‘Hunger Games’ Scare You? Blame Bush, Says DVD

MRC.org ^ | Aug. 27, 2012 | Lauren Thompson

[1rudeboy]

America is a totalitarian regime. Or, it was when George W. Bush was president. And maybe it still is. Or something.

As if we needed more proof that blockbuster entertainment needn’t have even a nodding acquaintance with cogent political thought, the people that brought us Suzanne Collins’s “Hunger Games” franchise can’t just quietly take their millions to the bank. They need us to know how unfair their payday is.

“The Hunger Games” DVD was released Aug. 18, and the special features section titled “Game Maker: Suzanne Collins and the Hunger Games Phenomenon” is filled with nuggets of liberal received wisdom about American capitalism and the horrors of life under the Bush regime.

David Levithan, from the publisher Scholastic, commented how “The Hunger Games” was “written in frustration of the Bush era,” and blogger Amanda Belcher feared that although “this book is about horrific events, it’s really not that far-fetched from things that are going on today.”

Levithan really, really wanted to make sure audiences know who the real villain of the story is. “These books were written in the heart of the Bush era. The commentary there is it is written in this last regime. These feelings of disenfranchisement haven’t gone away,” he said.

Don’t recall Bush demanding each state should offer up their children to fight to the death on reality television. Was it around the time he let Ted Kennedy write education “reform,” or when he was expanding the Medicare entitlement?

Actor Donald Sutherland (who plays dictator President Snow), praised the Occupy Wall Street movement, asserting that it’s “absolutely time” for a revolution.

[The Hunger Games] is an allegory of this imperial power, this oligarchy of the multi-rich, this 0.1 percent,” droned, and the actor has shilled for Occupy Wall Street before. Sutherland, of course, is a member of that imperial 1 percent. His net worth is estimated at $40 million. (In fairness, that’s only $39.7 million in Canadian dollars, and Sutherland is from Toronto …)

In the same interview Sutherland said, “[The Hunger Games] so clearly and carefully echoes [today]. I think the people with Occupy Wall Street and Occupy L.A., out of those people will come a leader. It has to. It’s time, it’s absolutely time.” To date, the Occupiers haven’t produced much beyond theme parks for vermin, so Mr. Sutherland seems too optimistic.

In the same vein, Drew McWeeny a senior-reviewer at hitfix.com stated Americans are “living through” the content of “The Hunger Games.”

“Obviously there’s not going to be a revolution in the streets of Panem, but I think there are major changes coming and situations to be addressed. Her [Suzanne Collins] book will continue to resonate over the next few years. It will be fascinating to see how real life and her work parallel over the next couple of years,” McWeeny said.

Here’s looking forward to such incisive commentary in about 10 years when Levithan will remind us that the “The Food Stamp Games” was “written in frustration of the Obama era.”

[Popman]

——In the same interview Sutherland said, “[The Hunger Games] so clearly and carefully echoes [today]. I think the people with Occupy Wall Street and Occupy L.A., out of those people will come a leader. It has to. It’s time, it’s absolutely time.”——

Sutherland must have been smoking some serious weed... If he thinks a “leader” will emerge from the OWS movement...which is almost entirely AstroTurf not grass roots...OWS is paid for and and funded by socialist like Soros and world wide union movements....

There are tools nothing more...

[America_Right]

Wow. Wrong. I came away from the movie and the first two books feeling exactly the opposite. The masses were "feeding" a central, all powerful government. This story is the best warning against big centralized government I have ever read/seen. If their intent was to show that conservatism could lead to this, it didn't work out that way!

By the way, while reading the books, I couldn't figure out why the author called the story "Hunger" Games. Every single page had some reference to food and people eating lots of it. And in the movie, Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence, at any rate) was obviously VERY well fed. She is a very healthy girl.

[dennisw]

This movie is an obvious rip-off of what the Aztecs used to do to their subservient tribes. I won’t be seeing this movie.....With a girl warrior hero? Another example of the feminization of American society

[Lucky9teen]

How much you wanna bet Suzanne Collins thinks Obama is the bestest thing ever to happen to America and is going to save us all from the big bad government that Bush created??

[wm25burke]

>>And here is what it means to be a liberal.

“Marxism represents a further vital and creative stage in the maturing of man’s universal vision. “
—Zbigniew Brzezinski

http://www.amazon.com/Between-Two-Ages-Zbigniew-Brzezinski/dp/0140043144

If you thought this movie was scary - wait until the Brzezinski realty show hits the screen.

