Having read the entire Hunger Games trilogy last year, I was ever so eager to see the film. It came out in Lent so we were saving it for our Bright Week treat. But when we got there, the theatre had technical difficulties, so we had to find another time in our over-full schedule to view it, and at long last we got there last night. It was everything I hoped, one of the best movie adaptations of a book I've ever seen-- and of a book that was exceptionally good to begin with.
We were discussing it around the fire afterward and enthusing about the character of Peeta.
I've written in this blog about several literary characters who are heroic and even chivalrous-- Reepicheep is perhaps the best of all-- but I am really thrilled with author Suzanne Collins for giving us Peeta, the boy with the bread as a-- dare I say it-- role model for young men today. A role model who shows us that chivalry is not dead yet.
When Katniss is suffering severe hunger, collapsed in the rain behind the bakery owned by Peeta's family, he comes out to give some burnt bread to the pigs, and seeing her there he throws one of the loaves her way. The book expands on this incident, and we know that not only did he give her the bread; in order to help Katniss, he
deliberately burned the bread in the first place so his mother would make him throw it out. He did this even though he knew very well she would beat and scold him for burning the loaves.
Katniss herself is certainly no spoiled princess-- and she too shows her sterling character from the start of the story, first risking herself regularly to hunt and provide for her family, then stepping forward to take her little sister's place in the arena.
At the end of the movie, of course, the rules of the horrific
Survivor-like Hunger Games are switched on them, and the promise that two might be victors together is snatched away from them. Of course Peeta instantly offers himself up so Katniss may survive. And Katniss of course finds a way out, forcing the gamemakers to to allow them both to live.
Amid all this heroism there is one small detail in the film version that to me particularly spells 'chivalry'. Peeta lies in danger of death, and starts talking to Katniss about the incident with the bread. "I should have just given it to you!" he laments. The boy with the bread took a beating to help her, but now as he looks back on what is likely his rather short life, he can only think he should have done what he did
in a better way. 
Chivalry is never just satisfied with a right thing. It strives to do the rightest thing that can be done, in the rightest way it can find to do it.
Here on
A Spell for Refreshment, I try to focus largely on the positive side of things, the side of light and refreshment, though I have talked in some posts about how this doesn't mean spiritually refreshing stories shy away from the darkness and ugliness in the world. But the cliche about lighting one candle rather than cursing the darkness certainly applies. So when I was reading some articles about how a depressing percentage of young people in our society are
"more confident, assertive, entitled-- and more miserable than ever", it threw Peeta
Lionsgate has released another clip from The Hunger Games film adaptation. The clip (embedded above) features Caesar Flickerman (played by Stanley Tucci) and Peeta Mellark (played by Josh Hutcherson). Most of the original dialogue from the book made it to this scene.
In an interview with MTV, Hunger Games star Jennifer Lawrence noted: “During filming, I really liked everything what I was seeing. I liked everything that Gary was doing. Then I saw it, and it was all there. It’s always hard for me watching because I think I am a horrible troll and I’ll never work again. Overall, I think everybody else in the movie is fantastic, and I think the film itself is really good.”
The film has also spawned two video games, and author Suzanne Collins consulted on both projects. The Hunger Games Adventures will be available on Facebook; you can sign up to try out the beta version. Hunger Games: Girl on Fire will be available as an iOS (Apple tablet products) game app.
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The first full trailer for The Hunger Games film debuted on Good Morning America in New York City’s Times Square today. We’ve embedded the video above. More than three thousand Facebook fans have hit “like” on the announcement.
What do you think? The trailer offers glimpses of several major events in the story. Judging from this short clip as well as the teaser released three months ago, it seems that the movie will be faithful to the original novel (author Suzanne Collins played a major role in adapting her book).
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As fangirls prepare to dress up in their Katniss Everdeen costumes for Halloween, a Hunger Games spoof will be published on November 15th. The video embedded above features the book trailer for The Hunger But Mainly Death Games–what do you think?
Curious readers can access the first chapter on Scribd. Here’s more about the book: “[This is] the only book brave enough to suggest that The Hunger Games was way more about death than food. Or at least this is what Bratniss Everclean discovers, when she shortsightedly volunteers for a teenage death tournament. But she soon realizes there are fates worse than death…like having to kiss her fellow competitor and lifelong stalker, Pita Malarkey.”
On Amazon, “Bratniss Everclean” is listed as the author, but the cover image lists Aaron Geary and John Bailey Owen as the authors. According to Amazon, Harvard Lampoon will publish another spoof in 2012, The Hunger Pains.
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