more than it portrays the evil Government.

"Collins says that the inspiration to write The Hunger Games came from channel surfing on television. On one channel she observed people competing on a reality show and on another she saw footage of the invasion of Iraq. The two "began to blur in this very unsettling way" and the idea for the book was formed.[5] The Greek myth of Theseus served as basis for the story, with Collins describing Katniss as a futuristic Theseus, and that Roman gladiatorial games formed the framework. The sense of loss that Collins developed through her father's service in the Vietnam War also affected the story, "

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunger_Games

the author of this piece even includes those facts in his piece- you really should read the whole thing.

It was a Japanese film made back in 2000... Same basic story.

... Set in a dystopian present, the plot revolves around the contestants of a grueling walking contest, held annually by a somewhat despotic and totalitarian version of the United States of America.

In 2000 the American Library Association listed The Long Walk as one of the 100 best books for teenage readers published between 1966 and 2000.[1]

Stephen King has revealed that it is the first novel he ever wrote, begun eight years before Carrie was published in 1974, when he was a freshman at the University of Maine in 1966-67.[2]

Plot summary

One hundred teenage boys participate in an annual walking contest called "The Long Walk," which is the "national sport". Each Walker must maintain a speed of at least four miles per hour; if he drops below that speed for 30 seconds, he receives a verbal warning (which can be erased by walking for one hour without being warned). If a Walker with three warnings slows down again, he is "ticketed." The meaning of this term is intentionally kept vague at first, but it soon becomes clear that "buying a ticket" means to be shot dead by soldiers riding in half-tracks along the roadside. Walkers may be shot immediately for certain serious violations, such as trying to leave the road or attacking the half-track. The soldiers use electronic equipment to precisely determine a Walker's speed.

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Walk

"It was originally published in hardcover on September 14, 2008, by Scholastic."

Why is it problematic? Kids killing kids is the most wrenching thing we can imagine, and rooting for the deaths of Katniss' opponents can't help but implicate us. But the novel is written by a humanist: When a child dies, we breathe a sigh of relief that Katniss has one less adversary, but we never go, "Yes!" — we feel only revulsion for this evil ritual.

If the film's director, Gary Ross, has any qualms about kids killing kids, he keeps them to himself. The murders on screen are fast and largely pain-free — you can hardly see who's killing who. So despite the high body count, the rating is PG-13.

Think about it: You make killing vivid and upsetting and get an R. You take the sting out of it, and kids are allowed into the theater. The ratings board has it backward.


The Hunger Games leaves you content — but not, as with the novel, devastated by the senseless carnage. It is, I'm sorry to say, the work of moral cowards.

http://www.npr.org/2012/03/22/148941034/acting-trumps-action-in-a-games-without-horror?ft=1&f=1045

year one is the setup, years 2-5 are pure political war with some damming commentaries on society.. he foresaw the GOP of today...

where is Spider Jerusalem when we need him?

"Journalism is just a gun. It's only got one bullet in it, but if you aim right, that's all you need. Aim it right, and you can blow a kneecap off the world..."

"Pollsters are reporting record low turnout this election day, with yet more people bemoaning the continued necessity to actually physically drag your fucking carcass to a polling station to vote."

"They assume, like most people, that fear will do the trick. Fear will keep everyone in place. Fear will keep everyone distracted from what's really going on.... Fuck that. I'm not afraid of them. They're afraid of me. They're afraid of the truth."

and how the US could become just like that under Obama. She quickly changed the subject when I pointed out that it was rather right wing plutocracy what occurred in the story than communism. I asked her to further describe the system of the story and told her (after listening to what appeared to be her idea of socialism) that to me it sounded more like a sort of social Darwinism and extreme competition existed. That ironically those systems were favored predominantly by far right wing systems, like Facism. You should have seen her expression when I mentioned right wing and Facism in the same sentence. Priceless!

The theme of "The Hunger Games" is clearly about the right wing authoritarians ideology.

about this movie. Let's just say FOX news is out of it's mind if they want to spin it as anti-Obama.

Of course I've seen right wingers try to say Dr. Suess's books support their views too completely disregarding the fact that Theodor Geisel was a democrat and political cartoonist who had a very low opinion of conservatives.

some of the reviews are complaining that the villains aren't obvious enough, that the romance isn't developed, etc. Others are complaining that a film that focuses on a theme of children murdering children is too dark for kids. As I said, I haven't seen the film yet, but I suspect that many of the reviewers don't understand how to appreciate a science fiction story, especially a dystopian one. I saw some similar problems with the reviews for John Carter. If you don't understand the conventions of the genre, you won't understand the film.