The Aesthetics of The Hunger Games

In which the visuals of the Hunger Games world are analyzed.

Setting aside the very fine action elements of this movie, I’d like to focus for a moment on something that was likely overlooked by many viewers but that stood above the plot and the action for me: The look and feel of the world. It is rare to see Hollywood put the effort into making a world come alive, and even less common than that to see them achieve a consistency and a beauty in the world on the level that The Hunger Games managed to pull off.

The world which the writers created was, in essence, a futuristic version of the United States of the 1930s or 1940s: Instead of the “normal” futuristic visuals of steel-and-glass skyscrapers such as we often see today (often resembling towering mirrors as much as anything), concrete and stone instead mesh with the glass in styles not unlike what you can find in era buildings such as the Empire State Building. Where buildings emphasize steel and glass over stone-and-glass, the styles are distinctly streamlined: The curves in building shapes are much more in the vein of the 1938 Worlds’ Fair than anything else, with the fountains and decorations creating a decidedly art deco feel.

The train station, though with a greater emphasis on glass in the ceiling, evokes Grand Central Terminal in New York as well with the archways (such are littered throughout Grand Central IRL, particularly on the lower level of the terminal); even the glass-and-metal structures come across as futuristic version of the vaulted ceiling found in the real-life terminals that dominated transportation in the era, in Washington’s Union Station, or indeed in Los Angeles Union Station.

In the meantime, District 12 evokes Appalachia of the same era. Part of this is an automatic association between the region and coal mining (the predominant industry of West Virginia, western Virginia, and several bordering areas), but a fair portion is also the poverty and relatively simple clothing which tended to dominate both regions as well as the clapboard housing styles. One can find similar enough visuals in the movie October Sky, which (though set in the 1950s) has a similar setting. Indeed, instead of the jeep that was used, it would not have been too out-of-place to see Effie taking Peeta and Katniss to the train station in a boattailed 1942 Cadillac 60.

This feel extends to the train as well, and in many ways the train is the strongest example: Visually, the train is nearly identical to one of the many Burlington Zephyrs of the era, albeit with the ribbing found on those trains removed in favor of a sleek, smooth steel design. Inside, though the decor is slightly overblown (this was done to an end, showing the extreme prosperity of Capitol in contrast to the poverty of District 12), one can find similar seating designs in the parlor cars of the era and in restored cars from that era; the train set used would not have been out of place as the private train of an early-to-mid century millionaire (and only slightly “overdone” for one of the high-end trains, such as the Twentieth Century Limited or the Super Chief). In the meantime, the automated doors (one of the few overtly ‘futuristic’ features onboard) can be found on the Acela today.

Most of all, the features (inside and out alike) all fit seamlessly together with both one another and the world: The design is coherent and consistent, rather than being a random assemblage of styles and designs. Maglev propulsion notwithstanding, it would not be hard to envision this train pulling into Penn or Grand Central during the Second World War.

Perhaps the only slightly discordant element in the whole set of visuals is the fashion styles of Capitol, which tend towards the wildly garish. Yet there is a consistency here…as noted before, some elements were used to show Capitol as being absurdly wealthy; the hair and clothing of Capitol’s citizens are one such element, though the regular, gluttonous feasts presented in multiple scenes also come to mind.

While it seems clear from, in particular, the design of Capitol’s emblem, that the designers were shooting for something more…ahem…”German” or “Roman”, they achieved something more magnificent in many regards. Those features which would evoke that are elegantly understated, allowing the viewer to be genuinely impressed rather than unsettled.