, Discuss, Sequel news **SPOILERS**

[Harvey]

There are little details that struck me as implausible. District 12 is very poor, yet somehow a baker's son there managed to find time to learn how to frost cakes that would show up the contestants on Ace of Cakes?

And then there are big details, like the hunger games themselves. This is the solution for controlling the underclass (which, oddly enough, is depicted as the minority of the population, at least in the movie)? 23 children get to die and 1 gets to...go back to their crummy life of poverty? I don't believe for a second that this could keep the twelve districts pacified for 75 years. Indeed, the riots we see in the movie seem inevitable given the stakes.

And why on earth do they only train the kids for two weeks? That's not enough time to indoctrinate them all into becoming killing machines, nor is it enough time to train them with enough skill. MMA is popular because two skilled opponents face off against one another in each match; imagine the UFC if it just took random dudes off the street and told them to pummel each other until there was a victor. And why kids, many of whom are prepubescent? There's a reason the New York Jets don't face off against the flag football team in middle school. It would be a slaughter, and quickly become boring. Yet, apparently, this is the great entertainment in the Capitol. They must not get HBO.

 

[DarthPipes]

Although District 12 is the poorest district, they do have residents that are better off than some. Those are the merchants like Peeta's parents. Kat's mother was from "the other side of the tracks" but gave it up to marry Kat's father. That wasn't mentioned in the film.

If you win the games, you are given a victor's home and become rich. Also not mentioned in the film is that fact that the winners district gives more food and a big feast.

 

[Miss Chicken]

Some people in District 12 are poor but others, the merchant class, are pretty well off.

The victors do not go back to poverty. They get a nice, new house in the Victors Village, an good income but they are expected to become mentors. Haymitch lives such a life.

The Games are not the only means of controlling the people. There are elecrtic fences, and there are the 'Peacekeepers'. most of the Peacekeeps either come from thr Capitol or District 2.

District 1 and 2 are quite well off. It is these two districts who illegally train their tributes and who always rely on the best tributes to to volunteer when they 18. The Capitol seems to turn a blind eye to this training because they need these two districts loyalty more than they need it from the other districts.

 

[Star Wolf]

Some people in District 12 are poor but others, the merchant class, are pretty well off.......


District 1 and 2 are quite well off. It is these two districts who illegally train their tributes and who always rely on the best tributes to to volunteer when they 18. The Capitol seems to turn a blind eye to this training because they need these two districts loyalty more than they need it from the other districts.

The premise fails me at that point. I would expect professional gladiators or "tributes" to be an outgrowth of the poor districts and not the rich ones. After all where do our boxers and MMA fighters mostly come from. Having gladiators from two district slaughter 12 year olds who are said to be poor and undernorished just seems an odd way to say don't rebel we have a boot on your neck.

 

[Miss Chicken]

As I said, it is only one method the Capitol used. They murdered, whipped, starved etc as well.

The poorer districts couldn't train their children because the Capitol wouldn't allow them to. They turned a blind eye tomDistrict 1 and 2 doing it.

I think the games were actually more revenge rather than a control method on the Capitol's part as they had more effective methods of control.

 

[Star Wolf]

It keeps coming back to needing knowledge of the books to really understanding the movie beyond the basic plot that pretty girl survives and sticks it to the man

 

[Miss Chicken]

I think we learn in the movie that the Capitol is willing to murder. Look at what happened to Seneca at the end.

You also see quite a few Peacekeepers in the movie.

However I wish the talk between Rue and Katniss in which Rue tells Katniss about how harsh the Peacekeepers in District 11 are was included in the movie because it would have explain much to people who haven't read the books.

 

[DarthPipes]

They reduced the number for the movie but District 4 is another one of the "career" districts that has a good relationship with the Capitol.

 

[Miss Chicken]

Yes, I thought there were other career districts. If I remember correctly District 4 was the fishing district or was that District 5, and 4 was the weapons district?

 

[Captain Craig]

There are little details that struck me as implausible. District 12 is very poor, yet somehow a baker's son there managed to find time to learn how to frost cakes that would show up the contestants on Ace of Cakes?

