Psychology of a Hero: Katniss Everdeen (part 1)

what I think is so inspiring about Katniss she wants to not be changed by the capital by society that she's going to be a rock are you with trauma we have things like avoidance of triggers we have intense hyper Vigilant fear response where you can't really experience peace or feel safe a trigger is terrible even if you mentally know what's going on it brings you emotionally too I am back in the arena not in the Hanging Tree foreign [Music] times when you have someone who exemplifies what people want to be but they're too scared to be it galvanizes a movement and if we burn you burn with us because of what she shows in the arena she's recruited to be the Mockingjay [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you're already feeling it of course I am are you kidding me Jayla is the truth man [Music] hello and welcome to cinema therapy I'm Jonathan Decker licensed therapist and I love movies I'm Alan searight professional filmmaker and I need therapy and today we are going to continue our psychology of a hero series with the one and only girl on fire Katniss Everdeen [Applause] [Laughter] oh this is gonna be fun what's his name fluger fleaf and bottom [Applause] no uh it would be Caesar flickerman not flicker flavor bottom not flicker flavor bottom so I'm real bad at words and names and pretty much everything that's not moving pictures the thing about our psychology of a hero series is we are normalizing the fact that because we also have uh villain therapy Heroes villains just people mental health is something that we all struggle with relationship struggles like we all we all got him and you know who has them more than anybody careless get out she's got problems yeah she's been through some been through some [ __ ] yeah so we're gonna take a look at three things today we're going to take a look at her morality in the face of a world that is immoral and cold and aloof and how she maintains her integrity and compassion we're gonna look at her extreme introversion and how she just really really doesn't want to be on camera it really really doesn't want to be in front of people and how she overcomes that for a higher cause and then we're going to take a look at her experience of complex PTSD what's the difference between PTSD and complex PTSD oh and how she works through it interesting I have always kind of wondered that yeah so what's the setup here America has turned into Pan Am there's a capital they're rich there are districts that the capital runs as basically enslaved labor colonies the ones close to the capital are fairly Rich the ones further away from the capital are not and District 12 is the furthest away and that's the one where Katniss lives and it's bad there these outlying districts uh once rebelled against the capital and the capital put it down and as a reminder not to mess with the capital every year they're like one young man and woman to fight to the death and the pageant of Honor courage and sacrifice we can draft against your will children from your community to compete in the death who will then fight each other to the death yeah and the winner will get a lifetime of wealth and everyone else just gets brutally butchered on live television what fun yay and so what I always thought was interesting is how this is a tale of compassion in really brutal horrible horrifying circumstances yeah yeah and so uh let's take a look foreign so this is the reaping where they select the kids that are going to go this is Elizabeth Banks just giving it her all this is 113 of Elizabeth Banks Katniss's sister it's her first year and she's terrified that she'll be reaped because she knows she'll die yeah she's not a fighter come on Anna well come on and Katniss was comforting or that there's no way she'll be drawn but here she is because every year you get another name added to the another yeah your name or your name added again yeah your name's added again so if you've been doing it four years here in four times there's a family that's lost their father mother was into addiction and mental I believe we have a volunteer I need to get out of here you need to get out of here no go find Mom no don't go find Mom I know so sorry no dramatic turn of events here in District 12. so prim's just gone from I'm gonna die to my sister's gonna die very first volunteer always been an option no one's ever done it come on dear well why would you volunteer right yes I'd like to go die please what's your name Everdeen well I bet my hat that was your sister wasn't it yes let's have a big hand for our very first volunteer Katniss Everdeen the symbol of their District you are already you're already feeling it of course I am are you kidding me Jennifer Lawrence she had done a couple of Indie movies like one big one in particular when she got cast in this and in the X-Men films and I think people just sort of ignored the fact that Jayla is the truth man this episode is sponsored by surf shark yay love surf shark surf shark is a VPN or a virtual private Network which means it'll protect your information and all of your online goodness that's true we're gonna use it to watch shows that we can't get in our country because we're super smart you were genius we're gonna watch a lot of shows from other countries did you know you can unlock the 15 largest Netflix libraries from overseas or if you are overseas from here you're