I saw the movie, without reading the book.
I found it interesting, but disturbing.
Also I kept thinking “ after 4 more years of Obama” !!
Ah yes, this movie is a trailer of a Godless eternal hell.
I kept thinking “This is the result of CWII, if the statists win.”
The Games are the collective punishment for rebellion that lost out to tyranny. The two Districts that are filled w/Capitol supporters (1&2), have special elite schools where selected youths (Careers) are trained intensely to win the Games and most winners for 74 years have been from these Districts. Even wilderness survival is officially denied to the Districts, with their Agenda 21-type barriers intended to keep the subjects from hunting, gathering or escaping. Katniss and Gale are essential revolutionaries, just for crossing the Barrier to find food. By doing so, they also find self-sufficiency.
I saw it as Statists vs. Individualists. The Donald Sutherland character is chilling when he states that “hope controls better than fear.” (paraphrase). That is why they have a winner, instead of just reaping 24 young people every year and putting them to immediate death.
Who owns us? Ourselves or the State? Katniss owns herself. She forces the State to expose itself, because if both tributes die and there is no winner, everyone is forced to realize there is no hope. She manages to manipulate the manipulators which is why she becomes a heroine.
Today, our youth knows which ideology is represented by Big Government. That they are so taken with this book series is encouraging. The Statists may try to spin the politics as 1% vs. 99%, in the cliched tropes of Ocuupy, but the 1% is not corporate at all. Notice that there was no commercial advertising for the televised Games. Viewing was also compulsory. The entire exercise was one huge advertisement for the power of the State.