[RatsDawg]

Katniss is not a warrior. She is just a girl who happened to be in the right places at the right time, standing up for what she believed in. She is a hunter, and does what she has to do to provide for her fatherless family, (her father was killed). She is an every day average girl, an unlikely heroin out leading the way and taking on the system, no matter how hard the system tries to destroy her, her family and friends, she continues to do what is right. A very Sarah Palin like figure. I don’t really see feminization in it.

[MarkL]

Show your ignorance Drew. It is obvious you did not read books 2 and 3. What an idiot. There IS a revolution and it is lead by the Mockingjay.

Professional critics of "x" are failed producers of "x." I recall the idiot critic that reviews films for Rolling Stone who complained that "how can you have a Harry Potter movie without Hogwarts" when reviewing Deathly Hallows Pt 1. Well, mr smartypants critic, Deathly Hallows Pt 1 happened completely away from Hogwarts, just like the first part of the book!

I used to read movie reviews to decide which movies to see. If certain critics hated the movies, I knew I'd love it.

Mark

[Steel Wolf]

Panem is basically North Korea with gladiator sports and reality TV. It’s nothing less than the nightmare of communism made accessible to every teenager in the country. In that regard, the author has inadvertently provided us a great cultural service.

[ponygirl]

I've heard the movie has done wonders for the sport of bow hunting/shooting. I first learned to shoot when I went to camp at 9 years old. I loved it and continued the sport through college. Would love to get into it again. Never got into those compound bows, though.

The new show "Revolution" will keep up that theme, too. Just watched the pilot of that yesterday. Except I think she uses a crossbow in that.

[BurningOak]

Beyond the politics of this opinion it is just not true. There is virtually no mention of capitalism and corporations when it comes to the evil empire, free enterprise takes place in a black market setting, and the whole thing is basically a Stalinist state. The only critic of American culture here is that of a shallow, entertainment driven society, where people get off watching obscene garbage on TV. A valid critic that conservatives and liberals can agree about.

Criticism of Bush era is simply not there.

[WilliamRobert]

Funny i read these books twice before passing them on to my granddaughters and I thought of the communist democrats not Bush.

I to saw the extras and wondered how these Hollyweird types drew Bush. Then I didn’t have to look to far for the answer they’re liberals and commits and only have a small mental capacity.

Hunger Games is about overcoming tyrant, oppression, and extreme evil. That is what the left is all about.

[dfwgator]

Pure Alinsky, accuse your enemies of being what you are.

[Pontiac]

The new show "Revolution" will keep up that theme, too.

Haven’t heard of that show; When and where please.

[Mad Dawgg]

"'Hunger Games’ Scare You? Blame Bush, Says DVD"

What a pantload of tripe. From Wikipedia:

"Collins has said that the inspiration for The Hunger Games came from channel surfing on television. On one channel she observed people competing on a reality show and on another she saw footage of the invasion of Iraq. The two "began to blur in this very unsettling way" and the idea for the book was formed. The Greek myth of Theseus served as a major basis for the story, with Collins describing Katniss as a futuristic Theseus, and Roman gladiatorial games provided the framework. The sense of loss that Collins developed through her father's service in the Vietnam War also affected the story, with Katniss having lost her father at age 11, five years before the story begins. Collins stated that the deaths of young characters and other "dark passages" were the most difficult parts of the book to write, but that she had accepted that passages such as these were necessary to the story. She considered the moments where Katniss reflects on happier moments in her past to be more enjoyable."

[RatsDawg]

“On one channel she observed people competing on a reality show and on another she saw footage of the invasion of Iraq”

Yup, I was right, that’s how Liberals see the Iraq war, a Reality show where children are chosen to fight till the death.

[netmilsmom]

There are nearly two hours of special features on the release.
The letter from Sutherland and the rest of this are featured in a very small segment. I’d be surprised if anyone made it to this part of the Special Features.

We rolled our eyes and went on to the next segment. For the dummies, this is very significant. For the kids, it’s the bad guy talking, for those with a brain, we wonder how Jack Bauer spawned from those loins.

[GeronL]

I feel like boycotting #2

Suzanne Collins must like the poverty and government in control of our lives if she hates Bush.

Leftists are such hypocrites

[RginTN]

Then liberals would be wrong since we have a voluntary military and in the books the children had no choice but fight. It was the Districts being punished for trying to overthrow the govt.

[RatsDawg]

Nah, a Liberal can’t be wrong! Can they? lol

[RginTN]

Libs must be smoking crack to make those comments. If Collins is a big lefty it was epic stupidity to make the greatest evil big govt!