Soderbergh Ep. 28: The Hunger Games (2012)

May the pods be ever in your feed-ver. Or whatever! We're screwing with the chronology a little bit today because we decided Steven Soderbergh's second unit work on Gary Ross's 2012 YA adaptation THE HUNGER GAMES was worth doing on the main feed after all. And we were right! There's a ton to talk about, from the film's style and what it means to try to find Soderbergh in it to the whole series's depictions of class, political struggle, war, and propaganda, to the popularity of dystopian young adult fiction, to the effectiveness of "political" art like ANDOR and ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER, to the surprisingly enduring legacy of Hunger Games imagery in real protest movements around the world, to how much this film (and later ones in the series especially) remind us of Gaza. Good stuff, please check it out. Further Reading: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution by Vincent Bevins "A Radical Female Hero From Dystopia" by Manohla Dargis and A.O. Scott "Suzanne Collins Talks About 'The Hunger Games,' the Books and the Movies" "'Hunger Games': The Real Story Behind Steven Soderbergh's Involvement" by Philiana Ng "Hunger Games: Israel Forces Gazans to Choose Between Starvation and Risking Their Lives" by Nir Hasson "'The Hunger Games' Turns 10: Director Gary Ross Reflects on Filming, Story's Resonant Themes" by Lexy Perez "Mark of the (Mr.) Beast" by Veronica Phillips Further Viewing: THE RUNNING MAN (Glaser, 1987) VOCES INOCENTES (Mandoki, 2004) THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (Lawrence, 2013) THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY - PART 1 (Lawrence, 2014) THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY - PART 2 (Lawrence, 2015) ANDOR (Various, 2022-2025) ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER (Anderson, 2025) THE LONG WALK (Lawrence, 2025) REALITY CHECK: INSIDE AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL (Loushy & Sivan, 2026)   Follow Pod Casty For Me: https://www.podcastyforme.com/ https://twitter.com/podcastyforme https://www.instagram.com/podcastyforme/ https://www.youtube.com/@podcastyforme Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/PodCastyForMe Artwork by Jeremy Allison: https://www.instagram.com/jeremyallisonart