Casting in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

Suzanne Collin's book, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, explores the origins of President Coriolanus Snow and of the Hunger Games. While the book is filled with references to the original trilogy, it feels more like a manufactured history than a compelling story.

Despite my initial skepticism, which was based on casting I saw in the trailers, I wanted to see the movie so I could hear the songs. The songs were indeed great, and to my surprise, I enjoyed the movie. The screenwriter crafted a well-paced adaptation of the novel. However, some casting choices and certain gaps in storytelling may confuse viewers unfamiliar with the source material.

Casting Critiques

The teenage characters were played by older actors. This wasn’t necessary, as there were no sexually explicit scenes to justify such casting.

Lucy Gray Baird: Rachel Zegler's singing is fantastic, but the orphaned entertainer from the poorest district in Panem is not who we see on the screen. Lucy’s vivid clothing and heavy makeup, which should evoke an unsophisticated performer's gaudy flair, are muted in the film. Zegler’s demeanor is too polished, lacking the grit and passion of the young woman in the book.

In the book, we spend most of the Games wondering where Lucy is and what she is doing. Coriolanus can only watch the Games on television; there are few cameras in the arena and fewer microphones. So, like Coriolanus during the Games, we worry about her, and like Coriolanus after the Games, we wonder uncomfortably about the killing she had to do to survive the Games. In the movie, Lucy Gray is uncomplicated: a girl fighting for her life. We don't have doubts or questions about her motivations.

Reaper: The casting of Dimitri Abold was good, but his character received little screen time.

For me, Reaper is the most intriguing and most frustratingly undeveloped character in both the book and the movie. Suzanne Collins leaves us to speculate what inspired his change of strategy in the book. Before the Games, Reaper apologizes to each of the other tributes for having to kill them and, when he first enters the arena, he is still prepared to kill them. However, in the end, he kills no one. Instead he creates a "makeshift morgue" covering the dead tributes' bodies with the flag of Panem.

In the movie, he dies bravely. I didn't mind that he dies much earlier in the movie than in the book, but I wanted some insight into his character. There is no indication of his internal struggle and shift in strategy.

Coral from District 4: Mackenzie Lansing steals Reaper's spotlight by being a believable bully. In the movie, her dying words, "I couldn't have killed them all for nothing," echo Cato's realization in the first Hunger Games movie. (In the book, Coral is literally a backstabber, but her role in the book is much smaller than it is in the movie.)

Dean Casca Highbottom: Peter Dinklage’s portrayal could have been stellar if only he had better direction. The character of Highbottom in the book is beaten down and passive aggressive. He has spent years nursing feelings of resentment and drugging his guilty conscience because of his continuing responsibility for the barbaric Games. He resents his own choices in life, blaming Coriolanus's father for them. His venom for Coriolanus is fully revealed only when they are alone together.

Dr. Volumnia Gaul: Viola Davis is stunning as Dr. Gaul! Suzanne Collins never convinced me that Dr. Gaul was a real person, but Viola Davis did. The actress isn't an old, stooped woman as described in the books, but she is a compelling presence. (Her name suggests she’s even more barbaric than others in the Capitol.)

Sejanus Plinth: I liked Josh Rivera, but the actor seemed too old to play a highschool student, and the movie script transformed him into a confident and clever adult. In the book, he was an angsty teenager; a kid with a good moral compass, although immature and weak. Since we see him only from Coriolanus's perspective in the book, readers may find Sejanus frustrating, even though we know he is in the right. In the movie, we are free to like him-- which I did. (Suzanne Collins wrote Katniss in the first person; why did she write Coriolanus in the third?)

Tigris Snow: Hunter Schafer is the only actor I wholeheartedly love in the movie. She plays a young woman thrilled with fashion and grateful to her employer, as well as a thoughtful advisor, a protective mother-figure, a compassionate human, and, most beautifully, a woman saddened by shameful things she had to do to survive. In the book, Coryo fails to truly recognize Tigris's worth, even though he relies on her for good advice, guidance, and support. In the movie, we never doubt that she loves her younger cousin. We get to see mature Tigris, loyal, compassionate, and loving. We also have the opportunity to see her recognize Coryo’s dark transformation. (We know that Tigris, not Tigress, later emulates cats in her fashion choices, but I wonder why Suzanne Collins named her after a river where an ancient non-Roman civilization developed?)

Gradma'am: Fionnula Flanagan shines as the family's matriarch. In the books, she is deteriorating mentally and physically, but in the movie she clearly portrays the primary (and dark) influence on Coriolanus’s world view and character.

Lucretius "Lucky" Flickerman: Jason Schwartzman's character highlights that the Games’ are just in their formative stages. The movie character is more competent and professional, but the movie still conveys his shallowness. (What is that pin he's wearing during the Games?) Hilarius Heavensbee: Florian Burgkart as Hilarius Heavensbee is barely more than an extra. The character in the book is surprisingly forgettable, except for the name he shares with Plutarch Heavensbee who plays such a large role in the rebellion of The Hunger Games trilogy.

