ladybusiness | (Reply)

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Thanks so much for reading and commenting!

In regards to your first point -- I agree that the movies do better by expanding out from Katniss's head. It's definitely one of their strengths compared to the books. And I don't think our views here are entirely incompatible -- I think the important thing for me isn't so much interiority as it drawing clear parallels using the language of film. This would in fact rely on showing more of the districts because the idea I wish had been driven home is how the destruction of the districts parallels the destruction of the mind, of the spirit, in Katniss and others. The material is there. For example, when Katniss first goes to District 12 and sees the piles of human bones and we see her reaction: that's one great jumping-off point. But I feel there wasn't enough of that, structurally. Another example could have been using Cressida's footage, juxtapositioning her shots of the destruction with shots of Katniss. I'm surprised at how little of Cressida's footage we see, actually -- it's such a perfect instrument.

As for the ending, I can see your point about it being a self-contained story. I admit I have a hard time imagining the experience of non-readers when viewing these films (even though I have one with me -- my partner hasn't read them but has seen the films). I think if some of the themes from the book had been played up more strongly -- the PTSD, the medical sedation, Katniss having actual fits of her own -- then I think Peeta's state at the end of the film could actually have made sense even to non-readers, with a little interpretive work. It just feels very... flaccid, I guess; very tell-don't-show the way it was done. Whereas if the parallels between Katniss and Peeta had really been leaned on (and both would have been buttressed by the parallels betweens the victors' trauma and the districts' trauma) and the pieces of what would eventually happen to Peeta were put on the table earlier in the film (via similar things being done to Katniss), then it would have been both a bolder ending and a more cinematic way of storytelling. Then the explanation of what happened to Peeta could have unfolded at the start of the next film, catching viewers up from the previous film and appropriately kicking off one of the main arcs of the second half of the book.

Anyway, thanks again -- you gave me stuff to think about, too!