Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Mocking Our Society

While I am looking forward to the upcoming release of The Hunger Games: Mockingly Part 1 as most of American teens, the new trailer is overcompensating. While trailers are supposed to be representative of the movie and grab the viewers attention, it can be overwhelming. I think that this constant focus on the action and heroism takes a movie which is already unrealistic and deemphasizes the motifs which reveal truth. The trailer consists of constant cuts to battles, dramatic conversations, tension, and heroic statements. While they are supposed to be fighting a rebellion, a person has moments of weakness, fear, and selfishness in stressful situations, it is simply natural. The heroism would not be consistent if it were a true situation. Although the trailer does not advertise the underlying true motifs of war which the book expresses, the material from the series can be used to reflect upon american society.

The whole premise of this series is mocking US society today. The separation of districts is a parody of our class system and corruption of government. The government throughout the Hunger Games series is trying to squash the rebellion and ignore the issues of lower-class citizens. This is supposed to reflect on our society. The most extreme parody involved in the series is the idea of sending children to fight and die inside a dome for entertainment and "reminder" of the war. A reflection of reality television shows, the games is a radical version but may have truth, for the purpose of "entertainment" much of our television programs are shows in which the participants endure emotional stress and lies created by producers to increase ratings. Most "reality" shows are not even reality, the majority of content which makes it into the final product is a reproduction of something that did not go quite right or something completely staged to enhance the show. Our society is manipulating people's lives for the sake of entertainment, lives are meant to be natural not something that can be manufactured.


2 comments:

  1. I really enjoyed this post because I agree completely in the sense that the majority of what is on TV is completely staged and fake. this has blinded the people who watch it and made them think they have to live their lives like the manufactured lives they see on TV.

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  2. I agree, particularly with the word choice of "overcompensating." While it's true that visual effects and battle scenes are more effective in movies, ones such as this, in my opinion, take it beyond merely gratuitous levels. Whether or not you believe they accomplished it, the Hunger Games book series attempted to be a critical and satirical analysis of society. These movies have put so much emphasis on cliched action scenes that they shift the entire thing from a critique of flawed society, to a list of examples.

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