Quentin Tarantino’s Hunger Games Hot Take Is Actually Ice Cold

Quentin Tarantino has never been afraid to share his opinions about movies, but his hot take on The Hunger Games is way off-base. The iconoclastic filmmaker is one of the most beloved directors of his era, and his groundbreaking films like Pulp Fiction established him as the new voice in cinema in the ’90s.

He’s also a film buff who isn’t afraid to share his thoughts. He took aim at The Hunger Games, calling the dystopian franchise a ripoff of the film Battle Royale. Tarantino even went so far as to say that author Suzanne Collins deserved to be sued. While his take is certainly polarizing, it’s not nearly as hot as he thinks.

Battle Royale Wasn’t The First Of Its Kind Either

Though the Japanese hit, Battle Royale, was certainly an original film, it was hardly the first of its kind. The basic concept involves a group of students being placed on an island where they must fight to the death to please a totalitarian government. The juxtaposition of young characters and violence was meant to be shocking and confrontational.

The Hunger Games is also about an authoritarian government and a battle between youths, but the details are completely different. There’s no evidence to support the claim that Collins was inspired by Battle Royale, but there is evidence proving that Battle Royale author Koushun Takami took inspiration from an existing source.

Polygon notes that Takami was heavily inspired by Stephen King’s The Long Walk, a novel about youths who are forced by the government to walk continuously or face death. Both books obfuscate political commentary by using the dystopian fiction framework. However, it would be a stretch to say that Takami ripped off Stephen King.

The Hunger Games is similar to Battle Royale, but they are both similar to preexisting sources like King’s novel and the classic short story, The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell. Tarantino allowed his love of Battle Royale to blind him to the fact that the book, and the movie by association, isn’t all that original either.

Tarantino Has A History Of Ice Cold Takes Regarding Ripoffs

Calling something a ripoff is a serious accusation, and it means even more coming from someone who is so revered in the film industry. Quentin Tarantino might be a brilliant mind at making movies, but many of his hot takes have been way off the mark. This is especially true regarding the originality of the media he’s tearing apart.

He notoriously called Stephen King’s It a ripoff of A Nightmare on Elm Street, even though King began the book years before the film debuted. Opinions are subjective, but when they go against objective truth, they are flimsy at best. Tarantino’s opinion about The Hunger Games is impossible to dispute, largely because there is no smoking gun evidence either way.

It’s clear that Tarantino loves Battle Royale, and he has frequently cited it among his favorite movies. The film is criminally underseen, and Tarantino has made it his mission to get more eyes on the hidden gem. However, tearing down The Hunger Games to build up the movie isn’t fair, especially when so many other stories follow a similar framework.

Created by: Suzanne Collins
Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Elizabeth Banks, Woody Harrelson, Stanley Tucci, Donald Sutherland, Lenny Kravitz, Willow Shields, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel Zegler, Tom Blyth, Viola Davis, Peter Dinklage, Hunter Schafer, Jason Schwartzman
Movie(s): The Hunger Games, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes