Totalinarianism

Reddit discussion of the latest catching fire movie is generally positive - Jennifer Lawrence and several other cast members (Stanley Tucci!) get props, and the pacing/camera work is well regarded. There's also a valid point that the film really lacks a solid a memorable soundtrack compared to other blockbuster trilogies (now four movies, reflecting that learned Hollywood behavior that fans will pay twice to see more screentime).

But this post is about dystopia. The Hunger Games books tell us that this is obvious - that there are stormtroopers, and riots, and freedom signs and songs. We see fences and barriers withholding the outdoors - explicit limitations of freedom that our protagonist has already discarded in learning her hunting.

That's now how these things start. One of these days, someone is going to make a film that parallels the experience of Nazi Germany before it was Nazi Germany - when so many Germans looked around, constantly waiting for someone - anyone - to pull their country out of the lunatic direction it was taking. The process wasn't immediate, and it was based in WWI's resolution, but it also happened to an educated society. I'm not suggesting that anything similar might happen, but instead that the potential for that still exists in humanity - that we have not purged ourselves of cruelty and malice, even as we strive for the good.

It is easy to hate and harm; all of Effie Tricket's makeup shouldn't disguise or distract us from that fact.