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Author
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Topic: The Hunger Games
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Hugh Thompson Scott
Film God
Posts: 3063
From: Gt. Clifton,Cumbria,England
Registered: Jan 2012
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posted March 28, 2012 01:46 PM
I agree entirely Martin,it seems as though films can't be made
gory enough or more repulsive.I like horror films but draw the line
with some of the modern stuff as it feels sleazy and one gets the
feeling,the films aren't made to induce a genuine scare, just
revulsion and the feeling you've sat through a snuff movie.A film
like Tobe Hooper's "Texas Chain Saw Massacre" although violent
didn't dwell on gore,and was a very clever piece of film making.
The "Saw" series of films are just plain disgusting and one must
wonder at the state of mind of the makers of such stuff.A film
made back in the early sixties based on William Golding's very
famous novel about a group of youngsters marooned on a
tropical island and how the trappings of civilisation were ever
so slowly stripped away.It showed one of their number being
killed needlessly,the scene was shocking,but done in such a way it wasn't distasteful and lingering.With the rise of unemployment among the young,and our societies are based
on consumerism,I would have thought this kind of trash would
be the last thing impressional young people should be exposed
to,then again money has no conscience,but when someone
gets hurt,you'll see the politicians wringing their hands and
using an expression I love "a crackdown" which means nothing will get done.
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Hugh Thompson Scott
Film God
Posts: 3063
From: Gt. Clifton,Cumbria,England
Registered: Jan 2012
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posted March 28, 2012 02:07 PM
I couldn't agree more Mike,It makes "Lord of The Flies" pale by
comparison,but as long as we have the weak, wishy washy,
Governments that seem to accumulate in Parliament like the
infestation they are,I'm afraid we're stuck, like our friends over
the pond say,between a rock and a hard place.
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Graham Ritchie
Film God
Posts: 4001
From: New Zealand
Registered: Feb 2006
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posted March 28, 2012 04:37 PM
I would say being a parent is the hardest job out, when my two were going through the teenage years I used to worry a lot. There is no garantee, no matter how good a parent you are that things will go fine. Its who they mix with, where they go and the like that can influence them more than most parents realize.
There is no doubt in my mind movies can influence as well, during that roller coaster teenage years. The worst thing is that they think they are bullet proof, truth is they are not.
I remember my son, he was about 14 years old and late home one night. I got a call from him from some house asking me if I could pick him up, he had cycled across town to see a girl, well I said I am not a taxi service get on your byke and start peddling. It was almost midnight by the time he got home. I was trying to teach him a lesson, but I was worried about him till he came through the door, same goes for my daughter.
Thank goodness they survived and have both left home. ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
In my last job working with teens I found myself looking out for them a little bit. One youngester who was just 15 and just started to do projection work had people come to the downstairs counter and wanted to know details of his hours of work etc this information is not given out and the downstairs staff got suspicious and they left. The manager was called checked the video asked junior if he new them, he did not know those people at all, so she got mall security and caught them down the mall, she read them the "riot act" and she was good at that, ![[Eek!]](eek.gif) full credit to her and those people were banned from the mall. She insisted to the young projectionist that he should not walk home late at night after work on his own and insisted he gets dropped off by one of the staff or get a taxi and the cinema would pay for it. Because of the age, staff safety was paramount at all times with both the manager and myself.
This world is full of dangers and they just dont see it till they get older.
When we closed one of those teens sugested I should work with young people he reckon I would be good at it, however I replied that I would not have the patience and would most likely give someone if they got cheeky, a thick ear ...it was a nice thought though.
Such is life ![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif) and thats why we get grey hair. ![[Frown]](frown.gif)
Graham.
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Hugh Thompson Scott
Film God
Posts: 3063
From: Gt. Clifton,Cumbria,England
Registered: Jan 2012
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posted March 28, 2012 06:16 PM
That was very moving Graham, and those feelings I'm sure many
parents will have felt and can identify with.We've all been that
age and think we know the score,parents and adults,what the hell
do they know.I remember once playing truant from school with
two of my mates,and let me say,what a long day that was,but we
eventually ended up on the top of the old Wellington pit shaft in my then home town of Whitehaven,the buildings design did look like an old castle,and we climbed up daring each other to walk across the steel girder that spanned the shaft.God knows how deep it was and how we avoided being killed,looking back
I go cold at the risk we took for a bit of fun,that among many others,but at that age 14 or so,you have no fear,and are totally
selfish,and that is why youngsters need protection,a lot of the
time from themselves.
