Transformation of the "Bright Future" Myth in Russian and Western Screen Culture in the 2000s

<p>The following paper was the result of reflecting on the increased supply of images of the future in movies in the beginning of the 2000s and the quality of these images. Its goal was to define the &ldquo;new&rdquo; future tendencies in the &ldquo;Hunger Games&rdquo; and &ldquo;Hunger Games: Catching Fire&rdquo; movies as the most popular, containing historical references and thus, inter alia, visualizing the most probable future scenario. In order to justify the choice of this example for defining trends in the depiction of the future, preliminary research of the process of the future image transformation in Russian and Western cultures (where it first existed in the form of religious utopias, e.g. Eden and Kingdom of God, and by this moment finally established in a form of an dystopia in the format of Western movies) was carried out. Thus, the following objectives were set:</p><ul><li>To study the nature of the phenomenon of utopia and its features;</li><li>To follow the genesis and development of utopian thoughts in Western and Russian cultures, to compare them;</li><li>To examine the images of the future in popular movies, typify them;<br />To narrow down specific features of the modern image of the future based on the big screen on the example of &quot;The Hunger Games&quot; and &quot;The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.&quot;</li></ul><p style="margin-left:36.0pt;margin-left:18.0pt;">The structure corresponds to the objectives of the research.</p><p style="margin-left:36.0pt;margin-left:18.0pt;">In accordance with the objectives methodology was chosen: the historical-genetic method, under which method of comparative analysis was used (to study and to compare the ways in which utopia was developing in Russia and in the West), the method of generalization (to identify and summarize the typical images of the future in the movie) and the method of induction (to study the cinematic concepts of utopia, identify their common essential features, attribute those features to a common denominator, which will be the basis for analyzing the image of the future in the &quot;The Hunger Games &quot; blockbuster).</p><p style="margin-left:36.0pt;margin-left:18.0pt;">During the study of the history of the utopia phenomenon it was found, that up to a certain point the genre of utopia in the West and in Russia was developing in parallel. However, in the beginning of the XXth century significant differences developed: the Western dystopia established in literature and stepped onto the big screen, and in Russia it almost gave way to dystopia in the light of the revolution, then disappeared for almost 50 years as a genre compromising Soviet ideology of the communist paradise come true.</p><p style="margin-left:36.0pt;margin-left:18.0pt;">In the next part movies about future have been typed based on the selection composed from the results of a survey of young people from 21 to 30. It turned out to be most reasonable to type the movies according to the 6 problems underlining the plots: interaction of the race of people with new races; depletion of natural resources; prevention of war and preserving peace; the fight against deadly diseases, survival; degradation of men/society and the primitivism of the human intellect; the problem of self-determination. As for the &ldquo;Hunger Games&rdquo;, its phenomenal popularity caused it to set new trends for the genre, such as: female action figure; he return of oppressive regimen and total control, freedom and choice deprivation; post-apocalyptic future; the realism of the future scenario in the movie.</p>