The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was a widely anticipated movie from The Hunger Games universe and a prequel to the original series that gives us an insight into the life of Coriolanus Snow before he was President. I had the pleasure of watching this film over the weekend, and I have a lot of thoughts about the games themselves and what they represent about our society. So, this will not be a review of the movie itself, although it was a great movie, and you should all watch it for yourself; however, I mostly want to comment on the idea of the spectacle it displays.

The idea of the spectacle has been around for ages, and I think the best way to describe it, to quote from Jordan Peele, is “Anything that deeply captures the attention of us humans, and in most cases, makes us behave in toxic ways.” The Hunger Games is a tool that The Capital uses as a way to keep the power they hold over the districts to instill fear and make them hate each other for killing their own, even though they have no choice. After watching The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, it shows a more brutal, rudimentary version of the Games that is honestly more horrific to witness than the 74th and 75th games. 

The problem that the game makers face in this movie is the fact that Capital citizens are no longer watching the Hunger Games and each year, their views go down, and they are wondering whether they should even continue them. But Snow comes up with the idea to make the Capital citizens not view the tributes as animals but as people and give them someone to root for. Also, provide the districts with a winner and give them a tiny sliver of hope so they don’t revolt.

It is obviously very evident in the later games how much of a spectacle it has turned into, with the games being broadcasted all over the districts, with talk shows, parades, and ratings so The Capital can instill its ideals and rules with meticulously manufactured images. They make The Capital look like a wonderland, and given how poor they keep the districts, it gives them an incentive to want to go and kill these children so they can share in some of that wealth and luxury. With the fake images and propaganda, they are able to make it seem like it’s perfectly alright to kill a 12-year-old child. 

I also believe in the theory that The Capital hand selects some of the tributes for each game. I mean, it’s not farfetched that they would want to hand-pick the tributes in order to give the people a better show so that more would watch. Because what is the point of a Hunger Games if no one is watching?

I could talk about this for ages, but I will leave you off with this. The Hunger Games series is very much a critique of the capitalist society of America and how it tends to monetize tragedies to gain power and wealth off of others’ trauma. It also shows how we absorb media and how many people we know on a day-to-day basis are no better than the people of The Capital. We as a society are obsessed with this idea of spectacle and are constantly looking for the next big thing. But no matter what, we’re always left wanting more, and the more we want, the more brutal and cruel these spectacles must be to continuously grab our attention.