Review: The Hunger Games

Although I'm only a fifth of the way through the book (which is a page turner), I saw The Hunger Games this morning. My 14-year-old really wanted to go, so I thought, why not, I could use the break. But the first showing was at 12:00 a.m.! What was I thinking? Especially since I came home at 3am to a wife who'd been up since we left the house taking care of one sick child and trying to get the toddler back to sleep, which meant that I then got to take over and essentially sacrifice most of what little of the morning was left for sleep.

However, the sacrifice of sleep was well worth it. This is just a very well done movie, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Entertaining, compelling, and filled with characters that make you care (just like the book).

One thing I appreciated about The Hunger Games the most is the innocence of what little romance there is in it. No one's jumping each other's bones, which, you know, I understand is a little hard to do when someone is hunting you. I get that. However, this is Hollywood we're talking here, and who would it past them? Would you? I didn't think so.

Also, yes, there is violence and people die, but it's not the now oh-so-typical "Let's give you a lesson in arterial spraying and and blood spatter on faces." Most of the violence and almost all the killing is done off camera. You have to imagine it, which was great because I got it. That is, I didn't have to imagine it if I didn't want to, and I didn't. I understood that this person is dead. Now, show me what else you have for us as your $9.50 + $1 service charge/ticket-paying audience.

If there was one draw back, it was the cinematography. Hated it. The film has lots of unusually tight, quick shots. My brain would be trying to focus in on this, that, or the other element, and I couldn't, because just as I had just about done it, vfffffft! Off to another angle we flew.

Right now, if the Oscars for this year were held today, I'd give it one for best script adaptation, another for set design, and a third for best lead actress (for the look of "I'm a caged animal" fear that is in her eyes as she's put into the arena if for nothing else, but there's a whole lot else there).

And if there was an Oscar for best cinematic depiction of what community, love, and the dignity of the human person are really all about, I'd give it one for that, too. In a more sane world, maybe we would have such an award. Hmmmm.

If the Razzies were held today ... Yep, cinematography. (But you got that already, didn't you?)

It's a great film worth seeing whenever or whereever you can (legally, mind you ... I'm not encouraging piracy, which is unjust and therefore wrong).

A cultural illustration on the seductiveness of evil

Sometimes when we read Scripture or have some religious belief proposed to us, we might find it hard to understand. This is especially true if we have not thought about or studied the issue in any great detail. That's why I love, for lack of a better term, cultural devices. Movies, books, songs, TV shows, they all can provide, often unintentionally, the most abject lessons on the truths taught by our holy faith.

What brings this to mind now is a conversation I had with a friend about Theology of the Body, which both of us love. In fact this friend and I met because I used to sell TOB products, and she was one of my customers.

She is preparing to give an age-appropriate retreat on TOB to her parish's middle schoolers, and she wanted my input. I suggested using lots of stories, and I gave her the example of a scene from the 1999 film Felicia's Journey starring Bob Hoskins (why that man didn't win an Academy Award for that performance, I don't know, but his performance is chilling).

So dumbfounding and, more importantly, so illustrative is this scene, I thought it worthwhile to share it with you.

Here's the context for the scene. Hilditch is the serial killer played by Hoskins. Ada is his late wife. Felicia is an Irish lass impregnated by her boyfriend Johnny. Abortion is illegal in Ireland. If girls want an abortion, they must travel to England to obtain one. Felicia doesn't want an abortion, though. She just wants to find Johnny, have their baby, and begin their lives together. In the scene, Felicia and Hilditch are having dinner in his house (he, seemingly a gentle, kind man, has given her a place to stay until she gets on her feet). She has just told him she thinks she'll be moving on so she can look for Johnny elsewhere. This alarms Hilditch.

Hilditch: Well there's no doubt that Johnny loves you, dear. Nothing you said to me contradicts that. Now, the point I'm trying to make to you is, a situation like you and Johnny and it, can all too easily be affected by misfortune. Ada said that, Felicia. Ada had a considerable insight into matters of the heart. The thing is Felicia, you're over here now. This isn't Ireland. And we have -- certain facilities available. What I'm saying to you is what I'd say to any daughter Ada and myself might have had. We're giving you the benefit of long experience. There isn't a doubt in my mind, Felicia. I thought of nothing else since I rested poor Ada in the ground.

Felicia: Some would call it murder.

Hilditch: Murder? We're not in this world to cause pain, dear. Of course you have to think of yourself on occasion. I'm not saying you don't. But there are other people, too. Which is something you're daily more aware of as you grow older.

Felicia: What are you talking about?

Hilditch: I want you to know when you've been through it, Felicia. But so has your dad. And your great-gran. Imagine them -- trying to hold their heads up. There's that to think about, too. We all have to do terrible things, Felicia. We have to find the courage sometimes. And you're a young girl. When you find Johnny again you can both make the choice to have a child. But the circumstances have to be right. A child needs to be surrounded by all the love it can. The love of the mother -- of course you have that. But the love of the father ... and the grandfather ... and the great-great grandmother. Why deprive this baby of that? I put by a little that I'd gladly donate in order to do the decent thing by your family.

Isn't that just the most demonic, chilling thing you've ever read? And yet it's the rhetoric of pro-"choice," isn't it? It's phenomenal. My friend agreed with my assessment, but applied it only to the 5th Commandment, "Thou shall not murder/kill" (commentator Dennis Prager says the Hebrew in the commandment is not as simple as "kill," that the context is more like "murder").

This scene goes beyond the 5th Commandment, though, doesn't it? Isn't it simply a modern-day updating of the discussion we see between the adversary and Eve in the Garden (see Genesis 3)? "'Did God say you would die? You will not die. You will be as gods. ... And so she took of the fruit and ate it."

It's the lie, the seductive, appealing, "no worries, no remorse" lie that has caused the fall of so many since the dawn of time. It allows us to deceive ourselves that something wholly evil is all right in just this one instance. We can say with great bravado but little certainty, "Aye, this is good. It is evil for others, but not for me." And from this wretched womb is born so much misery.

Is there a solution? Yes, and its most basic level, we find it in the Act of Faith:

O my God, I firmly believe that You are one God in three divine persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I believe that Your divine Son became man and died for our sins, and that He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe these and all the truths which the holy catholic Church teaches, because You have revealed them, Who can neither deceive nor be deceived.

This isn't asking anyone to be a mindless automoton. Indeed, it requires great thinking and formation on our parts, precisely because the lies of the age are so exceedingly seductive. But if I'm walking a path for the first time and someone who has walked that path their whole life tells me, "At the fork where you see the waterfall, under no experience take the left fork. It will spell your doom," I'm listening to that person. I don't need to say, "Oh, that's just an old, patriarchal male (or whoever) trying to spoil my fun" or "Hmmmm, that may be true, but I have to experience this for myself and make my own judgment." Absolutely not. I'm listening, because I know I'll be happier in the end. If the person is wrong, what do I really lose? Anything? If the person is right ... and as long as I'm convinced of their good will and wanting the best for me, and thus have no reason to doubt them ... then I have everything to gain, no?

Anyway, don't fall for the lie. Easier said than done sometimes, I know, but always keep your vigilance. As 1 Peter 5:8 says, "Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour." Don't let that someone be you.