The Hunger Games: 10 Biggest Changes From The Books
10. President Snows Role
In the Hunger Games books, we only get to see the villain of the piece through the eyes of Katniss, whereas in the films he features much more prominently. That means that in the book, we only get to see Snow through the eyes of Katniss and are not given the chance to build an opinion on him other than through the information we are given by our lead character. Throughout the book, she is giving us her perceptions of the man and especially how she perceives his mind to work. That of course means that as a reader we arent entirely sure of the character of President Snow, we know he is evil and whatnot, but we never get an inside view into him. In the film however, we see a lot more of President Snow as a person. Here we hear his speech to the tributes, we see him conversing with the game makers, especially Plutarch Heavensby, and he is shown in the control room carefully observing Katniss and Peetas arrival back in District 12. All of this demonstrates not only his power in Panem, but also the lengths he goes to in order to maintain control. By letting us see these ideas and machinations, it really makes the character much more evil and gives us a better insight into how things work in the Capitol, plus it gives us a proper villain to root against. This alteration is a very wise one by the filmmakers, as not only does it flesh out the movie but also gives heavy hitters Donald Sutherland and Phillip Seymour Hoffman the time on screen that they deserve. Interestingly, President Snow was only supposed to be a cameo before Sutherland sent an email to director Gary Ross detailing the character, changing the directors plans in the process and giving the character a much larger role.
