Catching Fire
(2013) is the second in a quartet of film adaptations based on Suzanne Collins’
wildly popular The Hunger Games
trilogy. Starring Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson, and directed by
Francis Lawrence, it details the aftermath of the titular Hunger Games, which
are an annual competition wherein twenty-four young men and women from each of
the twelve Districts of Panem must fight each other to the death. Specifically,
it deals with the effects these Games have on the winners of the 74th
Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark, and the subsequent build-up
into the 75th Hunger Games.
Although the genre of science fiction is often difficult
to define, I do think that this film falls well within that umbrella. Collins—
and, in translating her vision to the big screen, Lawrence— constructed a
fictional world wherein science and technology play essential roles in the
intersection of characters and their environments. The additions Collins made
are similar enough to our own era’s that the difference is not too jarring, but
they are nonetheless beyond our present technological capabilities: the
high-speed, fully-equipped bullet trains connecting each district to the
Capitol, the literally incendiary costumes designed by Cinna, the hovercrafts
lifting tributes to and from the Games, and the Arena itself, are all examples
of the technology essential to both plot and character arcs, and which in
addition enrich the fictional landscape of the film.
The narrative itself is a clear commentary on present
human society. The country of Panem is a dystopian future with clearly defined
hierarchies. All twelve Districts are simply producers and manufacturers,
providing the opulent Capitol with food, luxury goods, and entertainment in the
form of tributes. As a metaphor for the excesses of capitalism, it could
certainly do worse; indeed, there is something almost Marxist in Collins’
treatment of class and oppression within her work. Besides this treatise on
economic disparity, the series is also a critique of our obsession with reality
television and celebrity culture, which in the film literally dehumanizes the
young tributes by pitting them against each other as objects for the amusement
of Capitol citizens.
It is difficult to say whether the interaction between
science, technology, and society in this series can be counted as a success or
failure. If one looks at the technology within The Hunger Games as a means to an end, then certainly it is a
success; children are ferried to their deaths quickly and efficiently, and
their slaughter is broadcasted for absolutely everyone’s entertainment. As
human beings with empathy, however, this same technology is clearly horrifying
and aberrant, and for this part society is clearly at fault. Basically, the
moral behind Panem’s cautionary tale is clear: with the interrelationship of
science, technology, and society, what matters is temperance, not excess.
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NARCISO, Luisa Mariel A.
STS THX
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