Steve McQueen has a talent for creating images that I know will continue to haunt me for weeks. Hunger was McQueens feature film debut that went on to gain him worldwide recognition in the independent Film community. I only just watched Hunger, so Im behind about 6 years. Oops. Hunger is about the true story of IRA activist Bobby Sands and other political prisoners held in the Maze prison in Northern Ireland during the early 80s. The prisoners are going to great lengths to protest the British governments decision to revoke their political status. At the beginning of the movie we see a British prison guard getting ready for work. He starts his morning by soaking his bloody knuckles and checking his car for bombs. Shortly after that we get to see how far the protests have gone. At this point, the prisoners are well into their no wash protest. Theyve smeared feces all over the walls of their cells and are all completely naked since they refuse to wear prison uniforms that label them as a criminal. Every night, they pour urine through the crack in the door to their cell into the hallway. We also see how horrendously mistreated the prisoners were by the British guards. They are regularly beaten with batons by multiple guards at once. Then we get to maybe the best scene in the movie. A flat 17-minute take of Sands, played by Michael Fassbender, having a conversation with a Catholic priest. In the conversation we learn that the prisoners are organizing a hunger strike which Sands will start. He also beautifully illustrates how committed he is to his convictions by telling a story from his childhood. The rest of the movie shows Fassbenders deterioration, and it is incredibly difficult to watch at times. I absolutely adored this movie for its slow, methodical and symbolic imagery. It is incredibly bleak and uncompromising. I had no prior knowledge about this historical event before the movie but now I am very interested to read about it, and thats all because of how powerful this movie was.
Posted on: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 04:46:51 +0000