Women on Fire

In the times of Hannah Montana (Miley Cyrus) twerking with her tongue out in one of the saddest displays of sexploitation ever, it’s a great relief to have Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), the strong, and humane gladiator enthralling young girls in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. The movie is very entertaining, but above all it is a movie worth having younger audiences see, boys and girls alike, as a way to counteract what sometimes feels like a retro-sexist fad in our culture these days.

Catching Fire is based on the second book in Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games trilogy, directed at tweens and teens. The novels are wonderfully well written and, unlike the Twilight books, they are not about the romance between Katniss, Peta and Gale, but rather about loss, death and violence in a society controlled by the wealthy (Panem – District 1%) at the expense of the rest of the enslaved, starving districts. It is about power, rebellion, and a future where technology and media dehumanize, intensifying and extending what is really not much more than the Roman gladiators of ancient times, where the poor or persecuted were the entertainment of the empire.

As Suzanne Collins says in an interview:

“The Hunger Games is a reality television program. An extreme one, but that's what it is. And while I think some of those shows can succeed on different levels, there's also the voyeuristic thrill, watching people being humiliated or brought to tears or suffering physically. And that's what I find very disturbing. There's this potential for desensitizing the audience so that when they see real tragedy playing out on the news, it doesn't have the impact it should. It all just blurs into one program. And I think it's very important not just for young people, but for adults to make sure they're making the distinction. Because the young soldier's dying in the war in Iraq, it's not going to end at the commercial break. It's not something fabricated, it's not a game. It's your life.”

Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Banks and Jennifer Lawrence in Catching Fire

Catching Fire is true to the book, which is a merit, though it does leave those that haven’t read the trilogy feeling that it is too inconclusive. Those of us who have read the three novels –at our daughter’s insistence- can say: wait and see the next movie! It only gets more interesting, especially for science fiction fans. Catching Fire, the movie, does elevate the romance part a bit, but overall it has selected the characters well, in particular Katniss, casting the very impressive young actress that Jennifer Lawrence is in that role. Also, and what is probably its greatest feat, it has been able to recreate the visual strength of the novels, using special effects, costume and set designs to create a futuristic world that, at the same time, we can parallel to the one we’re living in.

It may be that the younger audiences aren’t getting the between the lines that the novel is so full of, but at least it is showing female actors on the screen on fire about something that isn’t just catching a guy or worried about whether they’re too fat, thin or sexy (to catch a guy), or fading into wallpaper roles to a strong male lead.

Diana Rigg as Emma Peel in The Avengers

I was trying to remember what strong, intelligent, compassionate and rebellious woman role model I saw on the screen when I was a tween way back when and I can’t remember one until Ridley Scott brought Ripley to the screen to fight the Alien.  Before that there was maybe Emma Peel (the great Diana Rigg), the one who actually did the fighting in the British TV show The Avengers (1961-69). Today there are more strong female characters on television (yet still too many of the other kind), but on the big screen they are still sadly lacking. Another reason to celebrate Suzanne Collins and her Hunger Games books, which have fed a population of females starving for roles that will bring them out of their second sex status. Collins’s books have also led to a number of imitations in young reader science fiction, like the Divergent trilogy (Divergent, Insurgent and Allegiant by Veronica Roth), which already has a movie coming out in early 2014. So let the Games continue, and may the odds be ever in their favor!