Why The Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen Played By Jennifer Lawrence is Empowering To Females11/24/2015 The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, the final film in the franchise based on Suzanne Collins’ massively successful YA novel trilogy. The film’s conclusion features a long-awaited showdown between President Snow (Donald Sutherland) and Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) as she launches a revolution in the nation of Panem. There are many ways in which the Hunger Games series of movies has been groundbreaking. It has given us a female world-changing heroine in the mold of the countless boys and men Hollywood has cast in such a role, and showed the caricature up by depicting her as more human than most of them: more conflicted, more unsure, more afraid yet also more brave for overcoming all that… and also simultaneously more principled and more selfish. Katniss Everdeen has never been about some romantic, idealistic notion of heroism; she has always been about protecting the people she loves. She has always been fully, plausibly human. The series has given us a look at a world in which women are presumed to be as capable and as effortlessly authoritative as men: one scene here has a rebel commander giving a rallying speech to her discouraged army about to go up against the oppressive Capitol… and it is absolutely thrilling to see a black woman (she’s played by Patina Miller) speak with unquestioned power and persuasion to masses of people of every gender and color. The films have delved deep into the potent influence of propaganda, even when you’re aware of the attempt to sway you. Oh, and another way in which Katniss’s hero story differs from the typical dude’s? She does not get a simple reward of a handsome trophy to walk off into the sunset with, like so many male heroes “get the girl.” The series has mined a lot of tension out of how Katniss is torn between Peeta — whom she only pretended to love in their first Hunger Games as a, well, propagandistic ploy, but whom she clearly now feels something real toward — and her oldest and dearest friend, now fellow soldier Gale (Liam Hemsworth: Paranoia, The Expendables 2). There is nothing simple or trophy-ing about how this triangle resolves itself. There are real stakes here for Katniss, and very high prices she has to pay before the rebellion she accidentally started is finally finished. And it’s the impact on Katniss that lingers most here.
But what’s most breathtaking about this series finale is how it doesn’t just deprive the fans of some of what might have been expected. It utterly rubs our noses in our expectations and our desires. More than just a simple story of a heroic young woman uniting the masses against a tyrannical government, The Hunger Games is as a whole a blistering deconstruction of the “Chosen One” myth both in popular culture and it current events. In the end, Katniss Everdeen is a media-fabricated hero, both regarding our real-world hunger for a female movie action hero who can spar with the likes of Iron Man or Neo and regarding what her fictional role in this fictional story might be. Jennifer Lawrence is fantastic per usual, and I hope she eventually gets more credit for these performances as opposed to merely being “those blockbuster movies” she did in between David O. Russell dramas.
8 Comments
Jessica
11/24/2015 11:21:06 pm
I love your blogs. Always looking forward to new ones.There are so critically written
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Filan
11/25/2015 12:16:50 am
Same here. Really remarkable content on this site. I come for the movie news, but stay for the blog
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Jake
11/26/2015 11:17:13 pm
My sentiments exactly
Sarah
11/27/2015 06:48:12 am
He offers great movie blog. But he apparently late again
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Mekhili
11/27/2015 08:49:09 am
Sarah, what are you talking about?
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KB(admin)
11/28/2015 01:08:34 pm
Hey Sarah, how are you? I apologize for the late blogs. Sometimes the blog are scheduled to release on a Sunday but instead are released on Monday or tuesday due to some issues with the Time Zone and host that has recently been currently resolved. So expect them to be more consistent with the arranged Sunday I hope u continue enjoying the blogs and give your comments. Enjoy your day
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Sarah
11/29/2015 09:16:29 pm
No worries, I just always look forward to your blogs, so I anticipate what you have to say in relation to any movie trending. I wanted to know what you think about the film creed.
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