In a decade filled with films centering around teenagers in dystopian futures, The Giver enters the foray as the film adaptation of the 1994 Newbery Award-winning book of the same name. That’s right – 1994. That means The Giver was written well before other popular young adult dystopian tales like The Hunger Games and Divergent. Such film series are filled with huge amounts of violent action, well-developed love triangles, and large-scale rebellion against authoritarian structures of society.
Although many thematic similarities to The Giver are present in those films, The Giver offers its own unique take on what a dystopian future might look like. It only contains whispers of a love story which never fully materializes. Violence does not figure prominently into the storyline, and it depicts rebellion against society on an individual level rather than on a grand scale.
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The color scheme in The Giver is one of the most unique elements. Although it is not the first film to do so, The Giver effectively utilizes the gradual introduction of color into a world in which only black and white are perceived. As the main character Jonas begins to receive more memories of what human existence used to be like, he is able to perceive colors more readily.
One of the most memorable shots for me was when Jonas’ duotone perspective was opened up ever so slightly after receiving a memory of the color red. Suddenly, objects in his world are slightly tinted with various shades of red. Red books stand out in prominence on the bookshelves, and he now fully understands the red in an apple and in his friend Fiona’s hair. The manipulation of color on the screen is in my opinion one of the best reasons to see the film adaptation of this popular children’s book.
The cinematography also greatly helped me to interpret various points of the story. The angle of the camera frequently gazes upward at the characters in their seemingly utopian community. The effect is interesting if not slightly unsettling; I became aware that something was slightly off. Also, whenever the society’s security cameras are seen, they are framed at almost a reverse angle, looking down at the members of society almost menacingly. However, whenever the main character Jonas visits his mentor’s house, the shots are much more level, giving me a sense that things there are as they should be.
Is The Giver is a good film? If it was an original story and had not been adapted from a book, then I would say it is a good film that could have benefitted greatly from additional character and plot development. However, the film is a fairly faithful adaptation of the book (which is, after all, a children’s book and thus already underdeveloped in those areas). It is an interesting conundrum considering the trend in filmmaking lately has been to draw out adaptations of single books into multiple movies (The Hobbit, Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, Twilight, etc.). I’ve read many criticisms of such films that often center on how the extraneous material added to them sometimes hurts the integrity of the original story. So can I fault this film for faithfully adapting the book? I’m not sure I can, although I understand how someone might.
The world of The Giver is a world without pain, suffering, or inequality, but it is also without emotion. The film asks whether such a world is better than one filled with pain and suffering but also containing so many good things like love, joy, music, and dancing.
The issue of drugs is also brought up, but the concept is not developed beyond anything other than an obvious surface level of meaning. The members of the community take daily injections of drugs which suppress all of their emotions. The community elders consider this to be essential to maintaining their idyllic society, believing that the elimination of all emotions (both good and bad) will also eliminate any possibility of war or violence which can result from negative emotions. I was reminded here of how certain drugs have been used as an intentional means of escape from the pain of the world. However, the film does not really delve much deeper into this issue and its implications for society as a whole. Instead, it focuses on another issue (euthanasia) more prominently, and then explores the role that emotions play in our perception of others.
In the community depicted in The Giver, both the old (who have outlived their usefulness to society) and the young (who do not measure up to the community’s perfect genetic standard) are regularly euthanized. This chilling practice is made only slightly less horrifying by giving it a pleasant-sounding name: “release to Elsewhere” (Elsewhere is the no-mans land beyond the community border). The emotionless community members do not perceive the weight of what they are actually doing, but Jonas and the Giver, who are able to feel emotion, understand completely.
We treat certain members of our society in much the same way that the community in The Giver treats those it deems to be inferior. We often look down on individuals with physical, mental, or emotional disabilities. We relegate the handicapped to a lesser status in life and are often guilty of viewing their lives as being somehow less meaningful or valuable. This results from not viewing such individuals in the same way that Jesus viewed people like them when he walked the earth.
The crowds were always bringing the blind, the handicapped, and the outcasts to Jesus. Not only did he attract such people, he also actively sought them out and loved them on a regular basis because he valued each one of them equally. The apostle James wrote to a church which was having a problem seeing everyone equally and reminded them, “Religion that God our Father finds pure and acceptable is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress.” Christians are called to follow the example of Christ and look after those society often forgets about – whether they are orphans, widows, homeless, mentally ill, physically disabled, or socially inept in any way.
The Giver contends that emotion is the strongest force in the world. It also contends that the benefits of “good” emotions outweigh the damage caused by “bad” emotions. The most powerful emotion in The Giver is love. It is the one emotion which drives all of Jonas’ actions. It causes him to stand up to a society that, despite its claims of equality, does not value every human life equally. Like Jonas, we as Christians should contend for change in our society and view those who are rejected by it with the eyes of Christ – eyes that see the color and beauty of love.
Here are a lot of other reviews of The Giver you might find helpful:
Christ and Pop Culture
Christianity Today
Hollywood Jesus
Sister Rose at the Movies
Tinsel