gonna lock ours Oh Daddy likey [Music] creepy and you get amazing awesome shows like 24 seasons one through five and mediocre shows like 24 seasons six through eight it wasn't great or Brooklyn Nine-Nine which is fantastic which we do love [Applause] and you can access the BBC iPlayer Hulu and all sorts of other streaming services I love iPlayer please give us iPlayer Britain please please I love it unlock all of this content by installing surf shark on your computer smartphone Tablet TV lots of stuff you can put it on just about everything you can use it on an unlimited number of devices there's 24 7 customer support unlimited number of platforms and a 30-day money-back guarantee go to surfshark.deals cinema therapy and use our code Cinema therapy surprise and you can get 83 off wow and four extra months free this is a special Black Friday week only offer last time I took 83 off somebody called the cops it's a murder joke no it's a disrobing it's a public while we were not on the same page on that one no I'm naked you're killing like whatever whatever it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt or arrested oversighted for public indecency thank you surf shark for helping us to watch more movies she is such a good actor like she's asked to do such big huge dramatic emotions in this and I mean they're they're not small she's not like keeping it internal and little but it all feels so believable yeah and it's just man it's just gut wrenching well and you know we look at the scene and there's somebody in your life you would die for sure you know in my case and I know in your case we've talked about this I like our kids yeah like no question not even think about it for her it's her sister but Katniss throughout the entire series chooses compassion when other people are choosing self-preservation yeah you know when other people are focused on Survival she's focused on not losing who she is right and so even though right now the read on on this scene is it's just the love of a sister for a sister it is that but it's planning a seed for what we're going to see from this character all the way through as Joker says in dark night when the chips are down these uh these civilized people they'll eat each other she wants to survive but more than that she wants to not be changed by the capital by Society by everyone else falling apart that she's going to be a rock yeah you know we love you guys so much because sometimes the world feels a little too pan-emmy for me and just the the coldness and the detachedness and and people just looking out for themselves and it's easy to lose faith in people other people yeah and then you go to our comment section and you keep saying about our fans or we we have the most wonderful comment section on the internet yeah we have the best one [Music] you love me we're a happy family with a great big hug and a kiss from me to you won't he say you love me Shots Fired presumably we create the show so we're here to inspire and more often we're inspired by what we read from you the things you say and how you interact with each other I mean honestly that's why we're still doing it this is hard work yeah like we would have quit a long time ago I mean the popcorn's really good the popcorn is good the popcorn is excellent but it is a lot of work yeah I've got butter pecan did you give me raspberry dream because it looks bloody I did because it's the Hunger Games oh I just wanted to throw this scene in because I was talking about how great of an actor Jennifer Lawrence is pay close attention to what she's doing with her face like she's putting in so much work and keeping it relatively small but you feel every inch of the panic that she's feeling well because she's literally about to go up a tube she's gonna go up and die and start yeah I'm not allowed to bet it is not easy to have that big of an emotion and not look cartoony yeah well because she plays it like somebody who's trying to control it and keep it in and it's still just like coming out like the shakes the trembling and the and I remember seeing this for the first time and really feeling it oh yeah and I mean there's a lot of filmmaking technique that's helping you here like the handheld camera things being slightly out of focus a lot of the time the cold sterility of this whole environment that just mechanical sound yeah with nothing else there's no music there's no it's just there's nothing to comfort you there's nothing to come for the character you're just alone in this machine that's gonna kill you or rather send you to your death but yeah well I mean metaphorically the machine of Pan Am is going to kill you oh yeah yes absolutely there's so much that's happening in that one scene it's really really well done yeah no she's she's a brilliant actress when your hero is not stoic and fearless when your hero is terrified you're terrified exactly yeah you know if you have a you know a walking tank who's not afraid of anything like Rambo 3 you don't feel much you don't feel much aside from but she's absolutely petrified and you feel it yeah with her it's oh that's great so she's here in the games and there's this girl from District 11. right the next District over yeah I think so named Rue who's young like her sister's who's young like her sister was and kids have been slitting each other's throats stabbing each other's like and she got attacked by these tracker