Dystopian films and the mirror of society

During the last decade, dystopian films have become more popular and through these films, problems with society’s ethical and moral values have been highlighted. The most popular and successful films of the dystopian genre were the Hunger Games and the Divergent franchises which have both mirrored society in their own ways. 

The Hunger Games franchise is a very popular young adult dystopian film of this decade. The film depicts a futuristic American society called Panem and how children are set to fight to the death in order to win the title of the ‘Victor’. This is all as revenge for when the thirteen districts of Panem had defied against the capitol and started a rebellion that was later crushed by President Snow and his Peacekeepers. The film had mirrored the continuing problems of the class system in the western world on an exaggerated scale.

The Marxist Theories

•  Capitalism can only thrive on the exploitation of the working class. 
• The classes are a barrier in society that is nearly impossible to break.

Alike the Marxist theory, the films shows that once someone is born in a class/district, they would never be able to break free from it. This is relatable to our society still because if we look into our governments, it is very hard to find a member of government that has not attended one of the best private schools in the country i.e Harrow/ Eton. It is very rare to find a member of parliament or someone with significant power in this country who have not been brought up in a higher class. The film also highlighted theories of governmental corruption that had once seemed a wild accusation, which have now seemed a logical conclusion. Along with the digitalisation of the 21^st century, have come theories that the government can spy on us and see much more than we would have agreed or accepted to share with also some saying that all the information on the internet could easily be censored or edited by the government and so we just see what they want us to see. Which would be relatable to the Moral Panics Theory.

Moral Panics (Cohen)

• "condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests"
• This was a theory by Stanley Cohen which was written in his book Folk Devils and Moral Panics, 1972. 
• The idea of governmental corruption would relate to the Moral Panics theory because it would be a threat the societal idea of the government keeping us safe. 

In addition to this, readers of the Hunger Games books would know that in the descriptions of the characters, they were not said to be white. However, in the making of the film Hollywood made most of the characters in the film white, and hadn’t shown the fact that in the books Peta lost a leg and Katniss suffered from being deaf in parts of the book, which shows that Hollywood chose not to represent disability in the film nor different races as well as the book.

 

Similar ideas were shown through the Divergent series. The film consists of a future Chicago with the inhabitants put into four groups/factions so that the build up to the destruction of their world would not happen again. To be put into these groups, at the age of 16 each teenager is to take the aptitude test and then make their choice of their new faction in the Choosing Ceremony.  However, some people do not conform to one faction and these people are called Divergents. These people are in danger of being hunted by the government and executed. This could mirror society in that people find it dangerous or threatening to be part of more than one of these ‘factions’ and instead, people are grouped in society rather than being seen for who they really are. For example, there are groups in society that are branded the “good guys” or the “rebels”, to a general society, these people are shown to be nothing more than this title given to them-which should not be the case. To dive deeper into the plot of the Divergent franchise, it could also be seen to depict the flawed society in terms of prejudices, which in our society today is still a problem especially in terms of racism.

Utopian Theory (Dyer)

• Both of these film examples would subvert from this theory
• This is the idea that people consume media because it expresses ideals about how human life should be organised and lived, it shows the 'perfect' way to live.
• This would subvert from the ideals shown in Divergent and The Hunger Games as these are known to be Dystopian films because of their exaggerated immoral society. 

 The group who are different and so are seen as threating and dangerous, the Divergents, can have links with people being singled out because of their race in our society, which is still a major problem especially in the US, which has been shared through recent news articles in the last decade. 

Recent News from the last decade

• Michael Brown was an 18 year old African American who was fatally shot by a white American police officer on the 9^th August 2014 after Michael had stolen several packages of tobacco from a local convenience store. This act created an uproar across the globe and showed the treatment of African Americans in the US. 
• Another example of this would be the catalyst for the Baltimore riots of 2015, which was the death of Freddie Gray, a 25 year old African American, after injuries sustained during an arrest by the police. This sparked riots across Baltimore which were reported across the world and highlighted again that problems were still continuing in America in terms of racism. 
• Another case could be linked to ideas covered in divergent. Sandra Band was an African American woman who was found dead in her jail cell in Texas on July 13^th 2015. The police said that she hanged herself, however the cause of death was disputed and sparked riots. This could link to the idea shown in divergent in which the government is corrupt as well as the factions and the idea of prejudice.

In conclusion, in many ways these two films do show fundermental flaws in our society. However, these films aren’t all about to show the negatives and all that is wrong with our world, it also shows that resistance should be shown to what has become the norm in our world and we all should have a voice to ignite a rebellion against these ideas. (Although possibly a rebellion that is less dramatic then depicted in these films).