The Hunger Games

Director: Gary Ross (2012)
Shut up, it is nothing like Twilight.
Pre-emptive rant out of the way I will proceed to put my cards on the table. I have indeed read The Hunger Games. The entire trilogy. And, even as a twenty something I thoroughly enjoyed them all. Well at least 2.5 of them. It may have been a dirty little secret at first and then when it was announced they were making a film, I realised I would be called upon to defend their honour or stand by and watch as they were dragged through the mud or shelved alongside the pish that is tween fiction/film franchises like the aforementioned film.  And, like our fearless protagonist, I come with bow and arrow and side braid ready to defend.
Written by Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games may be a young adult book but it is one that is well written and gripping from start to finish – much like the film, despite clocking in at 140mins, even with huge sections cut out.
Set in the dytopian realm of Panem, Katniss Everdeen and her sister Prim line up for District 12’s Reaping, an annual lottery into which all the children aged over 12 are entered and one boy and one girl are selected as Tributes for the annual Hunger Games. As Tributes, they enter the arena not only fighting for their District but also for their lives in the ultimate competition where there can only be one winner and the real prize is survival. But as her sister’s name is drawn, almost like a reflex, Katniss volunteers in her place.
While it might not be a particularly new story (see also Series 7: The Contenders, Battle Royale), The Hunger Games takes it out of the ‘real world’ and transplants it into a surreal future where the Games are a punishment for humanity’s uprising – to remind them who is in control, the Capitol and the Peacekeepers.
Director Gary Ross has frankly done a fantastic job. With a battalion of fans from the books, Ross had a big job on his hands making a worthy film but as the stellar cast rolled in including Woody Harrelson, Jennifer Lawrence, Elizabeth Banks, Wes Bentley, Stanley Tucci and Lenny Kravitz, the backing of such big names boded well for the final result. Stylish and entertaining from the start, the garish inhabitants of the Capitol are ravenous for their fix of violence and celebrity combined as the Tributes are paraded before them before plunged into the arena, televised 24 hours a day.
It’s a delirious world from the saturated colours and lurid falseness of the people to the terrifying side effects of the punishing arena. As sound and vision fades in and out of Katniss’ comprehension, so does our with such excellent mimicry from the camera work there was the briefest point I genuinely thought I was fainting too….Thankfully I wasn’t. And I wasn’t being attacked by Trackerjackers. Thankfully. Lawrence is superb as Katniss and though I found Josh Hutcherson a little too youthful for Peeta, her District compadre in the Games, he played well and, judging by the reaction of the teens sat next to me, was ticking boxes for younger viewers.
It’s been a while since I have seen a film adaptation done so well, from sets to characterisation, particularly with the Gameskeeper, Seneca Crane (Wes Bentley) and the disconcertingly subdued President Snow (Donald Sutherland) who no doubt will come into his own in later films.
Even for those who haven’t read the book – or who have little interest (what you’re not adult enough to read a young adult book?) in doing so – The Hunger Games is a fantastic film that manages to avoid Hollywood kitsch and predictability, offering everything from winning directorship and screenwriting to costume design and gripping action. Yes it is soaked in media attention as the ‘next big thing’ which certainly worries me for its future, particularly with Gary Ross already out for the next installment but I urge you to ignore the hype and make up your own mind. And may the odds be ever in your favour.
(Get it? That’s a line from the movie…because yes, I am a tad obsessed. You will be too).

Tags: cinema, jennifer lawrence, katniss, movies, peeta, suzanne collins, the hunger games

The Hurt Locker

Director: Kathryn Bigelow (2008)

For the Academy to finally award Best Director to a woman, this film must be amazing. Historical, in fact. Scooping six Oscars and a deluge of other awards across the board, The Hurt Locker swept the floor with cinema in 2009. And boy was it deserved.

