The Hunger Games (2012)
Directed by Gary Ross
In a dystopian society where the Capitol forces each district to send two young tributes to fight to the death in a televised spectacle, a girl volunteers to take her sister’s place, setting the stage for a struggle of survival and defiance.
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68 films that influenced The Hunger Games
What critics say influenced The Hunger Games
The Richard Connell short story "The Most Dangerous Game," for example, has inspired any number of adaptations, legitimate and otherwise, of its tale of a big-game hunter so bored with taking down regular animals that he sends off human beings to serve as his quarry.
"The Hunger Games" has other things on its mind, namely raw survival, in the vein of "The Most Dangerous Game."
And the finished film, though it combines elements familiar from short stories "The Lottery" and "The Most Dangerous Game," does come off as a lethal "Survivor" or even"American Idol" with deadly weapons.
He might have added The Truman Show (for the TV cameras hidden throughout the forest environment to catch every pursuit and fatality), Oliver Twist (for the children forced by adults into criminal behavior), Romeo and Juliet (for the poison that two lovers plan to take) and, centrally, Richard Connell’s 1924 story “The Most Dangerous Game,” whose scenario of a mad Cossack trapping humans on his Caribbean island and hunting them down like big game has inspired a couple dozen Hollywood films.
“Truman Show’’ and “Wizard of Oz’’ are joined by “Logan’s Run,’’ “The Running Man,’’ “The Most Dangerous Game,’’ “The 10th Victim,’’ “1984,’’ “Big Brother,’’ “Red Dawn,’’ and countless other influences, and there’s an angry online contingent of “Battle Royale’’ fans that want their 2000 drive-in Japanese classic left in peace.
The picture's entire second half is dedicated to the morbid title festivities, and anyone familiar with Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game," 1987's "The Running Man," 2001's "Battle Royale," 2001's "Series 7: The Contenders," or 2007's "…
The questions raised here, regarding the morality of violence as entertainment and the brutality of pitting children against each other, have been addressed before, and to more potent effect, in films like "Series 7: The Contenders" and the shockingly violent Japanese actioner "Battle Royale."
It has the overall foundation of “Battle Royale” (although it is not as intense or adult in nature as this cult favorite).
Harry Potter meets Battle Royale meets Ender's Game?
What sets Collins's books apart from these is the idea of the warriors being average teenagers; but even that twist has already been used in director Kinji Fukasaku's great "Battle Royale" (2000), to which "Hunger Games" has many similarities.
How is it that author Suzanne Collins has no lawsuits pending against her for totally plagiarizing Battle Royale with her The Hunger Games?
When this book was first being developed by Lionsgate, there were the inevitable comparisons to the Japanese film “Battle Royale,” which features a very similar scenario in which an entire class of school children is pitted against one another, fighting to the death on a remote island.
But first you'd have to trace the social and political origins behind the rise of reality TV in the '90s – which is the obvious inspiration for a number of similar films, including " The Truman Show " (1998), "Series 7" (2001), and "The Condemned" (2007).
Running through this futuristic tale, about youths ordered to hunt each other in a life-and-death reality show that is staged for the pampered ruling elite by corrupt political leaders in retribution for a failed revolt, are echoes of Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery" and films like "The Running Man," the Japanese film "Battle Royale" and even "The Truman Show."
And how do you think The Hunger Games compares to other movies (e.g., The Truman Show ) where characters find themselves under surveillance?
But the film leapfrogs obvious questions in its path, and avoids the opportunities sci-fi provides for social criticism; compare its world with the dystopias in “ Gattaca ” or “ The Truman Show .”
While recalling dystopian tales from "The Running Man" to "The Truman Show," "Games" also incorporates a minor but well-acted love triangle, as opposed to the accidental "Twilight" laughs of Team Dreary vs. Team Wooden.
He might have added The Truman Show (for the TV cameras hidden throughout the forest environment to catch every pursuit and fatality), Oliver Twist (for the children forced by adults into criminal behavior), Romeo and Juliet (for the poison that two lovers plan to take) and, centrally, Richard Connell’s 1924 story “The Most Dangerous Game,” whose scenario of a mad Cossack trapping humans on his Caribbean island and hunting them down like big game has inspired a couple dozen Hollywood films.
In the land's 12 remaining and miserably neglected districts, life among the starving 99-percenters is harsh enough to make"Metropolis" look like a staycation.
It's a social structure with echoes of "The Time Machine," "Metropolis," and John Boorman 's whacked-out "Zardoz."
One thinks of not just the Occupy movement but the division between the working and wealthy classes that inspired such past science-fiction classics as Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" and H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine."
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The books have a devoted following, and although they’re often compared to Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight (for no other reason than they’re bestsellers written for teens), there’s the possibility that done right, the films could have huge crossover appeal for people who have enjoyed everything from Japanese author Koushun Takami’s cult novel and resulting movie Battle Royale to William Golding’s The Lord of the Flies to Stephen King’s The Running Man .
Adults will be familiar with the skeleton of the storyline, which echoes not only Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery" but also the much-maligned but creepily prescient Stephen King story/Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, The Running Man.
The Running Man (Paul Michael Glaser, 1987), Battle Royale (Koushun Takami, 2000) and Series 7: The Contenders (Daniel Minahan, 2001) were all set in either the future or an alternate reality where disenfranchised people are forced to take part in a violent competition where they must fight for their survival.
