Where some see support for the Occupy Wall Street Movement, others see a warning about Big Government. Or a religious message, or ...
 The lines for the midnight showings of "The Hunger Games" are long at Edwards Cinemas in the Long Beach Town Centre. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times) |
"The Hunger Games," the teen action-adventure film that is opening to big numbers this weekend, is, without question, a parable of the Occupy Wall Street movement. It's also a cautionary tale about Big Government. And undeniably a Christian allegory about the importance of finding Jesus. Or maybe a call for campaign-finance reform?
Like the Suzanne Collins bestseller on which it is based, the movie about a teenage girl fighting for her life in a televised death match in a dystopian post-apocalyptic country that has replaced America has a whiff of political content. But that has been enough to make a lot of people sniff out their own messages. "The Hunger Games" has become the rare piece of Hollywood entertainment: a canvas onto which disparate and even opposing ideologies are enthusiastically projected.
"It's the 1% [who are killing the kids]," "Gossip Girl" star Penn Badgley told the website Vulture recently, referring to the story's elites who force young people from different economic backgrounds to hunt one another for the amusement of society's elites. "I think you'd have to be blind to not see that."
"It's the 1% [who are killing the kids]," "Gossip Girl" star Penn Badgley told the website Vulture recently, referring to the story's elites who force young people from different economic backgrounds to hunt one another for the amusement of society's elites. "I think you'd have to be blind to not see that."