The Hunger Games: Teach Your Children Well

Article first published as The Hunger Games: Teach Your Children Well on Blogcritics.


If you are not sure about taking your child to see this movie because of the much publicized violence, perhaps you should not; however, if you are brave enough to take your ten-year old (or older only) you will have found an object lesson for the day, week, and month, and maybe even years to come. It's that powerful!

The Hunger Games is scary, not Halloween or Friday the 13th kind of scary, but rather frightening in the sense of the possibility that it could happen one day in real life and how children would suffer most. Feelings of emotional heft and abject sadness filled me as I watched this film with my daughter, holding her a little bit closer during certain scenes, and understanding full well why she would hide her eyes during others. I might have wanted to myself but the film is so riveting, so well crafted, it would have been hard to turn away.

Director Gary Ross has made a film that is like the precocious child of the film The Running Man and the book Lord of the Flies, and the heroine Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) is someone we root for throughout, despite the hardship she endures and the ugly things she is forced to do in the name of the game. The "game" is that 24 young people (the youngest being 13) are brought in, briefly trained, and set against each other to kill or be killed until the last one is standing. The fact that all of this is propelled by "hunger" in every essence of what that word implies is evident in the most brutal scenes. It is like a play on those sign holding "Will Work for Food" people, but here it is "Will Kill for Food."

Lawrence is more than a revelation; she is beautiful, broken, ugly, brave, frightened, and frightening in alternating shafts of illumination. Ross has done well to build the tension, the ratcheting up of the kill or be killed game, the cat and mouse where the rodent is just as dangerous (perhaps even more so at times) as the feline. As she learns the ropes and bonds with her fellow contestant Peeta Mallark (a terrific Josh Hutcherson), it seems increasingly possible that Katniss will fight to the last man or woman is standing.

The supporting cast is fantastic; in their strange make-up and powdered wigs, Elizabeth Banks and Stanley Tucci shine and are emblematic of this warped future world. Woody Harrelson brings much needed comic relief as Haymitch Abernathy, an advisor for Peeta and Katniss who once won the Hunger Games long ago, but now is a jaded drunk who doesn't think they have much chance of winning, or does he? Donald Sutherland impresses as President Snow, the extent of his evil gradually revealed as the film progresses, and we learn that he controls all and will only tolerate deviation from procedure to a point.

All of this becomes a lesson for kids who have too much, have it too easy, and think the world revolves around their iPods and computer screens. As we watched the movie, I was taken with how many people were munching popcorn and slurping sodas in the theater. In a movie like The Hunger Games, where a loaf of bread thrown to pigs in the rain and to a starving girl turns into an important element, it seems incongruous how people could keep the feedbag on throughout, but that may be the whole point.

The Hunger Games teaches a lesson very well, one that drove its points home to my child long after we left the theater. She asked insightful questions, wondered about what she saw, and was deeply impressed by the film. She saw the horror (and there are numerous brutal scenes of violent death) but she also saw the love that develops between Katniss and Peeta, a selfless love that in the end not only overcomes all the brutality but may take them together into the other world instead of winning the contest by killing one another.

This film teaches lessons so well, much the same as did last year's A Better Life, which should have won an Oscar for best picture because it told an amazing story about an immigrant father's love, about overcoming the odds, and fighting for what is right. Like The Hunger Games it is a movie that you don't just walk away from, and we need more of that - much more.

If you want to teach your (older) children well, and you are up to the challenge of taking them to a film that will get you talking and thinking, The Hunger Games is for you. It is not an easy film, and there is a harsh reality that it depicts and the explanations will take time afterwards, but I guarantee you that it will be worth the effort.

Photo Credits: imdb.com

A Return Visit to Houdini's Grave

Article first published as A Return Visit to Houdini's Grave on Blogcritics.


Visiting grave sites is something of an odd custom, but many people do this in reverence for loved ones. We also sometimes visit the graves of those famous people whom we admire. Over the years I have visited the graves of mostly poets and writers, with Shakespeare's being the most meaningful to me. In Paris I joined hundreds of other people who went to Pere Lachaise Cemetery to visit Jim Morrison's grave (I went on July 3 - his birthday - which could explain the huge crowd).


I grew up not far from the cemetery where Houdini was buried, and as kids we were fascinated by the fact that Houdini's grave was nearby. I devoured every book with "Houdini" in the title, and my grandfather's stories about his exploits enhanced my interest in the man. The name Houdini seemed to stand for magic, mystery, and excitement.

