The Hunger Games

[AmberTheCat]

I know there was a discussion about the ending of the Hunger Games trilogy a couple of months ago, with some concerns expressed about it from a feminist POV. I just wanted to share how refreshing I found the film of the first book, though. I watched it last night with my dp and our 11 year old dd. We've all read the books, and enjoyed the fact that they have a strong female protagonist, but I was struck by how much more surprising that felt on film. I suspect it's because we're SO conditioned to the 'strong man, weak woman' trope in films, but the scene towards the end where Katniss and Peeta are making their way through the forest for the final showdown, and Katniss is poised and alert to defend them both, is very striking.

I've not read the books but watched the film when it was on TV a few weeks ago. There was a good depth of female characters as well, her family were all female, and her allegence during the games was with another female. And I liked that Katniss was the favourite to win from the start, rather than having to battle gender prejudice to win.

I read a thing a few months ago about how films that don't follow the tropes tend to be more interesting than those that don't - it was specifically talking about gender roles in the article. We watch mainly Bechdel passers and you end up watching a lot of interesting indie films rather than the same old same old. Can't watch rom coms anymore sadly because the 'non-romantic womaniser' male characters get on my tits so much. Thanks for that FWR!