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| Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen |
Hunger Games,
Mockingjay, Part I, directed by Francis Lawrence, with Jennifer Lawrence, Josh
Hutcherson, and Liam Hemsworth.
The Revolution Will Be Televised *
How to build
a revolution: Start with a tyrannical,
revengeful president with a well-armed military; add a charismatic,
self-effacing, yet heroic persona whose homeland was destroyed by his
government; enhance with a wise, capable rebel president of the people, mix
well with a savvy production team whose producer is asked by said president to
create a revolutionary leader from a reluctant hero.
Mockingjay starts where Catching Fire ended. Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) had been rescued
by rebels. Her boyfriend, Peeta, her
partner and co-winner in the first Games, was captured. There is an ongoing war now between Panem
(the country of the rebels) and the Capital.
The people who escaped and defected from the Capital have gone
underground, literally, way, way underground, like in an inverted hi-rise
building, in a maze of highly technical, well-lighted “cities” or enclaves,
which are reached by banks of descending elevators. Everything is dimly lit, the color palette-
dull greys, browns, and black- even clothing, mainly jumpsuits, which most everyone
seems to prefer.
Capital
President Snow (Donald Sutherland), had fabricated a food and water shortage under
the guise of population control, which, of course does not affect the rich
(call them the 1 percenters),but kills
thousands of 99%ers. Snow seeks revenge when the accidental hero, Katniss, who bends
rules to the delight of the wealthy viewers, totally destroyed the President’s
and the rich’s Survivor-like
super-popular reality TV show, Hunger Games with a well-aimed arrow (the end of
Catching Fire. That act reminded me of when Toto pulled
the veil revealing the sham Wizard.) So
he retaliates by bombing cities and districts, killing, wounding and
disappearing the people of Panem. He tries
to quash the ongoing, violent, armed protest.
Katniss meets
the president of Panem, Alma Coin (Julianne Moore, in Democracy Now's Amy Goodman hair style) and her advisor, Plutarch (the
late Phillip Seymour Hoffman) Coin wants
her to start a revolution. Katniss only
wants to rescue Peeta. A trip to District
12, her home, destroyed by the Capital, changes her mind. It looks as bombed out as current news clips
show of cities in Palestine, Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. She finds herself walking through an entire
area strewn with human skulls, skeletons, like the scene from the film The Killing Fields. In her
miraculously spared home, she finds a white rose bud, a symbol for Peeta. (Through Lawrence’s acting, she allows us to
experience her emotions.) It’s a
propaganda war, much like the one conjured up in Wag the Dog, with Katniss as the secret weapon. As an Entertainment Weekly writer put it, “a
Che Guevara T-shirt made flesh.”
Snow makes
a phony, echoing speech on huge outdoor screens, promising order and security. The
people are the “beating heart of Panem,” he intones. Anyone who threatens this will be executed on
the spot. Distressing examples are
graphically depicted. As in many hostage
situations, some of the captured are “turned,” as is Peeta. He broadcasts from the Capital, advising
Katniss to “Stop the killing and cease fire.”
Plutarch works on the propaganda film. Katniss agrees to play along- with conditions. Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks) who had worn
the most outrageous wigs, colorful costumes and makeup in the previous Hunger Games films, is relegated to
charcoal grey jumpsuits. She vows to
make Katniss the “best-dressed rebel in history.” Katniss must put fire into propaganda
speeches to rally passive Panem citizens.
So Plutarch, with the now-sober Haymitch (Woody Harrelson), films her in
the midst of a real battle with bombs going off, buildings burning, and
aircraft streaming overhead. She
delivers a passionate, fiery, rallying speech.
During one harrowing scene, Plutarch says, to the cameramen, Castor and
Pollux, “Make sure you get that on camera.”
At one
point, Director Lawrence includes a telling scene relevant to any film about
war- a morgue/hospital situated in a cavern-like space teeming with the wounded
and dying. A doctor tells Katniss, “Just
let them see your face.” When they see their
rebel leader, those who can stand and salute her in solidarity. President Snow views the hospital by remote
camera and orders it bombed. As a
devastating scene unfolds, Katniss, via the same camera, delivers a warning to
Snow, while the citizens from every district cheer. The rebel army, watching, shouts the military
“Hoo Rah!”
Thankfully, we’re
relieved from the claustrophobic underground and bleak war zones by a quiet,
bucolic scene above ground with Katniss and Gale (Liam Hemsworth), near a
river. Later, there’s another by a
lake. It’s quiet. One can hear a Mockingjay singing. Katniss creates a ballad which becomes the
rebel propaganda song. Peeta, on
TV, now gaunt, sickly, and shaky-voiced, implores Katniss to stop the war. Gale confronts him, on video (like Skype),
describes to Peeta in an impassioned delivery what the Capital did to his
district, to his family. “Stay with
Gale,“ director Plutarch tells the cameraman.
One way to cripple your enemy is to destroy
its power grid, which invites retaliation big time. The citizens of Panem are warned. Bombs penetrate down, close to their living
quarters, which freaks out the usually controlled Plutarch. Later, we are shown an aerial shot of the
damage. Among the rubble, Katniss discovers
symbolic messages from Peeta that she reads as Snow’s intention to kill him. Wheelchair-bound
tech wiz Beetee (Jeffrey Wright) had hacked into the capital’s computers to
find him. Peeta had been brainwashed- as
was done to Laurence Harvey in The Manchurian
Candidate- to kill Katniss. A crazed Katniss hustles through the labyrinth
of underground passageways looking for Peeta. Part One of Mockingjay ends when Katniss finds him- the once sweet, gentle guy is in
a locked ward, gaunt and
disheveled. Through a sound-proof window she watches her soul mate thrash violently against restraints, soundlessly
screaming.
As Chris
Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly
wrote: “Director Francis Lawrence and his writers deserve some credit for
daring to sneak any political cheekiness into a movie this corporate,” yet went on to say that their hands are tied too
tightly. We must wait a year to see the
if indeed the revolution is televised in The Hunger Games, Mockingjay, Part
Two.
*Michael Shreiber, editor, Socialist Action News
An edited version of this review can be read at www,socialistaction.org
