REPRESENTATION OF HEROES IN THE HUNGER GAMES AND SUCKER PUNCH TRAILERS

In the two films, The Hunger Games and Sucker Punch, the heroes of the films are both female, and are represented as strong women who are willing to fight against whatever they come across in the film.

In The Hunger Games Trailer, The hero of the film is represented to be a tomboy, as we are shown clips of her alone in the forest, shooting deer for her family to live off. As she is the first character we are shown in the trailer, and she is shown doing something brave and unusual for a girl, this suggests that the film is going to be slightly different than the average film with a teenage audience, and the audience will immediately suspect that she is going to become the hero of the film as she is already showing extremely positive traits. This is similar to the representation of the hero in the Sucker Punch trailer as we are shown the lead female character standing up to a much older character who she is presumably being abused and held hostage by. The lead character is shown hitting the man, and also produces a gun to threaten him. In both The Hunger Games and Sucker Punch the lead female characters are shown with weapons which suggests these are going to be somehow important in the film, to represents their heroism.

In The Hunger Games trailer, we are then shown footage which has been cut edited to show everything the lead character has been faced with, for example she is shown running away from a large forest fire, skipping through barbed wire with a high voltage sign, and again shooting a bow and arrow. As we are shown all of these just seconds after we are shown the footage of her supporting her family, this shows the audience the issues she is faced with throughout the film and adds to the idea of her becoming the hero, as the trailer is focussed around her, taking on brave tasks. This is very different to the Sucker Punch trailer, later on in the trailer we are shown the character who produced a gun to a man’s face is now being taken into a mental health institution and she is being controlled by numerous people, which makes her seem weaker and doesn’t necessarily portray the traits of a heroic character.

In the Sucker Punch trailer we are then shown a mid-close up of the main character sat on the floor of the kitchen in the institution crying. This again portrays her as being weak, which doesn’t represent a heroic character, however as we are being shown her weaknesses it could also suggest that as the films continues, this girl is going to change, and is going to become brave to ensure she does everything she can to be released from the institution she is trapped in. This is slightly different to The Hunger Games trailer as throughout this we are shown the hero to be strong; supporting everybody around her, and making sure she is staying strong to look after her family and her town. This means that from the beginning of the trailer we are made aware that she is going to be strong; however in Sucker Punch we are not so sure.

Overall, the trailers of  The Hunger Games and Sucker Punch represent their female heroines in different ways, with The Hunger Games making it very clear to the audience who the hero is, and ensuring we see everything we expect from a hero, however in Sucker Punch, we are more unsure of the hero, and are left wondering what is going to happen throughout the film.