The Hunger Games film franchise that set the early 2010s on fire is back, with the new film The Hunger Games: A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, directed by Francis Lawrence, literally taking us back to the early days of the Hunger Games in a post-war Panem. From the physical background to the young Coriolanus Snow to the children forced to fight to the death in a run-down arena, everything and everyone is much more raw and exposed. The glamor and fanfare around the Hunger Games that we previously knew are replaced with a thin veneer of formality and grace doing its best to cover up the downtrodden and crumbling social structure. On the surface, we see the character development of Coriolanus Snow, who we know is the future mastermind behind the Hunger Games. What audiences see play out, however, is an intense struggle for power on multiple levels, and the sacrifices that people are willing to make to acquire it.
Set during the 10th annual Hunger Games, A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes takes place in a wounded Panem. The Capitol is still recovering from its war with the thirteen districts. Buildings are still under reconstruction, and there is an economic struggle even within the Capitol. This is new for the audience, as the Capitol we saw in the earlier films was literally the definition of extravagant capitalist oppression, with all its citizens living lavishly off the efforts of the districts. In the early days, the Capitol realized the necessity of maintaining the power dynamic constructed after the war, with themselves on top. This involved a method of punishment so severe that not only would there be no hope of ever overpowering the Capitol, but it would also keep the districts pitted against each other to prevent reunification. Hence, the birth of the Hunger Games.
This power struggle is one of many in the film. Snow fakes his wealth to avoid prejudice from his fellow students, and his sole motivation for winning the contest is to bring his family the power and influence that inevitably comes with the prize money. Those at the Capitol, Dr. Volumnia Gaul in particular, are also struggling for power and influence over the districts. She provides each tribute with a mentor, of which Snow is one. Lucy Gray Baird is thrust under his care after Snow is given the instruction to mentor her to ultimately promote games with the intention to increase donations and viewership. After a quick analysis of her personality and her inherent lack of fighting ability, Snow changes his game plan to pure publicity stunts. He places her in front of as many cameras as possible, drawing as much attention to her, and interacting with her during her captivity as much as possible. Even with a romantic spark growing between them, Snow slowly comes to realize that by mentoring someone whom so many members of the Capitol and the districts are emotionally invested in, he inherently holds power over them.
He uses similar techniques, although off-the-books, to help Lucy Gray win the Hunger Games, but the discovery of his methods by Casca Highbottom causes him to be sent to the districts as a military recruit, where he is exposed to the entirely different power dynamic between the military and the members of the district. Conflicted between his loyalty to the Capitol and his family, and his love interest in Lucy Gray, he eventually sacrifices his mentee for the power that the Capitol brings. Though he was not forced to directly fight in the Hunger Games, the effect that their very existence had on Snow’s character is what he forces onto the tributes for the next several decades — complete removal of the humanity in a person to show the cold-blooded animal within.
The chemistry between Tom Blyth and Rachel Zegler, paired with the brilliant storytelling, brings the Hunger Games franchise back into film studio relevance. The Hunger Games are stripped down to a glorified dogfight between impoverished and malnourished children. Paralleling this to Snow’s difficult upbringing, the film uses his rise to power to portray how he uplifts the Hunger Games to be a fundamental, technologically advanced battle royale that we grew so familiar with. Blyth performed amazingly in portraying the degradation of Snow from the studious mentor to the dictator willing to remove anything and anyone between himself and power.
A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes faced the problem that all prequels have; the audience already knows the ending. However, Lawrence did a brilliant job directing the film to show the dehumanization of Panem’s main characters, creating an intensely detailed and developed backstory for the original series. This is a must-watch for anyone who is a fan of either the franchise itself or any other part of the “Young Adult Dystopian” franchise of the early 2010s. This fresh take on this dystopian universe is a gem in the world of cinematic storytelling.