Al's Omniflick: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay--Part 1

Saturday, November 22, 2014

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay--Part 1

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Francis Lawrence/Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Julianne Moore, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Donald Sutherland, Josh Hutcherson, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Jeffrey Wright, Stanley Tucci and Liam Hemsworth

The penultimate Hunger Games installment arrives and with it come some new though hardly surprising developments. Director Francis Lawrence, who is now an HG veteran; brings us a story that is well-paced, with plenty of action action scenes to mingle with a few interesting character developments.

Jennifer Lawrence has now lived in Katniss Everdeen's skin for a few films and wears her character well. Eschewing an auto-pilot performance, she makes us care about Katniss with her compassion and her Greek-goddess-of-the-hunt heroism.

It's safe to say the HG films have eclipsed and buried the Twilight series in terms of adolescent popularity. Thank goodness; who could stand one more movie about narcissistic bloodsuckers who stood around looking like they were waiting for a Vanity Fair photo shoot.

The film wastes little time starting where the last story left off. Katniss has been rescued by the rebel government, who occupy a well concealed and well-fortified base underground in District 13. While she laments the loss of her best chum, Peeta Mellark, the rebel leader, President Coin (Julianne Moore), and her adviser/assistant Plutarch Heavensbee (Phillip Seymour Hoffman, in his last role) attempt to wheedle a reluctant Katniss into becoming the face of the rebellion. Katniss balks but when she sees a broadcast of Peeta--alive and well--being interviewed by Caesar Flickerman (Stanley Tucci), she changes her mind. She recognizes that Peeta has become a government pawn and propaganda tool. Her agreement comes with conditions, the most salient being Peeta's rescue from the government.

Katniss learns that being the face of the rebellion means being exploited and having her image manipulated by digital media to make her appear more heroic and leader-like. It is interesting that both Peeta and Katniss become pawns of opposing political bodies. One of the major themes in the series has been media and governmental manipulation.

Helping Katniss along with her image is stylist Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks), who has been exiled from the capitol. And equipping Katniss and her ad-hoc rebel unit is Beetee (Jeffrey Wright); who performs a service for the rebellion the way Q does for MI6 and James Bond.
Though Coin initially refuses to allow Katniss to fight for fear of losing the rebellion's most potent symbol, she also finds she has little choice when Katniss places herself in harm's way. As Katniss witnesses the devastation the Capitol has wreaked on the districts, she becomes more amenable to rebellion imperatives. And as both sides exchange hostilities, Peeta's rescue becomes the narrative focus.

Though it isn't hard to tell where the story will lead, Director Lawrence shows he has a nice touch at keeping the tension tightly wound and demonstrates sound story-telling instincts when he prevents Katniss' budding romance with Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth) from crowding out the story.

The film could have made President Coin and the rebel leaders appear saintly but the story is nuanced enough to show the rebellion's propaganda techniques to be much like the government's.

While watching the film, we know the last installment is yet to come, which means the audience will be left with an Empire Strikes Back-like cliffhanger. We discover something about Peeta I won't mention here; something to be addressed in the next and last installment.

Though I've enjoyed the series, I feel I'm ready to see it wrapped up and brought to a definitive conclusion. It hasn't worn out its welcome--yet--but it might have if the producers had decided to drag it out to 5 or 6 iterations. And do we really need the last installment to know how it will all end? The only surprises will come from the characters--mainly Katniss and Peeta.

And do I really need to say more about a series that has been cloned by its lesser successor, Divergent? No, nothing more need be said.

I may miss Katniss Everdeen when it's all said and done...or I may be eager to move on.

Yeah, that's more likely.

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On DVD

Fury (1936)

Director: Fritz Lang

Though we might normally think of the films M and Metropolis when director Fritz Lang becomes the topic of conversation, less known is the legendary director's work in Hollywood. Having fled the ever-growing menace of Nazi Germany for America in the early 1930s', Lang eventually found himself under contract for MGM.

Though his work in Hollywood is very uneven, one standout is Fury, from 1936. Starring Spencer Tracy and Sylvia Sydney, the film's condemnation of mob justice seems spectacularly daring now, considering lynching was still a reality in Depression-era America. We don't see one black person in the film entire but we know precisely for whom Lang film is sympathetic.

Spencer Tracy plays Joe Wilson, who is arrested in a small town while en route to meet his fiance, Katherine (Sylvia Sydney). Suspected of being part of a kidnapping of a little girl, Wilson is arrested on the flimsiest evidence. While he sits in cell; angry and indignant, Katherine is puzzled as to why her fiance hasn't arrived at their prearranged meeting place.

But Wilson's fortunes take a darker and more dangerous turn when a mob--already on edge--is roused to anger. Egging one another on, the mob moves on the jailhouse where Wilson is being held. As the angry gathering becomes a mass, drawing citizens of the town into their swelling numbers, a lynch-mob begins to form. The sheriff, determined to see due process take its course, refuses their forceful demands. Becoming angrier and angrier and bolder and bolder, the crowd storms the jail, overwhelming the sheriff and his deputies. Unable to unlock the cell doors to reach Wilson, the mob sets the jailhouse ablaze as an alternate method of lynching.

Katherine, having arrived on the scene, faints when she sees flames engulf the cell where her fiance is held.

In spite of the mob acting as a faceless entity, its principle members are brought to trial though the town and the defendants maintain a conspiracy of silence, hoping to escape convictions and censure.

A sure acquittal seems imminent until damning evidence assures their guilt. When the majority of the members receive death sentences, Wilson turns up at his brothers, having survived the fire. Knowing the public is unaware of his survival, he vows to stay in hiding to ensure the mob conspirators are executed.

The scene where Katherine, nearly insane from grief, comes face to face with Joe is a powerful moment in the film. As she slowly recovers from her state, she realizes Joe's vindictive determination to see the mob hang is in itself a great injustice.

The story climaxes during a stirring courtroom scene that brings the fascinating story to a close.

I would have never expected Hollywood to make a statement as powerful as Fury made in 1936. Given the fact that lynchings in America at the time went unpunished, the movie railed bravely, in spite of the main character being white rather than black, against what was then the status quo. The Oxbow Incident would make a similar and commensurately powerful statement seven years later.

The film's willingness to peer into the darker side of American life could be partly attributed to Lang, who co-wrote the story and who was no stranger to exploring the darker side of humanity. Having seen evil flower in his home country, it makes sense Lang would choose to tell this story.

Spencer Tracy and Sylvia Sydney give wonderful, emotionally layered performances. Katherine's near descent into madness is depicted touchingly by Sydney. To see Tracy's mild-mannered Wilson become angry and vengeful is heartbreaking.

Even watching Lang's film on a small screen does little to diminish its power. Weeks after the viewing, I still can't shake its indelible images or its angry indictment of one of America's great crimes. One couldn't devise a better title than one it was given eighty years ago. Fury indeed.