‘Hunger Games: Catching Fire’ is haunting but ripe for discussion

In the months after “winning” the Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) are back home, living with their families at the Victors’ Village in District 12. Their mentor, Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson), has his own house there, too.

Katniss and Peeta are preparing to embark on their Victory Tour. Katniss meets with Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth), her soul mate who is now working in the mines and becoming more and more angry at what the people are forced to do to survive.

Haymitch is a drunken mess, and Katniss goes to the black market to buy some liquor to hold him over on the trip.

Not long before they are to depart, Katniss gets a surprise visit from President Snow (Donald Sutherland), who believes that when she and Peeta agreed to take their own lives by eating poisonous berries rather than kill one another, it was an act of subversion that gave the people hope. Now he demands that if Katniss wants to survive, she has to prove to him that she is really in love with Peeta and not just pretending to be. In this way, the president believes he can control the people in the districts.

Katniss learns of an uprising in District 8, and not long after, President Snow announces the Quarter Quell to mark the 75th anniversary of the Capitol’s triumph over the districts’ uprising. Two Hunger Games survivors from each district are to participate in a special competition to the death. Katniss and Haymitch are chosen from District 12, but Peeta volunteers to take Haymitch’s place. Katniss makes Haymitch promise to do everything he can to save Peeta.

And so it begins again.

Revolt is evident wherever the Victory Tour train stops. The people raise their hands in salute to Katniss …. CLICK HERE to continue reading at The National Catholic Reporter