Hunger (Steve McQueen, 2008): UK

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Reviewed by Liz Thelander. Viewed at the ArcLight Hollywood as part of the AFI Film Festival.

Though I wouldn’t recommend eating a big meal before seeing it, Hunger is a film that everyone should see. Steve McQueen’s directorial debut will shock and appall you, but it will also compel you to stand up for what you believe in—at any cost. IMDB calls it “an odyssey, in which the smallest gestures become epic and when the body is the last resource for protest.”

Hunger focuses on the last six weeks of Bobby Sands (Michael Fassbender of 300), an Irish republican protesting against British rule in Northern Ireland, as he makes his final stand in Maze, a tough Irish prison. In the prison, treatment of inmates is far beyond brutal. Guards and officers commit unspeakable acts against defenseless prisoners—all IRA (Provisional Irish Republican Army) protesters. Sands decides that the only way to beat the system is to go on a hunger strike, knowing full well that he is sacrificing himself for his and the rest of the IRA’s noble cause—freedom. It should be noted that Fassbender really did starve himself almost to death to play the role of Bobby Sands.

This film was beautifully made, as one could expect from McQueen with his background in the arts. The colors are vivid and the imagery is powerful. There is no musical score to the film, but the viewer may not even notice this until the end credits, when the first (and last) song plays. The film is full of vibrant and saturated, yet natural-looking, greens and blues to represent the evil of the entire prison system and those sympathetic to Bobby’s cause, respectively. In one of the most remarkable scenes of the movie, Bobby and a priest have a nearly 15 minute dialogue—in one take. There isn’t a single cut. The audience see’s both Bobby and the priest the whole time, and the two actors never miss a beat. It is a brilliant shot and an amazing feat for actors and director alike. Please go see this film. Just don’t eat anything before you do.