Film Final

ART2010

June 27, 2013

Film adaptation is the transfer of a written work either in part or as a whole into a film. It is not how the director reproduces the content of the novel; it is “how close he or she remains to the raw data of the subject matter”. The film The Hunger Games is based off the best-selling novel written by Suzanne Collins, and was directed by Gary Ross. Much like the book, the film focuses and highlights the same symbolic aspects through Ross’s camera technique.

There are three types of adaptations: loose, faithful, and literal. This film is considered a faithful adaptation simply because it does keep as close to the book as possible. In fact, author Suzanne Collins partnered up with Gary Ross to help write the screenplay and make necessary decisions on what made it into the film and what did not. This made it easy for the film to portray the same themes and symbolisms as the paperback novel.

One of the biggest themes in the Hunger Games is the inequality between the rich and the poor. Food was a symbol used throughout the film to show those of the richer capitals having a wide variety of lavish food choices, as those in the poorer districts struggled to survive. In one scene in particular, Katniss and Peeta are taken aboard the train taking them to the Capitol. The camera pans across the table loaded with different types of food and then zooms in on their faces, as they have never seen so much food before.

Another example is when Katniss sneaks off to hunt with Gale and when he takes out the small piece of Bread, the camera zooms onto the piece of bread showing the significance of the bread. Following this, Katniss proceeds to ask if the bread is real and then they both devour the piece of bread.

Director Gary Ross uses color to portray the difference between districts. In the opening scene, a high key television set is shown where Flickerman is interviewing Crane about the Hunger Games. The Capitol is portrayed as bright...