“What do the hunger games exist for?” is a question repeatedly asked during the roughly two-and-a-half-hour runtime of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. It’s answered by our protagonist, a young President Snow played by the excellent Tom Blyth, before and after a twisty, deeply observed journey from righteousness to confirmative blindness. Unlike other films in the franchise, this marathon of a film is studious, unravels at a crawling pace and uses action as a springboard for something steadier and layered. There is a lot that goes unsaid, is understated and perhaps deliberately obscured. So here is everything that happens, until that cliff-hanger of a final act.
Coriolanus the Mentor
Divided into three parts that deal with three different phases of Snow’s life, the first one sees the future president of the Capital, turn up for graduation. The prize - previously thought to be money – is replaced with the obligation of mentoring a ‘tribute’ for the latest edition of the Hunger Games. The games have lost their sheen, viewership has plummeted and in an attempt to revive interest for the devilish spectacle the regime is looking for fresh ideas. Heir to the legacy of the games and generational wealth that dissipated with their decline, Snow wants to better his father’s reputation. He has the hint of rebellion and the full-blooded look of horror and vulnerability which suggests he just might. As Dean Highbottom (Peter Dinklage) plots the revival of the country’s favourite sport, Doctor Volumnia (a stunning Viola Davis) rules behind the scenes with an iron fist. Snow’s protégé Lucy Gray (Rachel Zegler) of District 12, will through the course of the games become both his doing and undoing.
From Mentor to Victor (somewhat)
What makes this prequel to the popular young adult franchise, so fascinating is its interest in the making of the oppressor. We know Snow will eventually become the authoritarian voice behind the mindless violence of the games, but it is captivating to witness how he got there. The second part, titled ‘the prize’ actually deals with the games, 40-odd minutes of brute violence unleashed with stark, in-your-face simplicity. Snow does his best to assist Lucy in a violent battle that plays out within a concrete cage. Lucy can sing, but she can’t quite fight fist with fist. It makes her the perfect foil for Katniss’ eventual heroism - a woman incapable of violent rhetoric. But her popularity, her all-heart approach to a deadly battle for survival, unnerves even the steady hand of Volumnia. Jason Schwartzman provides the razzmatazz, the gloss to the hollow, surreal glory of a blood sport that Lucy, against despicable odds, wins.
A battle between Song and Snakes
Lucy is referred to as the ‘songbird’ because she symbolises the whimsy of poetry that is urged to battle against the feral nature of venomous snakes. Snakes that Volumnia literally nurtures as pets and instruments. It’s a battle between the softness of faith and the dehumanising hierarchy of the districts; a battle that Lucy wins by appealing to the humanity of men and women capable of feeling, as opposed to the punishing regime that seems well beyond it. For illegally assisting her in the games, Snow is expelled and sent to the districts to serve as a ‘peacemaker’. He buys his way to District 12, where he will not only find the woman he fell for, but also the politics he feels genetically driven by. Also accompanying him on this pilgrimage of sorts is Sejanus, out to right his family’s many wrongs.
The Tables Turn
On the ground in District 12, Snow and Lucy hatch a plan to escape the watchful eye of Panem. On the inside, though, Snow is already beginning to miss life back in the Capital. Beneath the warm texture of their relationship, there seem to emerge signs of fracture and disagreement. Snow’s loyalty to the old guard, has begun to take the shape of resentment towards the uprising. Torn between love and loyalty, Snow chooses a bit of both. He murders to prevent Lucy from being exposed, but betrays Sejanus out of loyalty to the establishment. In his mind, he sees a return to life in the capital. As they escape the clutches of the authorities though, the mind plays tricks as endeavour soon turns to doubt and eventually suspicion. How did Lucy amass all that ammunition in a remote hideout? Does she love him or simply fear him? “Are you trying to kill me?” he screams after he is bitten by one of Lucy’s snakes. He is no longer sure if he fell in love with her or the idea of her.
Is Lucy Dead?
Most likely not. Snow spends the last moments of the film, lost in the woods, shooting in the air as Lucy’s song drizzles down from the sky. He shoots her. She grunts and falls but most likely escapes alive. Back in the capital Snow returns transformed, disgruntled about the fact that the people he entrusted couldn’t reciprocate that trust. He exacts revenge on Highbottom, regains his family’s lost wealth, designs the notorious future of the games and commits to the brutality that has for years manufactured consensus that the games do in fact exist for the sake of everyone’s life. Even if the cost is death. It hints at another sequel, a political battle to take over the presidency, an intimate conflict involving Lucy that will squeeze any humanity and compassion out of him and maybe an upping of the scales, as the preface to Katniss’ (mentioned in that scene by the lake) rise to his tormentor-in-chief.
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