Have you ever left the theatre after watching a movie that was
transitioned from your favourite book? Maybe you thought it was the worst movie
ever, that the book was a million times better. Maybe you thought that the
movie was better than the book, making it your favourite movie. Or maybe you
thought that the book had better sections, but so did the movie. I’m here to
talk about the book to movie transformation of The Hunger Games and why it is
so popular.
I read The Hunger Games books before the
first movie came out in 2012 with my Grade 8 class, and I really liked them,
the way you knew exactly what Katniss felt while she was in the games, almost
like you were in the games yourself. Books that included their reader were
always favorites of mine. When I went to see the first movie with my class
later that year, I was really excited, and the movie didn’t disappoint. Some
parts of the movie were a bit off, and parts out of the book were missing
completely, but I understand why it had to be that way, because the book was
written in first person by Katniss, and a movie wouldn’t be able to show her
thoughts easily. Taking this into consideration, and the way the directors of
the movie worked their way around this and added certain scenes, the movie was
very well done, and it provided the same atmosphere as the book did.
I think the most important changes between
The Hunger Games book and the movie are as follows:
1 1. In the book, after all of the
tributes have been chosen for the 74th Hunger Games, Peeta’s mother
mentions that District 12 might actually have a winner, and the audience thinks
she is talking about her son, but she quickly clarifies, referring to Katniss,
saying that “She is a survivor.” This scene doesn’t exist in the movie.
-The level of this change
is minimal, but personally I would have liked this scene in the movie because
it would have established that fact that Peeta’s mother doesn’t have a lot of
faith that Peeta will win the games, so it’s yet another reason he would prefer
for Katniss to survive rather than him, because she actually has a family that
believes in her.
-I think the director of the
film chose to cut this scene out of the movie because they wanted the audience
to figure out for themselves later on in the film why Peeta wanted Katniss to
live rather than him.
2 2. In the book, Cinna states that
Katniss’s Mockingjay pin “barely cleared the review board,” but in the movie,
Cinna smuggles in the pin so Katniss can wear it into the arena.
-The level of this change
is fairly big compared to the book, and I know that some people like the book
version of this scene better, but personally I like the fact that Cinna
smuggled it in because it shows that Katniss is not just another tribute that
he has to designs costumes for, that he genuinely cares for her and appreciates
how she volunteered for her sister at the Reaping. I think this was also a
personal ‘friend to friend’ moment
between them, because Katniss earlier witnessed how the Capital handles things,
so she knew that Cinna took a big risk for himself to smuggle it in for her.
-I think that the directors
decided to change this scene because they changed previous scenes about where
Katniss had originally gotten the Mockingjay pin (from the Mayor’s daughter),
and what it symbolized (a sort of rebellion against the Capitol). So since they
removed that scene from the film, there would not be any reason why the review
board would decide not to let Katniss have the pin in the games, other than the
reason than she might have an unfair advantage over the other tributes, while
in the book, Cinna would be forced to smuggle the pin in because the Capitol
would not allow it as it was seen as a rebellion symbol.
3 3. In the book, when Katniss
befriends Rue and they work together to blow up the Careers’ mountain of
supplies, Rue gets caught in a net and is speared and dies while still in the
net. After Katniss grieves over Rue’s death and it becomes clear that she was a
real friend to Rue, she receives a gift of bread from District 11 to thank her
for befriending and being kind to Rue. But in the movie, Rue’s death is more
dramatic as she escapes from the net but is later killed. Katniss receives no
gift from District 11 in the movie.
-I like how in the movie,
Rue escapes from the net before she is killed, as it almost gives the audience
a false hope that Rue might live. It also sets up how Katniss mourns over Rue’s
death, which I found to be a very emotional scene because of how well it was
edited.
When The Hunger Games movie first came out, I saw lots of people wearing the mocking jay pin, and I swear there was an increase of girls braiding their hair just like Katniss’. The movie was a huge hit, selling $152.5 million movie tickets on opening weekend, only to be followed with Catching Fire’s $158.1 million, making it the 4th largest box opening weekend ever! Just like most popular movie series, including Twilight, Harry Potter and Divergent (even thought Allegiant hasn’t come out yet), Mockingjay was split into 2 parts, which would bring in more money as you would be paying to see 4 movies instead of 3, which is very smart for the businesses, especially since Mockingjay part 1 cut off with a huge cliffhanger. I've read all the books as I've mentioned earlier, but I'll be sure to see the Mockingjay part 2 when it comes out!
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