When there is no cable, concerts to attend, movies to anticipate, internet message boards to chat-up and books are a luxury it's amazing at how good you can get at something if that's just about all you do. Apprenticeships, the concept's been around awhile.

then there are big details, like the hunger games themselves. This is the solution for controlling the underclass (which, oddly enough, is depicted as the minority of the population, at least in the movie)? 23 children get to die and 1 gets to...go back to their crummy life of poverty? I don't believe for a second that this could keep the twelve districts pacified for 75 years. Indeed, the riots we see in the movie seem inevitable given the stakes.

President Snow(Sutherland) address this with Seneca. You might recall he asks him, "Why do you think we have the Games? If it was just about fear and intimidation why not just line them up and shoot them? It's to give them the illusion of hope. A little hope is a good thing. Too much hope..."
Now I find that parallel a bit ironic given the platform our recent President trotted out to the masses that bought into it but I digress.
Apparently the masses and their little bit of hope has worked thus far, largely(see District 13), keeping things in line.
And the movie doesn't tell you this but in the book the winner, when they return to the District, gets special housing and special treatment. Haymitch was a former winner, you can see he's doing alright(self induced drunken state aside) vs other D12 folk.

why on earth do they only train the kids for two weeks? That's not enough time to indoctrinate them all into becoming killing machines, nor is it enough time to train them with enough skill. MMA is popular because two skilled opponents face off against one another in each match; imagine the UFC if it just took random dudes off the street and told them to pummel each other until there was a victor. And why kids, many of whom are prepubescent? There's a reason the New York Jets don't face off against the flag football team in middle school. It would be a slaughter, and quickly become boring. Yet, apparently, this is the great entertainment in the Capitol. They must not get HBO.

The Capitol doesn't really care about how well they are trained. If they cared about the contest really being a contest then they wouldn't be manipulating events from a control booth. It's a control tool, Snow said as much.

 

[Shanndee]

I just voted. I give it a strong B. Speaking as someone who hasn't read the book, I do feel that i was missing a lot of important background information. I am hoping some of my questions are answered in the next movie.

Of course, I will probably have read all of the books by then, so this will be a moot point.

But, having just seen the movie, I do think it deserves a "B".

 

[DevilEyes]

Some people in District 12 are poor but others, the merchant class, are pretty well off.

The victors do not go back to poverty. They get a nice, new house in the Victors Village, an good income but they are expected to become mentors. Haymitch lives such a life.

The Games are not the only means of controlling the people. There are elecrtic fences, and there are the 'Peacekeepers'. most of the Peacekeeps either come from thr Capitol or District 2.

District 1 and 2 are quite well off. It is these two districts who illegally train their tributes and who always rely on the best tributes to to volunteer when they 18. The Capitol seems to turn a blind eye to this training because they need these two districts loyalty more than they need it from the other districts.

I've started to read the book after having seen the movie. I've only read the first 4-5 chapters so far, but it's mentioned that not only that the winner gets a life of ease, but the district of the winner is showered with prizes, mostly consisting of food, during the next year, until the next Hunger Games.

In some districts, like 1 and 2, winning is seen as great honor, and future contestants are trained their whole lives and expected to volunteer at 18. That was also made clear in the movie - they explicitly said it, and Cato was one of those. However, Katniss says in the book that in 12, "tribute" is understood to be pretty much the synonym for "corpse".

One thing that, IIRC, wasn't mentioned in the movie (?) is that he 13th district was obliterated after the civil war. So, add genocide to the list of crimes committed by the Capitol in the past. (I remember they mentioned the 13 districts, but I don't remember if they explained what happened to the 13th in the movie?)

The Capitol has very strict control over the people in the districts through the Peacekeepers and the implication is that they could use their forces and technology to obliterate another district if they decided to. The purpose of the games, as Katniss sees it, is to rub it in to the people of the districts just how much they are completely at the mercy of the Capitol. "Whatever words they use, the message is clear. 'Look how we can take your children and sacrifice them and there is nothing you can do. If you lift a finger, we will destroy every last one of you. Just as we did in District Thirteen.' "

Another thing that was mentioned in the movie and that is elaborated more on in the book is that you get your name on more pieces of paper in the lottery with each year, and the more times you sign up for "tessarae", described as meager year's supply of grain and oil for one person. So, the odds are higher for the older and the poorer kids. Katniss had her name entered 20 times at 16 (at the age of 12, she already had 4, three of which were for food supply for herself, her mother and sister). Gale had his name entered 42 times, since he was 18 and had more siblings. Primrose had her name entered just once, since she's 12 and Katniss didn't let her sign up for tessarae, in order not to increase her odds of being selected. That's why Gale and Katniss were worried that they would hear their names, and it was a big surprise that Primrose got selected. Odds don't matter when luck is not on your side.

