The Hunger Games series is generally not subtle when it comes to its symbolism. It satirizes celebrity culture and the glorification of violence in the media by pushing it to its logical extreme, with even the name of the country, “Panem,” referring to the old Roman phrase meaning “bread and circuses.” Everything the people see on television is a lie designed to make them easier to control, and every person onscreen is being controlled and manipulated. When Francis Lawrence took over directing for the franchise with Catching Fire, he chose to weave this satire into every shot with his formal choices, including some very specific and consistent color symbolism.
The colors of the film are strongly and consistently symbolic. For the most part, the palette is muted. Especially in the poor, oppressed District 12, dull grays and blacks and washed out blues are the norm. By contrast, the corrupt, decadent Capitol is full of garish, striking, ever-changing colors. The exception is a pure, bright white, which serves to illustrate the violence and authority of the Capitol. The evil president, meaningfully named Snow, always wears and distributes white roses. These roses turn up whenever the Capitol makes a move against Katniss and her allies, such as subtly decorating the edges of the chariot as she and Peeta ride to their second Games. The peacekeepers, the oppressive and violent police force, wear white—there is even a scene where the lax local officers, who wear grey under their uniforms, are arrested and replaced with vicious Capitol newcomers wearing only white. And, of course, there is the scene where Katniss burns away a white wedding dress to reveal a gray mockingjay gown underneath, revealing her rebellion to the world.
Other colors carry other layers of significance. Purple always occurs when a Capitol character is making a show of power and waste, notably the president’s tacky purple house where he holds lavish galas full of powerful citizens. There, Peeta is offered a purple drink to make him vomit so that he can eat more. Purple is the color of the suits and dyed hair of the Games announcers as they make sending subjects to die into a fun spectacle. Effie plans for gold to be the color of team solidarity, but it is instead present whenever Katniss is manipulated by her allies, with Haymitch’s gold bangle as the proof that he made plans with Finnick behind her back and Peeta hiding family photos in his gold locket to try to get Katniss to abandon him. Orange, the innocent Peeta’s favorite color, finds its way into the story via the titular fire that symbolically burns away the old regime and the history of oppression. It is the color most closely associated with Katniss’s personal strength and her own ways of rebelling, whether with her dresses or the burning remains of the arena after she destroys it.
Color is not the only prominent stylistic choice that Lawrence makes—his quick, sudden cuts emphasize Katniss’s lack of control and he illustrates the censored, artificial nature of the Games’ world by having Johanna’s swears bleeped out, and he wisely ditched the distracting shaky cam of the first film which activated at the merest hint of violence to give the viewer a more direct and brutal look at the action. The visual is a strong theme in the movie, from the benevolent painting ability of Peeta to the many manipulations of the Games and the propaganda on camera. By giving his colors such a strong visual coding, Lawrence embraces the artifice that the film so criticizes and gives the viewer the tools to recognize it for what it is. The viewer must learn to see the artificiality and hidden meanings in the films for himself, lest he be caught and deceived in the same manner as the people of Panem.
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