jackers which are Super horrible wasps and uh instead of taking advantage fruit took care of it so what happened while I was out the girl from one and the boyfriend 10. and the uh and the boy from my district yeah he's okay I think he's done by the river is all that true what you and him so where are Cato and the others doesn't answer because the cameras are on piled up in this great big pyramid that sounds tempting [Music] and Rus sees her as a mother figure yeah or is an older sister yeah but someone who's gonna protect her the whole purpose of the games is for everyone in there to kill everyone else until one person's left standing right it doesn't make any sort of sense for Rue to look after Katniss while Katniss is unconscious what makes sense is for you to Slit her throat because it's one less person it's I'm one step closer to surviving and getting out of here right yeah yeah and then Katniss when she's awake to be giving Rue her chicken it reminds me of one of my favorite books everybody should read Man's Search for meaning by Victor Frankl he was a holocaust Survivor uh and he talks about this very concept of there were a lot of people who took a dog eat dog attitude in the concentration camps I'm gonna get mine I'm gonna make sure I have enough food I'm gonna make sure I survive and he talks about how those people often didn't make it um that the people who looked out for each other who were I'm starving but you're starving too so here's my bread sure and who kept their Traditions alive kept their songs alive those are the people who often if you were to survive it was usually those people who did and he talks about this whole concept of you know the Nazis could take away our freedom to take away our families they could literally kill the people we love they could take our lives they take everything from us what they couldn't take was how we chose to respond they couldn't take away our attitude they couldn't take away our morality our integrity they didn't have the power to take that from us we could give it to them but they couldn't take it and I watched this and this is futuristic sci-fi but the concept of not losing who you are no matter what's going on around you it's beautiful and it's really hard in real life yeah you know I want to believe that if I were in the arena I'd be like I would rather die than killing it you know an innocent or I want to believe that about myself and I suspect that it is not true I'm fairly confident you and I would not kill children oh no no I'm not gonna go kill no but if they throw you and I in there with a bunch of middle-aged dudes [Music] we're the worst so Rue's in a trap and Katniss is rescuing her trigger warning this is upsetting stuff so this is the first person that Katniss has killed in the arena and it's okay you're okay you're okay you're okay did you blow up the food every bit of it good thing okay [Music] [Music] laughs [Music] [Music] hey sorry [Music] it's hard to do commentary yeah her compassion shines through and Jennifer Lawrence's performance is so so strong there yeah it's a it's a type of story where on paper you could see like parent Watchdog groups being like this is a movie about kids killing kids killing kids how terrible is this and but that's that's the point is that it is terrible and that's the point is I mean it's hard to think of a darker worse situation than we're having kids kill other kids on National Television it's it's literally the stuff of nightmares yeah like this is how depraved our society is which makes this even more powerful you talk about her compassion shining through what I love about Katniss she doesn't even especially have a model you know she has she has a couple people that are kind to her Peter gave her bread one time which was Peta has been kind and Gail is kind and supportive yeah and then Cena shows some beautiful compassion but as far as like actually being in the arena in a dog eat dog killer be killed situation she has zero examples of integrity of compassion of goodness what she has is when her coach hey Mitch is just a cynic embrace the probability of your imminent death I know in your heart that there's nothing I can do to save you hilariously yeah but yeah it's not it's not going to help you very much it actually reminds me of great episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer where an opponent has turned her friends against her or kept her friends away from her and he says you know take away your friends take away your support what's left and she says me and I look at Katniss and sometimes we find sources of inspiration historical figures people in our lives things like that but other times it really feels like you against the world and this is kind of like the antithesis of Joker if you think about it because in Joker Society is crumbling and then he crumbles right along with it right whereas in Hunger Games Society is crumbling and Katniss is saying not me yes stepson and tries to rebuild it yeah I wanted to ask you a question as a director when Rue is dying and we get Rue's POV of like the trees that are kind of getting focused yeah getting in and out of focus and you hear Katniss singing and the camera almost goes to Katniss's face but we're instead focused on Rue and what this is like for her can you speak to what that choice is well it's to connect us as the audience with the experience that Rue is going through because