Yet, apparently, this is the great entertainment in the Capitol. They must not get HBO.

Why do people in our world who can watch HBO opt to watch reality shows?

 

[Harvey]

Yet, apparently, this is the great entertainment in the Capitol. They must not get HBO.

Why do people in our world who can watch HBO opt to watch reality shows?

Because reality TV is an effective form of bread and circuses; the hunger games are not. They are an effective form of intimidation against the 12 districts, but the movie wants us to believe that they are also the ultimate form of entertainment for the Capitol. I don't find that very believable.

 

[DevilEyes]

Yet, apparently, this is the great entertainment in the Capitol. They must not get HBO.

Why do people in our world who can watch HBO opt to watch reality shows?

Because reality TV is an effective form of bread and circuses; the hunger games are not. They are an effective form of intimidation against the 12 districts, but the movie wants us to believe that they are also the ultimate form of entertainment for the Capitol. I don't find that very believable.

Really? Reality TV is more interesting than the Hunger games? How? It's incredibly boring, staged and it only seems to be popular because people are voyeuristic and like to see other people embarrass themselves. If it were possible to actually make people kill each other in reality shows, I bet they'd be even more popular. The Brazilian version of Big Brother featured a rape that none of the people from the network bothered to stop, so it won't be surprising if the audiences eventually get to see a live murder in a reality show.

 

[Miss Chicken]

By law viewing the Games is compulsory. Even people in the Capitol are living under a nasty regime that they have reason to fear.

Also take into account that the average person in the Capitol doesn't get to met people from the Districts (as travel is tightly controlled). As a result the people the Capitol do not see District people as being on the same level as themselves. They think that District people exist to provide them with their needs and to entertain them.

 

[Trekker4747]

Yet, apparently, this is the great entertainment in the Capitol. They must not get HBO.

Why do people in our world who can watch HBO opt to watch reality shows?

Because reality TV is an effective form of bread and circuses; the hunger games are not. They are an effective form of intimidation against the 12 districts, but the movie wants us to believe that they are also the ultimate form of entertainment for the Capitol. I don't find that very believable.

The suggestion seems to be the rich and elite of the Capitol don't regard the "commoners" in the districts "as real people." Sort of tugging on the class-system between the rich and the poor.

 

[Harvey]

The suggestion seems to be the rich and elite of the Capitol don't regard the "commoners" in the districts "as real people." Sort of tugging on the class-system between the rich and the poor.

Well, certainly they dehumanize the people from the districts. That's a given when you're pitting people in fights to the death, and only more so when the people involved are minors.

What I don't buy is that people in the Capitol are that entertained by the proceedings. Most of the tributes don't have any training. Since all but a few are picked randomly from girls and boys ages 13 to 18, there's a serious mismatch of physical types. There's a reason lightweights and heavyweights don't box each other, and there's a reason why professional sports teams don't play against amateur ones. That's not a competition; it's a massacre. And while that might be enough to draw an audience for a while, it seems unlikely to be enough to pacify an entire city for three quarters of a century.

The detail Miss Chicken provides is key, but, of course, it's not in the movie.

 

[Miss Chicken]

It was a massacre to begin with but by the time they got down to the last 5 or 6 they were usually equally matched.

Not all the the tributes were expected to die by fighting each other. The Capitol was willing to drown, starve, burn, poison, set wild beast on some of the tributes just for fun of it.

Sometimes it was just death people wanted to see not equal combat.

 

[Gepard]

And then there are big details, like the hunger games themselves. This is the solution for controlling the underclass (which, oddly enough, is depicted as the minority of the population, at least in the movie)? 23 children get to die and 1 gets to...go back to their crummy life of poverty? I don't believe for a second that this could keep the twelve districts pacified for 75 years. Indeed, the riots we see in the movie seem inevitable given the stakes.

 

[Harvey]

^^