Opening with a title card quoting a line from Chris Hedges’ War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning, The Hurt Locker lays out its message “War is a drug”. Unlike many other films about the Iraq war, or war in general, The Hurt Locker shies away from the high budget, elaborate battle scenes instead focusing on the quiet chaos the forces face each day. Only it moves beyond this, looking at the attitudes and fears of the men and the little shown fact that the thrill and adrenaline of war can itself become an addiction. Never is this more apparent than in new team leader, William James (Jeremy Renner).  Outspoken, fearless and as unarmed as the bombs themselves after he’s finished with them, he joins the more cautious team Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and Eldridge(Brian Geraghty). And no wonder they are so cautious having just seen their previous team leader blown up by an IED.
One of the main motifs is the bomb suit itself, a heavy duty bomb proof suit, not too dissimilar to a space suit in appearance which is donned whenever advancing towards an unexploded bomb. Usually a last resort, for James, it is par for the course. His maverick attitude and disregard for protocol unnerves his team – and the viewer – but also hints that there is something lying beneath that has made him this way. But is this simply a reasoning we’ve accumulated from the war-film canon – a child or wife or dying relative waiting at home ? – or could we accept that some people just enjoy their job. And that is just what this is, a job, and one that James is pretty good at. But then all jobs take their toll.
Written with such expertise by freelance journalist Mark Boal, himself stationed in Iraq with a bomb squad, The Hurt Locker offers a refreshing realism to the sensationalised world of war. Casting a light on the many men who end up in combat from the guy who wants to go home, the one who is just doing his job and the one who lives for his job, The Hurt Locker prides itself on its superb characterisation. Filled with moments of unfathomable suspense as the three man team face death with every step, the film literally has you on the edge, facing the potential imminence of death right there with them. Sweat drips, dust swirls, trigger fingers quiver; life moves in slow motion as time stands still, hanging on baited breath. The cinematography is stunning, merging meaning into every frame with muted colours and hazy filters, casting a shadow of dust over a world that has to be experienced to be understood.
All this, and made by a woman without a single female protagonist.

Tags: iraq, kathryn bigelow, movies, the hurt locker, war

Grizzly Man

Director: Werner Herzog (2005)

Oh Werner. With a voice like that, how on earth have you managed to make your name as one of the most profound documentary makers of the 21st century? And how have you managed to never play a Bond villain? In all seriousness, poor Werner get’s a lot of stick for his thick set German accent and so it pains me to have begun my review in such a standard way, but I defend my reasoning with the claim that it is these almost musical tones that make me fall in love with this man as much as I do with these documentaries.
Grizzly Man chronicles the life and work of Timothy Treadwell, a man so obsessed and dedicated to the grizzly bear that he spends the best part of each year living with them in Alaska, the aptly titled ‘Grizzly Maze’ in the Katmai National Park and Preserve. Why? Because Timothy Treadwell is perhaps the most enthusiastic and committed (possible committable) fighting the threats from poachers, not only by living amongst them but also in singlehandedly – and for no charge – spreading the word and educating children around the USA in the ways of the bear.
But this doesn’t stop us from asking the question ‘is this chap completely mad?’ It seems the only reasonable explanation as to why a person would choose to have himself planted in the middle of the nowhere for months at a time, knowing that every moment his life hangs on the edge in the presence of these essentially vicious wild animals. Perhaps this is a reductive way of looking at things, considering how Timothy clearly believes these animals are misunderstood and it is this lack of knowledge about grizzly bears that endangers them. Except that despite Timothy’s expert knowledge and personal relationship with these animals including giving them all names – in 2003, Timothy was brutally killed by his beloved grizzly bears. Along with his girlfriend Amie Huguenard.
Herzog speaks with many people involved in the vicious attack from the pilot who dropped them off for their summer adventure and later returned to an empty beach on the day he was due to collect them to the coroner who pieced together (literally) their dismembered bodies. The film is intercut with these talking heads with real footage Timothy filmed throughout his summers, interacting, talking and playing with the bears with such joy it is almost heartbreaking to think that it was these creatures that ended him. But, speaking with one of his friends, and former lover, Jewel Palovak, she explains that Timothy would rather die at the hands of these creatures than see them hurt. One of the most powerful moments is where Herzog reveals that when the incident happened, the camera was still rolling, thankfully with the lens cap on, but capturing the gruesome final moments in terrifying audio. The film shows Jewel watching Herzog listening to the tape. Taking off the headphones, he orders her to never ever listen to the tape, in fact, she should destroy it.
Grizzly Man is an incredibly powerful documentary, offering another more sympathetic side to the usual ‘he’s a mental what did he expect’ response to these kinds of incidents. Yes it wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t been acting as he did but the matter is, it did happen and instead of chastising him as another crazy eccentric who got what he deserved, Herzog wants to remember Timothy’s legacy and honour the understanding of these animals we will never understand. Just like we will never know what happened in those final moments on that tape. Unlike Herzog.

Tags: bears, conservation, documentary, grizzly bears, movies, timothy treadwell, werner herzog