The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes Is an Effective Return to a Cautionary Tale
Eight years ago, when the tragic-yet-hopeful tale of Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) came to a close in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, that was supposed to be it. Author Suzanne Collins’ book trilogy was maxed out by Lionsgate, which they finagled into a movie quadrilogy that only semi-compromised her potent, dystopian examination of the true costs of war and retribution. But then Collins went and surprised everyone in 2020 by releasing a prequel novel, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, that reveals how young Coriolanus Snow came to embrace his dark side, laying the path to his decades-long authoritarian rule in Panem.
Following Collins’ lead, franchise director Francis Lawrence, producer Nina Jacobson and a gaggle of below-the-line department heads have also returned to the Hunger Games world for an adaptation that adheres closely to the source. Screenwriters Michael Lesslie and Michael Arndt literally port over the three-part structure of the book to peel back the curtain on how the pivotal 10th anniversary of the annual Hunger Games turned Snow (Tom Blyth) into a Machiavellian monster.
As they say, “timing is everything,” which certainly rings true for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which is being released into a world where two wars are currently being waged with sobering brutality. Those conflicts stay top of mind as the film’s narrative tackles the timely concerns of the fallout of post-war retribution, the moral rules of engagement concerning civilians and whether humans have the capacity to be better than their basest instincts for survival. However, for all of those meaty and worthwhile thought exercises, there’s also a predestined nihilism to Snow’s story that assures an ending with none of the hope that ultimately defines Everdeen’s bittersweet arc—which is far less satisfying.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes does open very strong, opening with the situational context of what the post-war “Dark Days” did to the residents of the Capitol, creating the kind of anger and vengeance-seeking that could birth a ritual as disturbing as The Hunger Games. Time then jumps 10 years to the eve of the Reaping, an event that has lost its luster with both the still-rebuilding Capitol residents and the 12 Districts that provide two Tributes each to the Games.
Eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow was born into a family of impeccable station, but now tries to hide from his peers the poverty that he, his entitled Grandma’am (Fionnula Flanagan) and empathetic cousin Tigris (Hunter Schafer) are mired in after the murder of their patriarch, Crassus. Having toiled to become the shoe-in for the Plinth Prize scholarship, Snow is dismayed (along with his student peers) to learn that the head gamemaker, Dr. Volumnia Gaul (Viola Davis), wants to add a final assignment to earn the scholarship. Whomever can keep their assigned Tribute alive to the end of the Games gains the scholarship and money. Undeterred, Snow is energized by the singing talent and bold defiance of his District 12 Tribute, Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), which he plans to exploit to their benefit in the leadup to the Games.
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