The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
Synopsis: A prequel to The Hunger Games, featuring a teen future tyrant and the woman he champions. (Streaming on Amazon)
So many Young Adult books center on learning life lessons in spite of — or maybe because of — mean kids at school or parents’ divorcing. Typically, we see a young protagonist overcome problems and grow in the process. But you know what would make a really good subject for young teens to read about? Children fighting to the death in gladiatorial combat.
Actually, I wouldn’t have thought that, but author Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games books have been bestsellers. The storyline sees a future dystopian America, Panem, where the wealthy capital inhabitants exploit surrounding districts. The districts rebelled and were defeated.
The Hunger Games were set up to punish the districts. Each year there is a lottery for children in the districts wherein the chosen are sent to the Capital’s arena to fight to the death. Movie adaptations made a mint and a star out of Jennifer Lawrence as heroine, Katniss.
As if the books and movies weren’t depressing and anxiety-provoking enough for adolescents, Ms. Collins wrote a prequel that sets out to explain how future tyrant Coriolanus Snow becomes a monster. How lithe and lovely young actor Tom Blyth becomes Donald Sutherland, I do not know.
So, here we go… Young Mr. Snow, known as Coryo at school, lives in a wrecked apartment with his kindly sister Tigris (Hunter Schafer) and grandmother, Grandma’am (Fionnula Flanagan), who gives off strong deposed Russian aristocrat vibes. The family has no money, so Coryo is a scholarship student. Naturally, the rich kids he goes to school with are horrible snobs who needle him about his worn-out garments. Picture Draco Malfoy tormenting cash-strapped Ron Weasley. Because much time has elapsed from today to the dystopian future, new names have arisen, like: Bobbin, Mizzen and Jessup. Were these names of hobbits in The Lord of the Rings?
The graduating teens’ final assignment is to mentor tributes aka kids assigned to die during the Hunger Games. One mean girl whines that she’ll probably be stuck with some runt from District 12. District 12 is the Appalachia area where future messiah Katniss Everdeen will be born. The folks are all dirt poor and malnourished. But when they aren’t mining and whittling, they manage to dance and sing in a bluegrass fashion.
The teacher who oversees the Games is Peter Dinklage as Casca Highbottom. He’s just like his character Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones: cynical and committed to quaffing recreational drugs. I half-expected to see the Lannister clan strut into the lecture hall and bedevil him.
Coryo gets assigned the girl from District 12, Lucy Gray Baird who is a feisty songstress. She’s played by Maria from Spielberg’s West Side Story, Rachel Zegler. When she is called forward at a gathering of district Hunger Games “tributes,” she sings a defiant folk song. It is all very American Idol.
Ambitious Coryo figures that if he can keep Lucy singing, she’ll become popular with the audience. He implores the high priestess of the Games, Dr. Volumnia Gaul. Viola Davis amps up the crazy into Jared Leto in Blade Runner territory. She spends her days creating creatures, overseeing tanks of snakes and flaunting her collection of glossy glove wear. Coryo approaches her with his ideas to make the Games more popular, eg., allowing viewers to send drones of supplies to their favorites. Lucy Gray is going to need all the help she can get…
Unlike Katniss Everdeen, Lucy doesn’t have any weapons skills. Sadly, she can’t sing away her competitors. There is one particularly nefarious girl who really hates Lucy for no reason. She runs around with a perma-scowl and trident. Trident Girl amasses lackeys who chase Lucy around. You might think that that ten-hour movie length is more time than you want to spend in an arena watching kids try and kill each other. Frankly, I find the whole premise off-putting. The only part of the original Hunger Games competition that I liked was when Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) used his cake decorating skills (or something) to camouflage himself as a pile of leaves. Nothing so inspired happens here, but you’ll be glad to hear that another part of Coryo’s story is represented…
Coryo, it seems, may be capable of romantic love. I know right?! As old President Snow, he seems solely preoccupied with being a monster. Who has time for romance when you are committing crimes against humanity?
During cadet training, Coryo starts to fall for a mysterious girl in the district where he’s assigned. He even goes lake swimming with her and her friends on a day off. This is a lot better than studying for his Suppression Tactics exams while Grandma’am minces her way around the dingey apartment reminiscing about the good old days when their family was part of the despot in-crowd. But can he care about her? Might she be part of a resistance group?
Coryo’s sister Tigris could see how his desperation to restore his family’s fortunes along with his own unbridled ambition could cause him to take a dark path. Looking sad and frail back in the apartment, she had told her brother that he “could be good.” Yes, I could see evidence of that when he gives the girl he’s fallen for a scarf. The scarf also might have some metaphorical meaning related to the snakes and songbirds of the title. I wished that the filmmakers had let Coryo sing like they let Lucy. If you’ll recall, in the live action remake of The Little Mermaid, Prince Eric was given a chance to sing his heart out with a new song and it really added a lot to his character. But I guess Coryo is meant to stay opaque.
What do you think will happen? Can Coryo not become evil Coriolanus? The story is fairly interesting, but I think you know the answer. Speaking of which, my partner accused me of spoiling the movie because, ten minutes in, I said: Now, we’ll see how he becomes bad. In my defense, we did see the first Hunger Games movies together. Who did they think Donald Sutherland was? I mean how common is the name Coriolanus Snow?
Anyway, the movie is fine, but let’s stop making movies about kids fighting to the death. How about a nice story about some kids who get chased by a murderous racist because their lawyer dad’s client is Black? I don’t think snakes make an appearance, but there are songbirds… mockingbirds? Maybe Mockingjays?
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