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted March 29, 2012 01:25 PM
Concerning those people who actually make these awful films (and how do they sleep at night?) ...
How many of you remember Speilbergs "Amazing Stories" series?
In season 1, there was a story about a producer/director of "SAW" style films. He's asked how he can make such revolting films and such in an interview. He later goes home, and starts to have nightmares where an insane killer is seen in anything that can act as a mirror, whether a mirror or even a persons eyes. The "killer' eventually catches up with the director and he (the director) actually transforms into the killer, only to kill himself, jumping out of a window. Neat story.
Hollywood (and the entertainment industry in general) is such an interesting place ...
Now, Hollywood has never been pure ... there have been revolting movies and "snuff" films since the beginning of cinema ...
However, in ther past, during the "code" era, there was a balance of the revolting (or always just "skirting" the ratings boards here and there), while there were uplifting films as well ... in other words, there was at least a "nuetrality" to film-making ...
However, after 1962 (I believe) Hollywood descended, slowly but surely from "morally ambiguous", to an "anything goes" mentality.
I don't know how many of our fellow forum members are observers of the "international society of humanity", but I have always been fascinated with how humanity never, ever, learns from thier mistakes ...
Humanity thinks that there is no harm in releasing something that, while it condones this or that "abberant behavior", they do not think that with every downward step, another step will be taken, and another, until our arrive at an "anything goes" bottom level ...
... the irony of all this is many pundits and such who OK'd this or that mild abberant behavior of the past, now come out strongly against what is considered "societally acceptable" that has lowered the collective morality of humanity so low that nothing shocks us, (as a general rule).
... So, this new "low" in this new series of films, as it will no doubt be a series, (which hopes to cash in on the "Twilight" saga), is no surprise.
Will we see films that will show us hunting infants for sport?
How about dis-embowling anything and everything that breathes? Well, we've already done that. We have films that show any and all degrading forms of torture, with absolutely no moral core of any kind.
Ironically, what would be shocking to todays audiences, is to make a film where, (of all terrible things), life is honored, purity is valued death is abhorred ...
Now, THAT would be a shocking series of films! Imagine a film today (not from the past) that sported a young woman, of any nationality, that isn't even a religious person (to keep the pagans at bay, hee hee), who will not give up her chasity to this man who is a "Twilight" style hunk, no matter how much he entices. She can't be bought, she can't be dishonored.
I dare somebody to make a film like that!!!!! Hah!!!!!
(sorry about the long rant, folks, It got up my "dander")
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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Hugh Thompson Scott
Film God
Posts: 3063
From: Gt. Clifton,Cumbria,England
Registered: Jan 2012
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posted March 30, 2012 04:19 AM
You're right Joe,we haven't seen the film,it's the subject matter thats the issue.Humankind is strange, in that it's forbidden and
in the worst possible taste to show children having sexual
relationships on screen,but on the other hand acceptable to see
them murdering one another in graphic detail,and that is the
conundrum.Young people mimic things they see on screen,they
always have,we all took on the roles of our heroes and villains as
children in play.As adolescents it's regarded as cool to immitate
some personna in their manner of speech or garb.My concern
is that young people are saturated with images of violence, be it
news items,video games or cinema and it's got to have an effect
on young minds.Eventually violence becomes an accepted part
of life, and normal.The increase of violent crime in the pre teen
and teenagers proves that something is radically wrong with
our society,and letting film makers get away with out any form
of redress is not acceptable.The medium of the moving image
is a very powerful one,but with power comes resonsibility.
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Martin Jones
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1269
From: Thetford , Norfolk,England
Registered: May 2008
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posted March 30, 2012 05:27 AM
Joe,
No, I have not seen the film, and I certainly won't be seeing it.... EVER. It is sufficient for me that those who have seen it, the reviewers needed by the instigators for publicity purposes, have provided detail as to the obscene content.