Pluribus Bell: Not every character in a book can be included in a movie adaptation, but I wish Pluribus Bell had received a cameo. Pluribus was a bit of light in a dark story and I wondered at his motivation for his support the Snow family. Did he recognize that "Snow lands on top" or was he simply a good guy and a friend of the family?

Coriolanus Snow: While no one could emulate Donald Sutherland's smile, Tom Blyth and the director could have at least tried to show the charm that was Coriolanus's original weapon of choice. I don't see a strong physical resemblance between Tom Blyth and Donald Sutherland, who played the older Coriolanus Snow; his facial features would have been irrelevant if he had convincing portrayed Coriolanus Snow's character.

Story Telling Critiques

Despite knowing what kind of person Coriolanus eventually becomes, readers of the book find themselves hoping that Coriolanus's good traits will triumph over his bad ones. The movie obscures those bad traits, and viewers who are unfamiliar with the series may be surprised by his actions at the end of the movie. The film also fails portray the two potentially life changing relationships in his story: with Sejanus and with Lucy. I never believed in the romance with Lucy Gray. That love should have been showcased in the movie and been the point at which Coriolanus becomes Snow.

The movie attempts to draw parallels between Coriolanus and Katniss (of the original Hunger Games series) by highlighting their shared experiences of hunger, the struggle to survive, and the loss of parents. Unlike Katniss, he doesn't take care of others, he doesn't recognize what he owes other people, he doesn't have friends, and he doesn't reflect on his motives. Why did the writer and director feel they needed to invent a similarity between Coriolanus and Katniss? (And why, as in a previous movie, did they again present the false narrative that Suzanne Collins implies is disinformation: Dr. Gaul, not the rebels, bombed the arena, just as Alma Coin, not President Snow, arranged the hospital bombing in District 8.)

In the book, Coriolanus Snow's character is already deeply flawed before the events of the story unfold. Raised as an elite Capitol citizen, he has a sense of entitlement and superiority. Despite his family's financial struggles, he strives to maintain an image of power and wealth, driven by a desire for control and dominance.

Coriolanus feels no genuine gratitude and has no sense of indebtedness to those who have helped him, seeing favors and kindness only as opportunities to further his ambitions. He watches and tries to understand other people, but his relationships are calculated, aimed at maintaining his status and securing his future. He lacks both empathy and a moral compass, viewing people as tools to be manipulated. His friendship with Sejanus is deception and his love for Lucy Gray is possessive rather than selfless, showing his inability to form genuine connections.

His indoctrination and inherent ruthlessness as described in the books make readers realize that no amount of love or influence could have redeemed him. The film doesn't show those aspects of his character.

In the book, Tigris gives us a hint of his childhood innocence. “I keep wondering how it came to this. That my baby cousin, who wouldn’t hurt a fly, has to fight for his life in the arena... I just hate what they’re doing to you."

Since Coriolanus lacks self awareness, a reader may not recognize that he is a fundamentally bad person until the end of the story when he embraces Dr. Gaul’s mentorship. The movie does not show his deep character flaws, which may leave viewers still wondering why he turned out so bad. Before the denouement in the movie, we have no indication of his characted until his Anakin Skywalker moment, when he tells Tigris that killing Bobbin, one of the tributes, "felt powerful."

The film progresses faster than the book but fails to fully explain its characters. We don’t see Coriolanus’s complexity and darkness or his disdain for Sejanus. The book has him doing significant things (the handkerchief and the recording) without an awareness of what he is doing or why. The book’s insights into his internal struggles are crucial to understanding his transformation into President Snow, which the movie doesn’t adequately convey.

The movie could have created a believable romance with Lucy Gray to suggest that there was hope for him. However, I never believed in their romance ("Make me believe it, Miss Everdeen") and I was completely thrown by Lucy Gray's bizarre lines near the end of the film.

Conclusion

We don't see the complexity or darkness of his character in the movie. In the books, we are aware of Snow's developing awareness that he feels something to towards her and we are invested in his finding her after the Games. That romance is important because it might have drawn Coryo away from his destiny of becoming President Snow. The book's insights into Coriolanus's thoughts make us wonder if he can truly love. Unfortunately, neither Blyth nor Zegler seems to put any effort into portraying a love story.

In both the book and the movie, Lucy Gray remains an enigma.

In the movie, when the two reach the lake, Lucy Gray suggests they keep traveling in the storm, so perhaps she guesses that Billy Taupe's friend hid the guns in the cabin. While Coriolanus moves the floorboards to get fishing rods, Lucy remains planted by the door rather than entering the room to start a fire or sit down. After he finds and shows her the weapon that he had used to kill Mayfair, her words become sinister and threatening– it's startling and bizarre!

In the book, Lucy Gray's and Coriolanus's last scene leaves us with the possibility that what occurred was only in Coriolanus's obsessive mind. (On reflection, we know enough about Lucy Gray to believe that she is savvy and experienced enough to put the pieces together and then run for her life.)

The book and the movie attempt to show us how young Coriolanus became villainous President Snow. The movie does not succeed because it ignores character development. The book has better character development, but was too contrived. However, I did enjoy them both.