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.

Satire in Movies - Part IV - "The Joneses"

This will be my second-to-last blog post about satire in movies, so make sure you enjoy it!
 

The Joneses (2009) is a fairly recent satirical movie. It is about a family, the Jones family, which moves into a wealthy neighborhood and immediately claims the position of neighborhood trendsetters. All members of the family are extremely good looking, the husband has an extremely well-paid job and the teenage kids have all the newest gadgets and clothes, quickly making them extremely popular amongst their peers. However, something is not quite alright with the family. In fact, the family isn't a family at all, just four actors who have been paid by a company to sell their lifestyle (the things they wear, the things they like) to rich families in the same neighborhood.

In many ways, this movie is a dark satire of our consumer society. Of course, the movie is an exaggeration of how far this consumer society has come, but it still makes some valid points about our consumer habits. It shows just how much people are ruled by materialistic thinking and beauty. The Jones family has only got a surface, no real depth or feelings or anything that people who are looking for anything else than shallow materialism would want. However, despite this, people are queuing up to know the family and to become like them. The fact that the family's family name is Jones also adds to the satirical effect of the movie. As it is now, people are already trying to keep up with the Joneses; fashions, gossip and information. What I think is most interesting about the movie, though, is that the Jones family eventually ends up victims of the consumer life-style and materialism that they are trying to sell. Is this the movie makers’ way of saying that people who focus too much on consumerism and materialism eventually self-destruct? Or that we, as human beings, are destroying our world through our mass consumption? No matter the case, the movie is extremely interesting and if you want to watch a modern example of satire, I highly recommend it.

Reversed roles in a rape - What was he wearing?

I am going to take a small break from my "Satire in Movies"-posts to discuss a blog post that has got a lot of attention here in Sweden over the past week. The original blog post can be found here (it is in Swedish). The blog post gives reasons for why it is okay to set men on fire. The reasons put forward are very similar to the reasons often put forward to explain and justify why it is okay for men to rape women. I have translated the post below:

"A rape victim goes looking for her attacker and sets him on fire

'Was he wearing a fleece jacket?! Well then it is his own fault, since he was wearing flammable material. He was practically begging for it'

'If he didn't want someone to set fire to him then maybe he should have stayed indoors'

'He was probably drunk too. Drinking alcohol increases the risk of wanting someone to set fire to oneself'

'All women have a natural urge to want to set fire to men. It's just that some women have problems controlling their urges'

'What, did he just stand there in the fire completely paralyzed? If you don't want to be set on fire you have to fight back and show clearly that you don't want to. You have to say no at least 30-40 times'

'Why didn't he stop, go down on the ground and roll around? Everyone knows that you should do that if someone tries to set fire to you. If he didn't roll around on the ground then that must mean that he unconsciously WANTED to be set on fire. Then it is his own fault.'

'The police has got information from witnesses claiming that the man had bought a lighter the same day. It is very likely that he set himself on fire and then lied about it. So damn typical!'

'He should have just relaxed and enjoyed it instead of fighting it. It is, after all, pretty enjoyable to burn a little if you just stop resisting and go along with it. It is over pretty quickly'

'We must start educating young adults about using non-flammable clothing and always carrying fire-extinguishers EVERYWHERE. For their own security!'"

As you can see, this blog post is clearly satirical. It shows the absurdity of trying to blame rape on the victims instead of the perpetrators. By using the satirical technique of reversal, the author is clearly showing how setting fire to men is equally unpardonable as raping women. In the light of the recent acquittals of rapists here in Sweden, I think that this blog post is sadly highly relevant.

 

Satire in Movies - Part III - "Sällskapsresan" (Suntrip)

I hope you have had a good holiday folks! I also hope that it has led you to crave more blog posts about satire (I don't know what kind of vacation would cause you to crave more blog posts about satire, but never mind). Let me go straight back to business.

Here in Sweden, there are a few movies that have become famous due to their ability to (rather) accurately portray Swedish society. One of these movies is Sällskapsresan - Suntrip, a real classic to us Swedes. The movie is about Stig-Helmer, who is what we would call a true "toffel" (someone who is easily pushed around) in Swedish. The movie is set in the late seventies/ early eighties and follows Stig-Helmer as he ventures on his first charter trip ever. The movie satirizes the typical charter travelling Swede to no end. It shows how Swedish people tend to build their own small cities and communities wherever they go, with Swedish coffee, Swedish bread and Swedish alcohol. The characters in the movie stay in a Spanish town called Nueva Estocolmo (New Stockholm for you who don't know Spanish that well), which is just one of many examples of how the makers of the movie satirize this Swedish behavior. Furthermore, the characters Berra and Robban are excellent examples of satire in the movie. They are real parodies of Swedish behavior; throughout their stay in Spain they have only got one thought on their minds: to find a place that sells cheap alcohol. They are truly insufferable; they laugh at things that are not funny, they are almost always drunk and they treat women... well bad (in an exaggerative way, of course). If you speak Swedish, you can see examples of this below:

 

An interesting (and kind of sad) fact about this movie is that many people do not regard it as satire of Swedish vacation habits, but see it as an accurate portrayal of Swedish behavior, at least during the charter era of the seventies and eighties. Of this I cannot say much, since I was not alive back then to see for myself, but I can say that if this is the case then Swedes are much weirder than what I have given them credit for.