Mockingjay Part 1: Enter Chaos.

Mockingjay: Enter Chaos

If I were able to get past the first sentence in this blog without making mention of Philip Seymour Hoffman, I would be incredibly disappointed with myself, one of the hardest parts of this year was saying farewell to him. With that being said, I will get down to business. It’s not a surprise that Mockingjay: Part One garnered so much success on it’s opening weekend; as a movie theater employee, the release of the latest Hunger Games movie is normally accompanied by both feelings of excitement and dread. After opening weekend of “Catching Fire” I submitted a request off a year in advance for Mockingjay: Part 1, the chaos and stress a movie theater employee feels on such a night for eight straight hours is pretty comparable to the context of the movie, insanity. However, I did survive, even though my request off was denied.

"Do they shoot the people that whistle because it is a sign of rebellion? Or because the tune is just genuinely annoying?" #foodforthought

Let me make this clear: I am not a fan of teen fiction narratives, Harry Potter would be the only exception. Teen Fiction takes the world and makes it one big High School. The Hunger Games does this to such a point, that it makes me want to puke, a lot. Peta loves Katniss, Gale loves Katniss, Katniss loves both of them, what do they do? This movie would have been so much better had they just ate the damn berries. Now that I’ve got that out of the way it is imperative that I address the main audience of this cheesy, violent, love story. Teens, duh. As I mentioned in my earlier blog the main character: Katniss is not a typical feminine character. Despite being the protagonist, Katniss is the aggressor, Katniss leads the charge against the oppressive capital, and dawns the title of the Mockingjay.

With the character of Katniss, Suzanne Collins ushered in a new era and proved that film audiences could unite within a female hero. The qualities of Katniss Everdeen are as follows: Brave, defiant, gutsy, and sharp as a tack. Katniss possesses a lot of masculine skills such as hunting, trapping, and the art of survival. It is clear from the start that she is superior to a lot of men in the story. Especially Peeta, the Baker’s son; baking, and the art of camouflage are the two skills Peeta possesses. The art of camouflage is, in simpler terms, the art of passively blending in to the world around you. Basically the idea of traditional feminine character according to Laura Mulvey, Peeta is a passive object, a vulnerable, castrated character.

So it is safe to say between these two characters there is an element of role reversal, otherwise known as displacement. The idea of displacement is basically movement, moving masculine qualities to women, and feminine qualities to men. This idea has been in effect since the days of German Expressionism, and was instituted by the legendary director, F.W Murnau, in such films as “Sunrise”. The idea of displacement blurs the line of gender and audience’s associations with such characters as Katniss and Peeta.

Outwardly, women have an attraction to Peeta, or Gale, they identify with them, their vulnerability, their passivity, their longing for Katniss. Subconsciously, girls have an attraction to Katniss, for her physical strength, her survival skill, and her power over everyone. The same can be said about men being attracted subconsciously to Gale, and Peta, and outwardly to Katniss. This Freudian dual perspective is seen in the majority of movies today and is not difficult to point out.

Confronting it, and accepting it might be the hard part.
In my next blog I'll discuss the idea of spectatorship from a masculine and feminine perspective and hopefully shed more light on the subject.

R.I.P