after that we come back to Katniss yeah crying over her zipping up her jacket and it makes that part of the scene hit so much harder if we're focused on Katniss the entire time yeah then you know subjectively we're just getting this is Katniss's experience of this happening if we get Rue's experience of dying and being comforted while she dies and then we see Katniss's reaction it's like a compounding effect of what you're doing emotionally right yeah if you just stay on Katniss the entire time and then maybe pan down and you see her eyes and she closes her eyes that's sad yeah but if we get to experience it and this tender moment that Katniss is you know sort of helping her yeah and then we go to Katniss it's it's really really strong filmmaking there are a bunch of filmmaking choices in this movie that I think were well intentioned and just kind of went over the top like there's a lot of imagery that is kind of hearkening back to Schindler's List right yeah they're very much trying to make yeah you say that yeah yeah District 12 very much they're trying to make it feel like the camp yeah so they're they're trying to make it feel that way and part of the way they did that Schindler's List is almost completely handheld yeah right especially when you're in the camps it's all handheld and it's quite shaky but it's still intelligible this is quite shaky to the point where it's disorienting to watch on a television in cinemas it was like almost nauseating yeah it was too much yeah and there's a fine line to walk there between like we're shaking the camera so we can feel like oh we're in it and we're a live participant and just like too much yeah and I feel like this crossed the line This scene I thought was a good amount of grounded and real and natural like the camera is a person breathing right yeah so you get this motion without being too much you're not losing faces you're not like drifting off of things there's really interesting contrast where when she leaves District 12 and goes into the woods everything gets a lot smoother it's either on a Steadicam or on like a dolly because things get really really smooth and this is where Katniss feels comfortable yeah and then she gets into the arena and we're back handheld again and then she gets attacked by the tracker jackers and it's absolutely insane and there's like repeat stutter editing and just all kinds of fun effects to give you the sensations that she's experiencing there's a lot of really really great filmmaking technique that's happening I just feel like sometimes there's too much of it yeah what I noticed when I saw the film for the first time is Once the games officially start and they're either running into the woods or they're all running to the Cornucopia to get their supplies to get their weapons and they all start killing each other is normally I hate when you have handheld and Quick Cuts to the point where it's hard to see what's going on I thought it was effective It's very effective here because you get just enough to be nauseated revolted terrified exactly like what she's feeling yes yeah and because the camera doesn't focus on like watching the kids kill the kids you just see them like start to do emotion or something you get enough that it is terrifying and revolting yeah and you're sickened by it but I actually like not just because I think it would be garish to uh to actually show it but you you you retain your morality like because instead of watching it all happen the camera moves away like the you as the viewer are just like Katniss like you can't bear to see it well you can't bear to see it and and you're also put in her headspace of this is all terrible but there's nothing I can do about it I've got to get the thing that I need and then I need to get out of here yes otherwise these careers these you know kids who've been training their whole lives to come in here and kick ass are gonna kill me yeah I'm like I gotta get out of here yeah so Katniss singing to Rue and showing that compassion actually triggers riots in ruse District this district and a couple other ones and a couple of the other ones and that's you know that's what happens a lot of times when you have someone who exemplifies what people want to be but they're too scared to be is it like it galvanizes a movement oh we can do it too yeah and so because of what she shows in the arena she's recruited to be the Mockingjay to be a figurehead of the resistance of the Rebellion against the capital and there's a problem on the next exciting episode of Cinema therapy she definitely has PTSD before the games yeah and now she's gonna go into something called complex PTSD we're gonna watch this and then we'll talk about what the difference is and how to deal we've also got Finnick who like Katniss has been through the same hell if not you know worse yeah I told you last month I had a panic attack had a lot going on in my life and was really to the max stressed out she thinks well that was hell I made it through the games but now I'm set for life my family's not gonna starve and so she may believe I can start to heal right and then this happens

Channel: Cinema Therapy

Views: 954,713

Keywords: cinematherapy, cinema therapy, mental health, counseling, therapy, mental health therapy, Jonathan Decker, Alan Seawright

Id: b3Wn9lH9qdA

Length: 27min 13sec (1633 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 23 2021