Latest Games satisfies hunger for a hero
In Mockingjay - Part 1 Katniss confronts another moral dilemma with doubt and humanity
The people, united, will never be defeated — unless, of course, they’re living in a world governed by fear, envy, greed and perpetual backstabbing in the name of personal ambition and progress.
Ego kills revolutions faster than tear gas and riot squads because it’s about “me,” not “we.”
And it’s here, in this reflection of our current reality, that we rejoin Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) on her trail-blazing odyssey of liberation.
After another successful turn in the Hunger Games — an annual spectacle of survivalist skills designed to distract, entertain and appease the blood lust of a mentally enslaved population — Katniss has been recruited to join the ranks of District 13, a dissenting rebel group living underground.
Led by Alma Coin ( Julianne Moore), the people of District 13 are ready to rise up against President Snow (Donald Sutherland), but they will be wiped out if they go it alone.
All the districts need to join forces if they are going to topple the power elite living in The Capitol, but everyone is too afraid to stick out their necks.
The government has kill squads roaming the post-apocalyptic landscape in search of traitors. When the people of District 12, Katniss’s homeland, defied the power, they faced a holocaust.
Fear and personal self-interest have become the hidden enemies, which is why Coin sees Katniss as humanity’s last hope. Katniss has celebrity status, but she’s also become a hero to the people because she used her intelligence and imagination to remain moral in a situation designed to strip her, and her competitors, of their humanity.
Katniss chose self-sacrifice over executing another, which makes her a Christ-like figure in this universe filled with references to everything from the Bible and ancient Rome to the Third Reich.
Mockingjay – Part 1 is akin to tracts of Matthew that show Jesus on his lonely walk through the desert, pondering his true purpose — only with way more eye candy.
Coin wants Katniss to be the face of the rebellion, knowing she can inspire the masses and lead them into the fight, but Katniss is reluctant. Her friend Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) is being used as a PR pawn against her. Katniss has to decide whether to lead the rebels in a bloody revolution or bow down quietly and submit to an amoral power.
Such titanic themes can be awkward to steer through the narrow channels of Hollywood escapism, but director Francis Lawrence does a deft job driving this behemoth of a franchise because he lets his charismatic star show every trace of weakness, every moment of doubt and every shred of fear that makes Katniss such a compelling character.
Her humanity defines her heroism and sets her apart from the spectacle-obsessed status quo. She is real, and Lawrence makes us believe in her authenticity.
Mockingjay is by far the bleakest of the movies so far. Yet this first part of the last book in the Suzanne Collins series may also be the most potent. Also the most prescient, since it forces us to look at how fundamental belief systems are created, enforced and inflicted on individuals using the tricks and tools of mass media.
Katniss, in her catlike way, is a free thinker who has to find her own path. By watching her explore the outer edges of accepted thought, we learn to dial down the fear of change and each other so we may do the same.