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Sudden Uneasiness: Analyzing the Visuals of the Hunger Games

Carlos Baltazar

The University of Rio Grande Valley

ENGL: 1301.26: Rhetoric & Composition I

Professor Balzadua

February 27th, 2023

SuddenUneasiness: Analyzing the Visuals of the Hunger Games

The feeling of when reading The Hunger Games gives off a bone-chilling experience, and

the film adaptation makes the viewer have this sense of dread that ultimately makes the viewing

experience all the more thoughtful as there are specific scenes that definitely leave a burning

memory in the mind of any viewer to remember.

The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze the scenes in The Hunger Games

using critical visual theory and to have a better understanding of what critical visual theory even

is and how it is applied to The Hunger Games. I’m going to be showing how the movie uses

different shots, angles, music and such that heavily affects the tones of certain scenes as well as

how it affects the way that the scene is portrayed for its story.

Critical visual theory doesn’t necessarily have a specific definition as many people have

their own interpretation of the definition, but I’ll be giving my own definition. Critical visual

theory is the idea of different media elements that shape the visuals to make the reader or viewer

think a certain way, but it’s also a way to perceive a meaning that’s different to the naked eye.

It’s good to analyze critical visual theory to understand what the director was thinking about

when they had made the media as well as also create different visuals for the viewer to think of a

different meaning than the one that’s laid out on the surface.

Methods

Understanding how the director created the movie, we need to better understand the

actual concept of The Hunger Games. ‘The Hunger Games’ is a dystopian film series based on

the books of the same name which which depict a totalitarian nation comprised of twelve

districts selects two representatives from each district through a lottery to participate in a battle
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royale game called the Hunger Games, an entertaining viewing for the rich, but a bloodbath for

the poor. The participants are forced to slaughter each other while the citizens are forced to

watch the televised broadcast. The main character, District Twelve’s Katniss Everdeen

volunteers to participate to keep her younger sister from participating and is pitted against much

stronger participants who had been training for their entire lives.

As a means of figuring out the tone of suspense for the movie, I’ll be analyzing two

different scenes from the first installment of The Hunger Games series. These two scenes bring

different elements of camera angles, music, etc. that further give the tone of the scenes and

different meanings to the overall message of the movie as a whole.

Results and Discussion

The first scene begins with a looming sound as the participants of the Hunger Games all

stand on their podiums. A countdown begins starting at 50. It’s a robotic voice for the

participants, but a young man’s voice for the overseers. A crowd of pompous people from

Districts 1 and 2 are cheering, waiting for the games to begin while District 12 is completely

silent, worried about their contestant. A drum sound is played in replace of the countdown as the

camera shoots to different shots of the arena and the participants. When the countdown reaches

zero, chaos ensues. There are no voices. The sounds of people possibly dying is drowned out by

the horn of the Cornucopia. The music gets louder as soon as the scene starts to focus on Katniss

and what movements she makes. Once Katniss finally leaves the Cornucopia area, there is finally

the sounds of Katniss going through the forest (Ross, 2012, 01:07:29 - 01:10:02). The scene

brings suspense to the table as there’s no dialogue during the scene. The only thing that plays is

the countdown and the sound of the horn. It’s because it portrays the fear of the participants
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without needing them saying “I’m scared” or “I’m not ready.” It’s a game of life and death and

they’re fighting for their lives to support their districts.

The next scene (Ross, 2012, 00:53:58 - 00:56:56) is an interview between Flickerman

and Katniss. The scene begins with the crowd cheering as the sound of the cheers start to fade

away and the sound of Katniss’ heartbeat drowns out the sound to the point when Flickerman

tells her something, she has to ask “What?” for him to repeat it again. It definitely gives off a

feeling of uneasiness to the viewer to put the viewer in Katniss’ shoes. She’s being interviewed

in front of tons of people from higher districts, especially districts that think they are more than

her as they only see her as a means of entertainment and not a human being about to be put up

for slaughter.

Conclusion

With these two scenes in mind, both scenes give off the feeling of uneasiness for the

viewer as the main character, Katniss Everdeen, is put in an unfamiliar situation due to the

situation of the Hunger Games. Being in the shoes of Katniss makes you sympathize with her as

she has to face off against not only the other participants, but as she fights against the classists in

the higher districts who are willing to treat her unfairly because they know she’s going to die.

The director used different shots along with different music and audio to have the idea of

showing the viewer of what to feel rather than to simply tell the viewer what the characters are

feeling, giving off a connection with the characters in the fictional world.
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References

Ross, G. (Director). (2012). The Hunger Games [Film]. Lionsgate.