Rocking the box office this weekend is a film likely to be one of the year's biggest hits, "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1," the third in a four-part series of movies based on the popular "Hunger Games" novels by Suzanne Collins.
And tucked inside this more dramatic and human sequel in the movie series is a lesson on morality that America needs to learn if it's to successfully confront the crises of immigration, violent jihad, race riots and more.
Though I will confess I didn't finish reading Suzanne Collins' novel series – the notion of children killing children like gladiators for sport just didn't sit well with me – the films have been a revelation in how to make a successful movie franchise. The human drama, outstanding acting, tight story and well-paced action have made the "Hunger Games" films unusually artful and well-made.
"Mockingjay – Part 1" follows and expands on the formula.
Academy-Award winning actress Jennifer Lawrence is back with her best performance of the series, delivering a soul-stirring, screen-grabbing, fantastic portrayal of Katniss Everdeen, known as the "Mockingjay," a teenage girl who reluctantly becomes the face of the rebellion against a brutal, totalitarian dictatorship in a dystopian future. Actor Josh Hutcherson also delivers his best performance of the series, even if his screen time is limited.
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And from an entertainment perspective, those performances are needed, because "Part 1" is all too clearly a set-up for "Part 2," and does feel a bit stretched thin at times. The pace of this movie is much slower, sometimes too slow, and doesn't pack nearly the action or entertainment value of the previous films.
Instead of more of the same, "Mockingjay" goes deeper than its predecessors and lingers there for the sake of the larger story, even if it does lag just a bit at times.
That depth enables the film to explore Katniss Everdeen's character and the moral dilemma in which she finds herself. How she answers that moral dilemma is not only a powerful moment on screen, but also a critical lesson in ethics that too many Americans in today's progressively-minded culture desperately need to learn.
Trying to avoid spoilers, I'll set the scene: Katniss Everdeen has emerged from the shadows of escaping a socialist totalitarian state (the film's clear vilification of such a state is an over-arching theme of the film as well, and a definite point in the movie's favor), and begins to visit the devastated rebel districts in her new figurehead role as the "Mockingjay."
On one of her visits, however, the evil Capital learns of her presence and in retaliation slaughters the people of the district.
It's a critical point for Everdeen. Will she shrink from her new role, knowing that if she even shows her face, the people she associates with could be killed? Will she take upon her shoulders the blame for the massacre? Will she concede the point that by resisting evil, she's only bringing more evil upon the heads of others?
Her answer is clear and powerful, and she delivers one of the best "cheer the troops" speeches I've ever seen on film.
Because she'll have none of it. She won't accept blame for what others do. She reveals the key lesson America's academia-brainwashed culture needs to learn: Moral culpability lies with the person who commits the crime.
Meanwhile, in the real world, kids from Harvard to Berkeley and every state university in between are being taught that America is at fault for evil men in the Middle East, for poverty in Africa, for drug cartels in Central America and for every ill within its own borders. Blame, blame and guilt, guilt, but never for the people actually committing the crimes.
Our collective mindset has been twisted into thinking that America is to blame for Muslim radicals decapitating, raping and slaughtering innocents in the Middle East; that if we deport people who have illegally crossed our borders, their subsequent plight in Mexico will be our fault; that somehow rioting, looting and senseless violence by black, urban hooligans is the fault of white, peaceable people in the suburbs; or that when Israel defends itself against terrorist cowards hiding in hospitals and orphanages that the collateral damage is Israel's fault.
In one, critical moment and one, riveting speech, Katniss Everdeen shoots all that garbage down in flames.
Granted, it's only a movie, but if its moral clarity could be applied to real-world ethics and politics, we'd look at our national crises so much differently.
So kudos to "Mockingjay" – not only for making a quality film with a strong message against socialist totalitarianism, but also for boldly revealing the beauty of personal responsibility instead of blame-shifting.
Content advisory:
- "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1," rated PG-13, contains no obscenities and only one possible profanity, though even that is muffled.
- The film has almost no sexuality, save for one on-screen kiss and discussion of a previous kiss.
- The film contains some violent scenes and battle sequences, including shootings, hand-to-hand combat and explosions. There are several scenes of bloodied and injured people, dead bodies and burned corpses. The film doesn't revel in gore and violence, but it does take place in time of death and war.
- The film has no significant religious or occult content.