My grandfather had seen Houdini performing at Coney Island in the early 1900s, and that was before he became truly famous. By the time my father was a boy, Houdini had become what would be considered the equivalent of today's rock star. A true celebrity, Houdini was involved in movies, radio shows, and what seemed to be his favorite thing, live shows in the Vaudeville era.

Houdini is probably best known for great escapes. He could escape from chains, straitjackets, water tanks, and most notably handcuffs. When I was a kid running around the house, my grandfather used to call me "Houdini" because I was popping up everywhere and disappearing. The legend caught my attention and then I found out about his grave being in the cemetery literally down the block, and that increased my fascination with the magician.

When I was a teenager we would walk the long cold stretch up the steep Cypress Hills Street from Cooper Avenue with cemeteries on both sides of us. We did this every Halloween because Houdini had died on October 31 and supposedly told his wife that if he could come back he would do so on that night. It was quite a spooky trek, but when we would get there other people had the same idea, so it was not that scary to see a large group of Houdini fans waiting for the ghost to arrive. We never did see anything on those dark cold nights.


Recently I made a return visit to the grave in Machpelah Cemetery in Glendale, Queens. This grave site is not far from the gate that is on the western side of Cypress Hills Street north of Cooper Avenue. Houdini is marked on the stone above the family name Weiss (Eric Weiss was Harry's given name). I was sorry to see the bust of Houdini had been taken away. I remembered that the grave had been vandalized several times over the years, so perhaps it was removed to protect it.

On a clear cold winter's day, there was nothing spooky about the grave at all. All the mystery seemed to have been displaced, perhaps by growing older and sadly wiser. Still, the mystery of the man remained and I paid respects to his memory and the reminiscence of the excitement his legend caused me in childhood.

Houdini's grave is worth a visit if you have any interest in his story. He once was extremely famous and is one of the greatest magicians who ever lived. He died on October 31, 1926, from a burst appendix. It was widely known that he could take any punch to the stomach, but a college student had taken him by surprise and punched him before he could tighten his muscles properly. The great Houdini was undone by a sucker punch, but his legend lives on.

Photo Credit: Harry Houdini - Houdini.com

As Gang Green Turns: Three Turnovers Doom Jets as They Lose 9-0 to the Packers

Article first published as As Gang Green Turns: More Trick Than Treat: Jets Lose Halloween Game 9-0 to the Packers on Blogcritics.

Ladies and gentlemen, if some kids rings your doorbell tonight wearing a Jets outfits, please be generous in order for them to drown their sorrows in candy. This game was proved to be no treat for the fans or head coach Rex Ryan either, as they watched the New York Jets (5-2) get shutout by the Green Bay Packers (5-3) at New Meadowlands Stadium.

Even with the bye week giving them extra rest for this game, the Jets' offense came in looking like they needed more time off. Although quarterback Mark Sanchez's numbers were not terrible (16-38 for 256 yards), he did throw two interceptions. Ryan has to be alarmed that Sanchez has thrown four of these in his last two games.

Many people have been talking about Sanchez's new maturity, but there is a definite sense that he loses it when things don't go the right way. It didn't help matters that his receivers couldn't keep their hands on the ball and out of the hands of their opponents.

More problematic than Sanchez's inability to lead today was that the rest of the offense seemed to come up lame, and a strange fake punt attempt failed too. Both of Ryan's replay challenges failed, so the Jets went into halftime down 3-0. Ryan, who can talk with the best of them, obviously failed to get Gang Green's offense motivated in the lockeroom, because it was more of the same the rest of the way.

One good sign was that the Jets' defense was definitely going well today, limiting the Packers to three field goals, but Ryan can take little solace in this because the offense that looked so strong during that five game winning streak seemed not to show up today. In its place were Halloween zombies who couldn't get it together to score any points.

People here in New York have been talking about an almost pre-destined Super Bowl match between the Jets and Giants, but all this talk is obviously premature at best after this debacle. Even with a healthy Darrelle Revis and a tight defense, the team cannot win if it doesn't score any points.

All of us fans can keep dreaming about Gang Green going against Big Blue in the ultimate football showdown, but if the Jets keep playing this way, they will be lucky to even contend for a wild card.

Things looked pretty dismal today and, even with the home field advantage, the Jets went down and looked like they were out for the count early on. Hey Rex Ryan, in case you are wondering, that booing you heard wasn't Halloween ghosts drifting through the stadium; it was your Jets fans who knew a stinker when they saw one.

Well, hopefully next week things will get better, but one never knows in the soap opera As Gang Green Turns.