I had Suzanne Collins’ novel fresh in my mind when I put The Hunger Games into the player. I could remember the key phrases and actions that signified the end of the first two acts in the novel as well as several more events that happened within each of the sections. I had watched the film adaptation before but did not care for it at the time, largely due to not finding the characters and world all that compelling and I will say upfront that I did get more out of the film this time having read the novel. Maybe it’s because there’s more action in this film than in The Giver that I was able to follow it better, though I don’t think calling The Hunger Games an action movie is apt.
With the book at my side to glance at the aforementioned key moments, the first I caught was when we see the odds certainly not being in Prim’s favor as her name is drawn from the pot, “…and reads out the name in a clear voice. And it’s not me. It’s Primrose Everdeen.” (20) That’s at the end of the first chapter, and we are roughly ten minutes into a two-hour film.
Up to that moment, we’ve seen snippets of life at the Everdeen residence and District 12 as a whole though viewers coming in cold are perhaps not given as much information as they would want. Though they could be mentioned regularly in the prose, characters like Gale seem reduced to bit roles due to having the action shown to us rather than told to us. While the lack of background could be a problem, I found the pacing to be solid at the start.
The next hour of the film takes us from Katniss volunteering as tribute to Peeta’s name being drawn to the two making the trip to the Capitol all the way to their interviews. The next landmark I watched for was Peeta’s interview when he makes a bit of a spectacle by revealing his romantic feelings for Katniss, “Peeta blushes beet red and stammers out. “Because… because… she came here with me”” (130). That’s the end of the first section in the prose, and we are roughly at the halfway mark in the film’s running time.
One might think that the film could be lagging at this point and lead to some excessive cuts, but given what is to come, I think we’re at a good position in relation to the prose. From a filmmaking standpoint, we’ve had our first act where we are introduced to our characters and the world they live in. We know of a goal they have in mind and an idea of what they have to do to accomplish said goal. The second act, and second section of the book, can certainly be considered the Hunger Games proper.
Chapter 11 is where we see the tributes being taken to the arena where their struggle will commence. We are a little over halfway into the film at this point, and here’s why I think we’re at the right point. For a considerable portion of the second act in the prose, Katniss is on her own and she gives us vivid descriptions of the violence around her as well as giving us the insight into the physical and psychological agony she is going through, “As the day wears on, I know I’m headed for trouble. What little urine I’ve been able to pass is a dark brown, my head is aching, and there’s a dry patch on my tongue that refuses to moisten”. (165)
The accounts she give can invoke dread and anxiety in the reader, so one has to wonder how a similar feeling can be transmitted through film. Maybe it’s wanting to preserve idealistic images of actresses like Jennifer Lawrence to be empowering, but I never really got that Katniss on screen went through quite as much as Katniss in print.
Now she does eventually get caught in the middle of a deadly blaze and take a pretty gruesome injury before being cornered by the tributes in an alliance, but again her visage never gets too rugged. The tense, wince-inducing scene with the tracker jackers was my next mark, “Fortunately, only these three tracker jackers had identified me before the next went down. The rest of the insects have targeted their enemies on the ground” (190). Once the gang of tributes is driven off and Katniss is able to salvage the bow and arrows, an all-too short moment of triumph before the venom overwhelms her, we’re just about in the last third of the film. Prime time for the final act to begin.
Though we’re not quite there yet. After that, the next mark I watched for was the destruction of the other tributes’ cache, “For a moment, everything seems frozen in time. Then the apples spill to the ground and I’m blown backward into the air”. (220) With special effects technology in 2012 when the film was made, the string of explosions can be made to give the audience a clear view of the destruction and the sound editing can place us right at ground zero.
Though the hearing difficulties that plague Katniss in print are not there as long in the film. Again this is an all-too short-lived triumph as Rue is killed moments later and Katniss is forced to directly take a life for the first time. Two events that certainly give us a solid depiction of the grief of our protagonist onscreen. Then shortly after we are told of the rule change that will allow two tributes from the same district to win, and we are now certainly in the final act of each work.
I would say the climax of the story is after the mutated beasts chase Katniss and Peeta to the Cornucopia where they are forced into a showdown with the final remaining tribute Cato. The struggle plays out and ends similarly in the film, though Cato’s suffering goes on for quite a bit longer, “The cold would be torture enough, but the real nightmare is listening to Cato, moaning, begging, and finally just whimpering as the mutts work away at him” (338). In the film, Katniss ends Cato’s misery with an arrow almost right as the mutts start to tear the fellow to shreds. I understand in print you can much more time to let the reader wind down from the action, but onscreen you may have only a few minutes left. Any other resolution takes precedence above drawing out harrowing details.
The emotions of our characters in triumph has to be shown in a convincing way just as it has to be told convincingly on the page. In print, you have to tell because you can’t show.
Through film, you could tell the audience what they have to know, or you could just show it to them. Personal tastes can come into play here, do you want to read several pages that describe the physical burden of being in a forest with every other human there out for blood or do you want to see the violence be depicted in an effectively realistic manner? I would say I enjoyed the book and film equally due to my agreements with its pacing. If plot points have to be cut out, they should be minor bits that don’t really connect to the larger narrative.
Instead of pages of descriptions, show the audience vivid images that may reinforce what they have already imagined. The Hunger Games has proven to be very successful at the box office and mostly successful with critics and audiences. I’ve yet to read the latter two books, but after reading and understanding this first story a little better, I may just do that. Being able to have more films to look at from this same viewpoint can’t hurt either.
