By Mark HadleyThursday 20 Nov 2014MoviesReading Time: 3 minutes
If the first two Hunger Games films were about what people should be prepared to do in order to save their loved ones, the third suggests how we should respond when the same no longer behave in a lovable way.
In The Hunger Games (2012) filmgoers were introduced to a post-apocalyptic world where the dominant Capitol City mandates that each year two teenagers from its twelve subjugated districts will fight to the death for the amusement of its citizens and a perverse reminder of the futility of armed struggle. Katniss Everdeen, played by Jennifer Lawrence, thrusts herself into the place of her younger sister so she doesn’t have to face the ordeal. In the end it’s this sacrificial attitude that actually sees Katniss become the game’s first joint victor, alongside love interest Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson). However Capitol City’s President Snow (Donald Sutherland) sees their survival as a threat to his authority and in Catching Fire (2013) Katniss and Peeta are again thrust into the games to battle past champions. But the film concludes with Katniss and her allies destroying the electronic arena and escaping to the mythical District 13, a region that resists Capitol City’s authority.
Mockingjay chronicles Katniss life with the rebels and her coming to understand her place as a symbol for the resistance. The emotional drama of the film, though, centres on Katniss’ feelings for Peeta who was left behind in the clutches of Capitol City. Peeta joins Capitol City’s propaganda efforts, hoping to persuade the rebels to lay down their arms and Katniss to return to the fold. The citizens of District 13 are incensed, branding Peeta a war criminal. Whereas in previous films Katniss fought to preserve those who loved her, in this episode she has to consider how to respond to those who behave in a decidedly unlovely way.
Mockinjay has many things against it. There’s the struggle of being such an obvious ‘middle film’ with no promise of a satisfying conclusion. It’s the shortest Hunger Games film so far but it feels like the longest. There’s also the breathy teenage tantrums that remind you strongly of The Twilight Saga. Personally I was well and truly over Katniss’ angst somewhere around the fifth tearful insistence, “I can’t do what they want me to do!” Yet Mockingjay does convey one thing very clearly: the difficulty we have in extending mercy towards those who betray us.
War histories abound with the terrible vengeance directed against those believed to have collaborated with the enemy. Yet Sigmund Freud suggests what we hate most in others is actually that which we fear in ourselves. As Peeta speaks to the Capitol City cameras it becomes clear Katnis at least can appreciate what her own love might have tempted her to do:
“In the arena, you only get one wish. And it’s very costly… it costs a lot more than your life. To murder innocent people? It costs everything you are.”
Certainly Mockingjay suggests that Peeta is acting under duress, that he can’t really be that bad. But it’s this level of understanding that actually leads Katniss to treat Peeta better than he deserves. It’s not a common response in a world that persists in defining ‘big’ and ‘unforgiveable’ sins – but it should be for Christians. Jesus himself sets the pattern:
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet he did not sin.”
Because Jesus understands the temptations we face he is able to sympathise with our struggles and speak up for us in our failures. Likewise, because we have been forgiven much Christians should be at the forefront in forgiving others. Katniss persists in loving Peeta because she understands what he has gone and is going through. If we truly understand what we have been saved from, shouldn’t we be all the more keen to save others, even if they’re yet to see their need for salvation?
Rating: M
Distributor: Roadshow
Release Date: November 20