Rue is an Angel

Could there be a better film to show exactly what Adorno & Horkheimer think filmmaking can do to a society? Nope, Hunger Games hits it right on. In the fictional world, the Capital has been hosting and showing the hunger games for over 70 years. It is both propaganda and distraction. The people gain a little bit of hope, enough to keep going. This hope isn’t in their own life or situation, but for the character created on the television screen. Their life’s as good as it’s gonna get. The show creates a unity. There is a classical harmony to the games – it’s exciting, competitive, and full of emotion. This unity is unbalanced, problematic. It shows kids killing kids, yet only a few – like Cinna – are able to see the reality and brutality of it all. Another way they create unity and stitch people into the games is how they film it. They have so many cameras that get really good quality footage. The cameras fly around and can always get the best vantage point. In life there is always the fight between how things are and how they ought to be. By creating an image that looks more and more realistic, the Capital is able to show the game’s reality as if it were how life ought to be, not just how it is right now. They even show clips of old games with awe and respect; it’s a never-ending process.

Hunger Games could also be viewed under the lens of our own reality and what it says about Hollywood and society. One of the saddest things about this film is not what they portrayed but how some people reacted to it. Hunger Games went against a cliché by making some of the most admirable and honorable characters black. Cinna, the only Capital citizen we see who really understands how messed up the world is, and Rue, the innocent, angelic girl who dies helping Katniss succeed. I’m so happy and proud that Lionsgate made those choices. There is no need to perpetuate the idea that black people are less awesome or more likely to be villainous. That’s preposterous. Many fans were upset that these two characters were black. http://www.businessinsider.com/the-hunger-games-were-you-upset-rue-was-black-because-a-lot-of-other-people-are-2012-3 This website has a few twitter posts in it like, “Awkward moment when Rue is some black girl and not the little blonde innocent girl you picture.” She could not have pointed out the cliché much better than that, and this probably describes many people’s ideal and what they wished they had seen. They wanted Prim’s twin to be shown. Blonde hair = angel, not black hair. Here’s another article with more quotes that infuriate me: http://jezebel.com/5896408/racist-hunger-games-fans-dont-care-how-much-money-the-movie-made “Kk call me racist but when I found out rue was black her death wasn’t as sad #ihatemyself.” The first quote is upsetting because she was basically saying that little white girls should be the cute innocent ones, and not little black girls. But this last quote is almost beyond words. He had the gall to say that the color of her skin made her worth less and made her death less valuable or substantial. There is a reason that some deaths, some situations don’t make the nightly news. It’s because people are still racist, and I hate that.

And lets be honest, she's probably one of the cutest little girls, black or white, that I've ever seen.