Checking Out the Movie THE HUNGER GAMES

Now that THE HUNGER GAMES has been released on video I was in no rush to see it.  In fact, I dreaded seeing it.  I hate what appeared to be a sadistic movie.

Wait!  The movie makers know that too.  Movies with terrible predictable endings to not sell.  However, movies with good predictable endings people do see.  Chances are, the movie would have a happy ending.  I kept telling myself that during it.  I did not bury my head once.

The plot is that young people's names are thrown into an electronic pot and two names from each district are drawn.  There are 12 districts, thus 24 young people's names will be drawn.  These young people will fight each other to their deaths, until only one winner remains.    It is planned to take the common people's mind off what drugery of lives they live.

I think anyone remembers or was exposed to it, cannot help but thinking of the short story THE LOTTERY, written by Shirley Jackson  and published in THE NEW YORKER in 1948, when the subject of THE HUNGER GAMES come up.  THE LOTTERY is about a small typical town in America that  is as typical Smalltown U.S.A. as you can get. EXCEPT:  Once a year, on June the 27th the kids of the town gather up rocks and the grownups have a lottery.  The winning number is stoned to death.  They do it to insure their crops will come in successful.  I remember a made-for-TV version came out when I was a kid. It was in black &; white.  I think I left the room before the certain ending.  I don't like to watch things like that.

In THE HUNGRY GAMES there are all types of electronic surveilance gadgets so all of the population can watch the games and see the close-up of faces as they are killed.

It is much like reality TV and the news.  We as a people love to see closeups of people faces when something bad happens to them.  Tch tch.  Shame on us.

Another thing the movie reminded me of was the Republican Eleminations for Presidential hopefuls.  It started off with a large number of men and woman, each getting bashed at debates until one at a time they let go of the race and one remained standing.

It is a high-energy movie that will keep you on the edge of your seat as Jennifer Lawrence escapes one near death experince after another.  After you accept Jennfer Lawrence is the heroine and heroines don't die, it is bad for business, it is a good action flick - and predictable.... but sad too, when someone likeable is killed.

  I remember seeing Jennifer Lawrence the first time in WINTER'S BONE, where she is trying to survive with her family in the Ozarks.  In THE HUNGER GAMES and WINTER'S BONES both she has to care for a docile mother.  I hope she isn't type-cast for only parts that call for being a caregiver for her parent