Satire in Movies - Part V - "The Hunger Games - Catching Fire"

Satire and Sci-Fi are two genres that often intertwine. Books such as 1984, Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451 are often referred to as satires, for example, even though they are more commonly known as science fiction novels or dystopian literature. The Hunger Games-trilogy is a more "modern" science fiction series, which is currently being made into movies (the second movie, Catching Fire premiered in November). The movies, and books, are set in a future society where the United States has been made into a dictatorship named Panem where 12 "districts" slave under the rule of a despotic president, President Snow, and his "capital." The main character, Katniss Everdeen, is from the poorest of the 12 districts, District 12. In the first movie/book she is forced to take part in Panem's annual "Hunger Games," which is a television series where one girl and one boy from each district are chosen to go into an arena and kill each other until only one "victor" remains. This in itself can be seen as satire of our contemporary society, where almost everything is shown on TV for entertainment. The fact that the country is called Panem, derived from the latin panem et circenses (bread and circuses) also suggests that the trilogy is satire of how people can ignore atrocities happening around them if they are entertained and have food (the whole society is basically built on this premise).

In the newest movie, Catching Fire, there are many examples of satire. In this movie, Katniss and Peeta (who were both declared victors of the Hunger Games in the first book) are forced to go on a victory tour through all twelve districts. After many plot twists they are then, once more, forced into the Hunger Games arena (I am not going to go into the particulars of how this happened). One of the clearest examples of satire in the movie can be seen in the scene were Katniss and Peeta are attending a party thrown by President Snow in their honor. Peeta declares that he is too full to eat anything more. He is then asked if he wants to drink some sort of liquid that other people attending the party say will make him throw up what he has eaten so that he can eat more ("How can you otherwise taste everything?" they ask). Peeta declines and asks Katniss is she wants to dance, and on the dance floor when they are alone he says "People in the districts are starving and here they are making themselves sick so that they can eat more." This can in many ways be seen as satire our contemporary society. Perhaps, people in rich countries today do not commonly take drugs to throw up food, but in a society where 15% are starving and 20% obese, this scene still has to be regarded as something that we can learn from.