1. This may contain spoilers. I don't know yet, but I'm not going to stop myself if I need them to make my point.
2. I've only read two of the three books. So there could be a final point (in fact, this is probable) that I haven't understood or recognized yet because I haven't gotten to book three. So I very well could finish the trilogy and recant a good half of this post.
Ok, now that I've qualified...
I did not enjoy the Hunger Games movie. The premise of the movie is an overbearing capital city that has stripped the citizens of the country of their rights, of oppression, and the striving for social justice. Every year, in this story, 24 children are placed in an "arena" to fight to the death, televised for the whole country to watch.
Now, neither the book nor the movie is advocating this. The stance of both is clearly one of opposition. But here's the thing: I sat through the movie, and it was so hopeless. Not that it doesn't have a "happy" ending, but...it doesn't. Even the successes throughout the movie are overshadowed with a sense that it doesn't matter, its cost was too great, or something depressing. And while I appreciate the angle the story is trying to take, to encourage us (maybe?) to fight for social justice and what not, I had a hard time sitting through it.
Don't get me wrong, I think social justice is incredibly important. But is turning an important cause into entertainment the best idea? Why do we want these ideas to become commonplace? Why do we want to desensitize ourselves to it? Because honestly, I think that's what's happening. I remember, when I was a kid, I watched the movie Home Alone. And I thought it was horribly graphic and violent.
...um, yup.
Now? The idea of its violence is laughable. I watched a man's face get blown off on a tv show, "blood" splattering the camera glass, and I barely flinched. How many horrific ideas have now become everyday thoughts because we've inserted them into the entertainment industry? We let them enter our ears, our eyes, and our minds. We've become accustom to the way they taste, rolling around in the ever-open mouths of our "Smells Like Teen Spirit" generation.
And I never thought I would write a post like this, honestly, because I definitely believe we need to be "in the world, but not of the world." And that verse says that we do need to be in the world. And that means understanding culture. Being aware of it. And I'm also not trying to cry, with Chicken Little, that the sky is falling. If anything, it's always been falling. I think too often we see the horrific times we live in and selfishly forget that we are not the center of time; history indeed repeats itself.
But I left that movie theater with two emotions rolling under my skin, through my veins: despondency, utter sadness at the thought of the story. And the deepest hunger...for the New Heavens and the New Earth. I don't want to see any more movies like that, because that sin and evil is real. It is all too existent. And it is all too evident in real life. And I'm afraid that if I see a movie in 10 years that is of a similar caliber, I won't respond in the same way. But I don't want to lose an inability to stomach it. I want to keep that hunger for justice and righteousness, and ultimately, for the reign of the One who will bring it.