No Joe, I am not qualified to criticize the film, nor those sick enough to either watch it or to simply accept that such films should be shown, or even made in the first place.
My criticism is of the SYSTEM that allows it to be shown AT ALL, and of the bodies charged with protecting our young.
I provided the start of this thread... I repeat the link here for those who have not read all the thread.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2121303/The-Hunge r-Games-rating-Shocked-youngsers-walking-movie.html?ITO=1490
And to crown it all the same paper today publishes an article by one of its columnists who actually took her 13 and 11 year old daughters to see it, and now wonders if she was right!!!!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2122524/Why-I-feel-Im-bad-mother-taking-girls-The-Hunger-Games-Its-film-child-wants--violence-left-SHONA-SIBARYS-daughters-weeping-disturbed .html
If the link gives you something else, Navigate Right Minds/ Right Minds Home and search for Shona Sibary. Then scroll down to article.
Martin
--------------------
Retired TV Service Engineer
Ongoing interest in Telecine....
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Tommy Woods
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 146
From: Scouser
Registered: Feb 2011
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posted March 30, 2012 09:13 AM
I think we give too much credence to reviewers of film and theatre critics,I also think that we need to be careful when providing a critique on something none of us have seen,I well remember when A Clockwork Orange came out,and the furore it caused,similarly The Excorsist,at the time Mary Whitehouse raised both these films profiles and made them instant commercial successes,it would be hoped the same (if we are to believe the critics)would not happen to this film and it would flop at the box office,therefore making it more difficult to raise the cash for the next project.Both of these films by the way are now shown on mainstream tv.
I got this from the Wiki
The Hunger Games has been well-received by critics. In Stephen King's review for Entertainment Weekly, he praised the book's addictive quality and also compared it to "shoot-it-if-it-moves videogames in the lobby of the local eightplex; you know it's not real, but you keep plugging in quarters anyway." However, he stated that there were "displays of authorial laziness that kids will accept more readily than adults" and that the love triangle was standard for the genre. He gave the book an overall B grade.[1] Elizabeth Bird of School Library Journal praised the novel, saying it is "exciting, poignant, thoughtful, and breathtaking by turns". The review also called it one of the best books of 2008.[30] Booklist also gave a positive review, praising the character violence and romance involved in the book.[31] In a review for The New York Times, John Green wrote that the novel was "brilliantly plotted and perfectly paced", and that "the considerable strength of the novel comes in Collins's convincingly detailed world-building and her memorably complex and fascinating heroine."
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Let there be light,so god created the projector
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Martin Jones
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1269
From: Thetford , Norfolk,England
Registered: May 2008
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posted March 30, 2012 10:44 AM
A constructive post, Tommy and I'm sure the critiques of the novel published by those who know about writing are accurate assessments of the writer's craft. But they are what I would call "Art Speak"... praise by "Artists" for the work of other "Artists", rarely a reflection of what the "man in the street" thinks.Interestingly, they studiously ignore the Morality of the subject matter
I love a good book and am particularly excited by one that is both well written (from the literary point of view) and has a well constructed and interesting story. And yes, I read many books that fall into the Action and Horror "genres" (what a horrible word that is!). But I do have the advantage of knowing that is a BOOK, just ink and paper and cardboard, and as such not the real world. I can read for 10 minutes and then put it away for another time.
Few children of tender age would read that kind of book and in so doing acquire that knowledge of the "unreal" world. However, the Visual Arts, whether Film, TV, or Video Games provide images and sounds that, because they appear to portray the real world by a total and continuous assault on the senses, have been shown to have a disproportionate effect on the minds and subsequent behaviour of the young.
The real problem is that those young, impressionable minds are so inured by what seems to be the "norm" that they carry that behaviour into later life.
You have only to reflect on the lack of emotion shown by the 17 year old yesterday sentenced to two life sentences without parole, when the enormity of his crimes was brought home to him, to see that he thought that what he had done was "NORMAL(?)"
I suspect that in his warped mind the fact that he would now have to spend the entire remainder of his life in prison appeared to be "normal" also. I also suspect that he didn't acquire that attitude of mind from reading books... of whatever artistic merit.
Martin
--------------------
Retired TV Service Engineer
Ongoing interest in Telecine....
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