Ironically, the kill-to-win ethos that dominates movies from 1987's prophetic The Running Man to the undiluted brutality of Japan's Battle Royale in 2000, may find its largest viewership in The Hunger Games.
The gimmick of widespread murder as televised entertainment proscribed by the government to sate and distract the increasingly jaded masses would later turn up in films such as the classic 1975 Roger Corman production "Death Race 2000" and the 1987 Stephen King adaptation "The Running Man" (which, in a brilliant stroke of casting, deployed none other than game show staple Richard Dawson, in the role of his career, as the malevolent emcee).
We balked at the sort of show depicted in Stephen King’s The Running Man , but whereas death as entertainment is still an exaggeration, it’s no longer the leap it was once was; not at a time when almost any indignity is transmitted, while the stuff that can’t be for legal reasons is freely available, unedited on the internet.
Adults will be familiar with the skeleton of the storyline, which echoes not only Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery" but also the much-maligned but creepily prescient Stephen King story/Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, The Running Man.
Running through this futuristic tale, about youths ordered to hunt each other in a life-and-death reality show that is staged for the pampered ruling elite by corrupt political leaders in retribution for a failed revolt, are echoes of Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery" and films like "The Running Man," the Japanese film "Battle Royale" and even "The Truman Show."
It also has close ties to “Lord of the Flies,” “The Running Man” and Shirley Jackson’s well-known story “The Lottery.”
It’s a nasty but transfixing idea, and Shirley Jackson got there first with her unforgettable classic “The Lottery.”
Some folks defended the concept by describing the story as a combination of Battle Royale and reality television, which sounded just like Series 7: The Contenders.
The Running Man (Paul Michael Glaser, 1987), Battle Royale (Koushun Takami, 2000) and Series 7: The Contenders (Daniel Minahan, 2001) were all set in either the future or an alternate reality where disenfranchised people are forced to take part in a violent competition where they must fight for their survival.
Many have accused it of cribbing rather generously from Kinji Fukasaku’s Battle Royale (which similarly concerned school kids being ordered by the government to kill one another in an isolated arena) and Daniel Minahan’s Series 7: The Contenders (a Survivor- style mockumentary in which innocents are drafted to a reality show where they must murder their competitors).
The picture's entire second half is dedicated to the morbid title festivities, and anyone familiar with Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game," 1987's "The Running Man," 2001's "Battle Royale," 2001's "Series 7: The Contenders," or 2007's "…
Certainly it has a PG-13 rating to consider so it can’t be as dark and sadistic as the controversial Japanese sensation Battle Royale , but even the little-known Series 7: The Contenders had more to say in 2001 about the sickening depths to which people will sink for reality TV.
In the end, the pic is a little bit of "Predator" with a lot of "The Truman Show" and "The Running Man" (and the little seen or remembered "Series 7: The Contenders").
It's a social structure with echoes of "The Time Machine," "Metropolis," and John Boorman 's whacked-out "Zardoz."
One thinks of not just the Occupy movement but the division between the working and wealthy classes that inspired such past science-fiction classics as Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" and H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine."
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Director Gary Ross does a tight job of establishing the future-meets-1984 vibe in Panem: the slog of daily life, the hopelessness that dulls the citizens, the fear that returns each year at the Hunger Games lottery known as the Reaping.
It’s kind of a light, pre-teen version of “The Running Man” mixed with elements of “1984.”
“Truman Show’’ and “Wizard of Oz’’ are joined by “Logan’s Run,’’ “The Running Man,’’ “The Most Dangerous Game,’’ “The 10th Victim,’’ “1984,’’ “Big Brother,’’ “Red Dawn,’’ and countless other influences, and there’s an angry online contingent of “Battle Royale’’ fans that want their 2000 drive-in Japanese classic left in peace.
Jennifer Lawrence, who generated a buzz last year in “Winter’s Bone,” anchors the action as Katniss Everdeen, the resourceful 16-year-old heroine who uses her Appalachian woodland skills to compete in the games, a perverse combination of TV reality show, gladiatorial match, popularity contest and survival-of-the-fittest kill-fest.
Katniss and the other tributes are seen in earth-toned realism; this character could be another manifestation, indeed, of Jennifer Lawrence's Oscar-nominated character Ree in “ Winter's Bone .”
But this is when Lawrence is at her best, reminiscent of her brilliant work in "Winter's Bone," for which she received an Oscar nomination.
While she earned an Oscar nod for her role in Winter’s Bone (2010), Lawrence’s emotional range in The Hunger Games cannot be ignored.
As the compelling Katniss, Lawrence (an Oscar nominee for the similarly themed drama Winter's Bone ) completely brings "The Girl on Fire" to life.
Especially for someone who hasn't read the Suzanne Collins trilogy, that relative simplicity is a gift, and it's what propels Gary Ross' film (co-written by Ross, Billy Ray and Collins herself) from the stark Appalachian opener, in which we meet Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence, of Winter's Bone), a 16-year-old hunter-gatherer forced to provide for her family after the death of her father, to the heart-pounding start of the deadly game, or “bloodbath” as it's referred to by Everdeen's impromptu trainer, former Games winner Haymitch Abernathy (an excellent Woody Harrelson).