Gavin Hood on the Grey Areas of ‘Ender’s Game’

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Gavin Hood appeared as a guest at Fan Expo Canada this past weekend and spoke to press about the upcoming Ender’s Game adaptation. In an interview with Metro News, he talks about the difficulties of adapting the book and his interest in the grey areas of the novel.

“Some films masquerade as dealing with moral complexity, but in fact, for me, cop out a little by never putting the protagonist in a truly morally complex situation,” Hood said in a recent interview at the pop culture fest known as Fan Expo Canada. “There are films we can think of where, yes, the protagonist kills people, but actually all the people they kill are bad or awful in some way, (without) that moment of really having to face up to the grey zone, that place where you ask, ‘Am I capable of doing something morally repugnant because I believe it’s for a greater good?’

He also talks a bit about how he sees reactions to his decision to cut Locke and Demosthenes and his wife’s advice on the matter!

“My wife actually says to me, ‘Gavin, you have to stop going on the Internet. It makes you crazy.’ There’s so much chatter,” says Hood. “I found it hard to cut. But it really means you need to make a 15-part miniseries, and I was given the opportunity to make a two-hour film, so my focus was, ‘What can I do in a film that the novel might not be able to do as well?’”

You can read the entire interview at Metro News.

Comments

5 responses to “Gavin Hood on the Grey Areas of ‘Ender’s Game’”

  1. salaamender Avatar
    salaamender

    “There are films we can think of where, yes, the protagonist kills
    people, but actually all the people they kill are bad or awful in some
    way, (without) that moment of really having to face up to the grey zone,
    that place where you ask, ‘Am I capable of doing something morally
    repugnant because I believe it’s for a greater good?’

    Totally a dig at Hunger Games and one of the reasons I dislike the novel and the movie. Katniss is never truly required to kill, or at least make a choice as to whether or not she is going to kill another person who is just like she is–a good character fighting for survival. All the people she kills are one-dimensional “bad” guys who run around with slavering jaws boasting about murder. It completely robs the story of any moral ambiguity and tension and lets Katniss off the hook without ever really putting her in a moral dilemma. One of the many Cop Outs in the novel.

    1. EnderWiggin.net Avatar

      I dunno, the same could be said for Ender. Stilson and Bonzo both torment and attack him and as far as Ender knows, the buggers are going to wipe out the human race. I think the grey zone is not what Ender does, but what they do to him. And in that case, the same can b said for Katniss.

      1. salaamender Avatar
        salaamender

        I don’t think the same could be said of Ender. They are not analogous situations at all in my mind. Katniss is thrown into a battle to the death where killing is required for survival. Ender is not required to kill. He may need to attack his tormentors as a choice (there’s that word again) to keep them from hurting him, but he is not required to kill. That’s a huge difference.

        Also, Ender has severe trauma from the violence he inflicts. He dwells on it and it influences everything he does afterwards, the choices he makes. Katniss never thinks over or has any thought for the violence she has or will commit. There is no internal struggle and she mentions almost nothing in regards to the violence. Why? Because Susanne Collins was so busy giving us an action novel, she didn’t have time to ponder the moral implications of the situation she put her characters in.

        1. EnderWiggin.net Avatar

          You bring up some really interesting points and I’ve never in the two years I’ve been in the THG fandom heard it brought up before. Katniss does remain haunted by what she did, but you’re right in that Collins kind of glazes over it quickly and doesn’t really flesh it out very well.

          Still, I do think that innocence is a key difference between the two of them. Ender, while not completely innocent, is still a child and retains some of the innocence of youth. Meanwhile, Katniss is 16 and has been living a very difficult life. She’s well aware of the political implications behind everything the Capitol does and for that I think she deserves some credit, as well as some slack for being a lot more hardened than Ender.

          1. Jay Avatar
            Jay

            You both make great points, but i’ll agree on that, both the characters had a very different and difficult lives and they had their own way of dealing with things.

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