Posted on 03/24/2012 4:50:45 PM PDT by Cringing Negativism Network
It seems a box office phenomenon is happening right now.
"The Hunger Games", from previews, seems to be setting all sorts of records this weekend.
Very captivating camera work, and a sort of 'blade runner' sort of theme it would seem.
I’ve had Battle Royale as a Hong Kong DVD import for many years. Even been several years since I last popped the sequel in a DVD player (I like it for the career retrospective trailers more than the movie itself).
A US company translated the Japanese comics into paperbacks again several years ago.
Not everyone waits for the Blu-Ray-3-D-HD edition of things.
At the time of Kill Bill, there were cult film fans in America that recognized one of the actresses from Battle Royale.
And all of it rips off The Most Dangerous Game. Running Man was a ripoff with a game show element too.
But BR and HG both set the victims as high school students who must murder their peers for a home audience.
I haven’t seen the movie, and can’t tell from this short trailer, but I’ll look around for the other ones and check that.
Everyone has their own opinion, but you couldn't be more off the target in the comparison of conservative reaction to Avatar vs. Hunger Games. I have personally seen both films. Avatar was a leftwing, anti-military, enviro crazy piece of vacuous drivel. Hunger Games is a loud warning against the evils of an oppressive dictatorial government that takes all from its subjects to support its decadence and the strength of the individual to resist and provide the spark to rebellion which is simmering just below the surface.
I visited the Capital District (DC) a year ago. There was no recession there, it was like Las Vegas ten years ago. The clubs, restaurants, stores and bars were packed out. It’s just the rest of the country that resembles District 12.
I visited the Capital District (DC) a year ago. There was no recession there, it was like Las Vegas ten years ago. The clubs, restaurants, stores and bars were packed out. It’s just the rest of the country that resembles District 12.
Movies can certainly be analyzed for politics, worldview, etc. but movies are not all contemporary-message-driven. The author's description of how the images emerged, does not constitute an evaluation of the war in Iraq.
On the other hand, a movie that's not a clear-cut partisan propaganda piece, might not be to your taste.
The movie is (clearly) going to become a part of the national landscape.
We should take the opportunity to adopt it, as a conservative message.
It’s not often a movie of national significance arrives which is not overtly hostile to individual freedoms.
Take ownership of the message. Embrace it, and speak that message to liberals, because it’s a rare moment when we’re speaking the same language.
Couch conservative messages into the story, to win over those who share and value freedom.
Big opportunity IMHO.
I saw thee young ladies getting ready to purchase the book yesterday at the store. The clerk and one gal ahead of me started discussing it and the movie. The gal said everyone suggested reading the book before seeing the movie, “Twilight” and she wasn’t disappointed, so was going to do the same with this one.
Oh, good enough for me! Guess I'll have to go back and get it myself.
Agreed. It’s a powerful pro-freedom anti-tyranny message.
Hunger Games is a loud warning against the evils of an oppressive dictatorial government that takes all from its subjects to support its decadence and the strength of the individual to resist and provide the spark to rebellion which is simmering just below the surface.
Nice sentence. But it just as easily could have been written by an Occupier, or a Bolshevik in 1917. There's no doubt this movie is attempting to glorify the notion of rebellion against "the system". But you have to understand that rebellion against the system isn't a uniquely conservative concept. This movie is agitating for revolution, but not the American revolution. This movie is about Rousseau, not Locke. There's a reason they have the hostess of the Games done up as a powdered aristocrat like Marie Antoinette. They want to stir up class anger at the one-percenter chickenhawks who send lower class kids off to be "reaped" -- i.e. sent off to war (this is the analogy at the heart of the movie). They want to show how the one percenters turn the 99% against each another in order to thwart the class solidarity required to defeat the system. Etc.. Clearly a leftist film.
I disagree. If anything it shows the one percenters as the government sucking the people dry, and you can easily see Obama as the laughing, mocking MC (rather than President Snow) and Michelle as the decadent royalty. Go see the movie for yourself and post back after your have.
Yes, it merges the government with the 1% class, because when it was conceived there was a Republican president. To the film's leftist creators the Bush family is the ultimate 1% family, and the Bush administration was an instance of the 1% occupying the White House. So it made sense to intermingle them at the time. However by doing so they have slightly undermined the coherence of their allegory (in that the left generally wants to stoke class anger, not anger against the government per se). But they work hard to overcome this by making sure the government characters also have a strong class identity, to the extent that they have the hostess of the Games done up literally as a powdered aristocrat. They want to make sure every skull full of mush understands that these people are one percenters.
I might get a chance to see The Hunger Games today.
I do, howeer, think dystopias about the horrors of an all-controlling government dictatorship wold be unlikely to advance a pro-communist agenda. But since I haven't seen the movie and probably won't, any further remarks on my part would be superfluous.
Obviously the point of looking at the World Socialist review isn't to gain cultural insight from them. The point is to use World Socialist to see how their side sees the movie. If for instance they were reacting against it, it might me reasonable to think it contains a conservative message. But, as it turns out, they like it, and this tells something too.
The left will gladly use dystopian storytelling to advance their agenda. They did it all through the Bush years with films like V for Vendetta and Children of Men. Hunger Games is part of the same pattern. The key is to understand that the left doesn't fear big brother per se, just right-wing big brother. If you don't get this, you have no hope of understanding the purpose of this film.
I asked the two 13-year-old boys in our home what they thought the overall message of the series was, and they both said that the people wanted to live in freedom and not under a communist-type government. My one son then said, “Mom, it’s like the Obama States, and Obama is President Snow—or would like to be.”
Heh heh. They totally get it.
A lot of movie theaters will sell you tickets online, now. Consider pre-purchasing your tickets. Just there plenty early or you may not sit together.
Yes, your boys totally get it. I liked the idea of Obama cast as Caesar Flickerman, the mocking, insincere, smiling MC, but Obama as the cold stone killer, President Snow, works as well.
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