Movies and Philosophy Now: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1: Propaganda War and Finding the Courage to Fight

by Christopher Barr

“State propaganda, when supported by the educated classes and when no deviation is permitted from it, can have a big effect. It was a lesson learned by Hitler and many others, and it has been pursued to this day.”

- Noam Chomsky

“There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantage of others.”

- Niccolo Machiavelli

There are minor spoilers

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 is a film about the ongoing conflict between The Capital, which represent the haves and the subterranean District 13, along with the other districts that represent the have-nots, the oppressed. At the center is Katniss Everdeen who is the Mockingjay, a Joan of Arc figure that is seen by the various districts as hope for freedom from the totalitarian hold the Capital sways over them.

This film explores the aftermath of the last Hunger Games depicted in the sequel, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. At the end of that film Katniss fired an arrow from her bow up at the sky hitting an invisible force field and created an uprising, igniting a revolution that ends up being much bigger than she is. In Mockingjay she often is a witness to the atrocities but rarely a participant in the war itself. This is the films underwhelming problem, where the protagonist has become smaller as the civil war has become bigger around her.

“All over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless, that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume.”

- Noam Chomsky

There are no Games this time around; Katniss is forced to grow up even more as she sees the impact her symbolic Mockingjay has done in a real world environment, as opposed to the control of The Hunger Games arena. President Snow of the Capital is clearly responsible for the ongoing war but Katniss never the less feels survivors guilt as she stands over so many dead bodies. Unlike Nolan’s Interstellar, Mockingjay took the time to show its main character and thus its audience what’s at stake. Where Interstellar was too quick to get us in space, Mockingjay saw Katniss flown to her District 12 where she alone, walks around the searing rubble and happens upon an almost field of burnt to the bone corpses. Knowledge of this wasn’t enough, seeing it is how one persuades the mind that it is real. Katniss needed this exposure to reality in order to feel what she will be fighting for.

Mockingjay – Part 1 is a set up for the big battle that will likely unfold in Part 2. Most of the film is talking, negotiating and contemplating whether Katniss has what it takes to be the Mockingjay for the rebellion or not. Some plot problems and narrative issues arise because it becomes clear that the filmmakers have stretched out one movie into two parts as a cash grab, when only one movie would have done the job. With a film full of exposition there is very little room for action scenes that define I lot of what’s loved about the first two films. With that, this film takes on a somber tone with all its usual color bled from the screen. That’s not entirely a bad thing because it shows that the filmmakers are taking their subject matter seriously. War is often senseless and malicious and certainly never is to be taken lightly.

In Mockingjay – Part 1, Peeta, Katniss’ Hunger Games partner in the last two films has been taken by the Capital and used as a propaganda device to help quell the uprising. Katniss just wants him rescued because she loves him, so she plays along with District 13’s plan to regain their freedom by being their celebrity face of sorts. As this spokesperson for the people, Katniss is required to be in commercials and report from the ground how things are faring up in the districts, while District 13 tries to mobilize an army to defeat President Snow and retake the Capital.

“The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilt innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.”

- Malcolm X

We see in the film how powerful media can be when being used to control or inspire a population of people. We see this all over FOX NEWS and CNN on a daily basis, how the power of propaganda can mound the hearts and minds of the people into whatever the government or corporations see fit.

The real fight is yet to come in Mockingjay Part – 2 where we’ll see the actual civil war underway. With Peeta not doing so well and the District 13 military still recovering from a massive attack by the Capital, it will be interesting to see Katniss become the Mockingjay we always knew could be.