Sunday, April 27, 2014

The Hollywood (Hunger) Games


Hollywood making a blockbuster film out of the novel "The Hunger Games" goes directly against the spirit of the book. This is because Hollywood and the Capitol are a very similar entity. So it's extremely duplicitous for Hollywood to make a film about a girl who hates the Capitol, trying to revolt against the Capitol. 

There is one scene in the Capitol, just before the games are about to start. Haymitch, repulsed, stares at a young boy chasing his sister with a plastic sword. Barbarian Capitol citizens.

And in our own cities? While men and women are dying in real wars, children play ultra-realistic, ultra-violent video games, putting themselves in the role of soldiers; murdering, being murdered, over and over again. And this is entertainment for them.

Just the other day I was at someone's house with their two young children; the girl was about nine, the boy eleven. We were all playing with their toy bow and arrows (clearly inspired by the Hunger Games). Instead of arrows, these bows shot foam darts. It was all very reminiscent of the sword-playing children in the Capitol...

Ve Neill ("celebrity" makeup artist) was the makeup department head and makeup designer for "The Hunger Games". She shares many similarities with any one of the Capitol zombies (the very people her film is supposed to be critiquing.) In the past Neill has worked on such horrid films as "John Carter", "The Love Guru", "Eragon", "Batman & Robin", and others. Repeatedly Neill has contributed to mindless films that serve no purpose to humanity, and dumb down the population. I wonder if she has any values, since she clearly has no problem working on awful films that are a horrendous waste of money and resources.

An overview of her career: Ve Neill has won three Academy Awards for makeup ("Beetlejuice" (1988), "Mrs. Doubtfire" (1993), and "Ed Wood" (1994)). She has been nominated for eight Academy Awards total.  Neill is also creator of the television series "Face Off" on which she also serves as a judge. ("Face Off" is a reality television show where young makeup artists compete against each other, in front of cameras and judges, with one winner at the end. During the show the contestant's personal lives are explored and discussed. This is broadcasted to millions of viewers.)

I am using Mary (Ve Neill was born Mary Flores) as an example, to make a larger point about the utter hypocrisy of those who adapted "The Hunger Games". Neill lives and breathes the monstrosity that is Hollywood; and yet she is working on a film about the revolution against a manipulative, controlling, self-serving government? She is an elite Hollywood resident who could easily be one of the Capitol citizens in the film.






















Throwing young men and women (Jennifer Lawrence is a fine example) into the superficial, fame-chasing, money-obsessed, wasteful supremacy of Hollywood is eerily similar to throwing young men and women into the superficial, fame-chasing, money-obsessed, wasteful supremacy of The Capitol/The Games.

After winning the games, Katniss is thrown into a chaotic life of glamour, fame, and wealth. She is constantly in the view of camera lenses, and the public. She comes under increased scrutiny for her physical appearance, and her actions. Hold on a second... doesn't this sound like Jennifer Lawrence's life after starring in "The Hunger Games"?

In the Capitol and Hollywood, where rivers of money are poured into the latest fashions, where surgeries and physical alterations are omni-present, where wastefulness is a way of life, and superficial narcissism rules....

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