Film

What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases

Hunger (2008)

Director: Steve McQueen (ii)

Time Out rating

Average user rating

19 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

What an extraordinary film is Steve McQueen’s study of life and death in Northern Ireland’s Maze Prison in the early 1980s. At every twist and turn this artist-filmmaker, who won the Turner Prize in 1999 for a video piece inspired by Buster Keaton, resists expectations and defies conventions – of pacing and performance, of editing and sound – to create a portrait of political resistance that flips disconcertingly and effectively between the thoughtful and the violent, the ugly and the beautiful. McQueen also blurs these distinctions so that we find transcendence or solace in the brutal or the stark, whether that’s shit smeared in a circular pattern on a wall during a dirty protest or urine leaking down a corridor when prisoners empty their buckets under their cell doors.

This portrait of Belfast prison life in the shadow of Thatcher’s refusal to give political status to Republican prisoners slowly shifts from the communal to the personal to become the story of Bobby Sands. After we observe several prisoners and their methods of survival, from smuggling radio equipment up their backsides to smoking the pages of the Bible, we spend the final chapter with a dying Sands, the first of ten men who died during the hunger strike of 1981 and played in an admirable performance of psychological conviction from Michael Fassbender.

‘Hunger’ glides through three clear movements – life, debate and death – each with its own mood and method of inquiry. The first section of the film deals with daily prison life and, while it’s nearly silent in terms of dialogue, it couldn’t be louder in its frank portrayal of beatings and the mechanics of the ‘dirty protest’. Later, when it comes to the depiction of Sands’s hunger strike, a final section of the film that takes place almost entirely in one room, McQueen wrenches the external from the internal, the political from the corporeal, by preceding an expressionist portrait of dying (distorted sound and vision; the flow of childhood memories; a feather floating in the air) with a 20-minute, locked-frame take of Sands in deep discussion with a priest (Liam Cunningham).

This long, intellectually meaty scene is a tour de force of acting and writing (courtesy of playwright Enda Walsh) and means that McQueen is later able to shift his focus from the ideas behind the hunger strike to the mental and physical reality of seeing it through.
This is no tale of martyrdom; no inevitable story of messiah-like protest and punishment. Neither is it a partisan tale: McQueen seeks balance in both a sympathetic prison warden (Stuart Graham), who is as far removed as is charges from the haunting voice on the soundtrack of Thatcher in Westminster, and a saddening moment when we see a riot policeman break away from his colleagues to weep behind a wall.

Imagine how most filmmakers would tell this story and then see ‘Hunger’: the differences are bold and powerful and restore faith in cinema’s ability to cover history free from the bounds of texts and personalities. It’s not an easy watch – but it’s an invigorating one. Long live McQueen.

Author: Dave Calhoun

Time Out London Issue 1993, 30 October – 4 November, 2008

Email Tweet Share

User reviews of this film

Nilsia said...

Posted on Jan 29 2009 02:26 i resent people comparing the IRA to Al Queada. the IRA were not terrorists at that time in irish history, if the british media believe them to have been aliken to osama bin ladens forces they are mistaken. before condeming men like bobby sands.. maybe consider their motivations, and consider the "terrorism" the british army perpetrated not only on irish soil for centuries but on numerous other nations also. the brutality endured by ireland at the hands of the british, while it may not justify an eye for eye,, justifies their actions and motivations. if you must demonise someone, take a look closer to home.

Report as inappropriate
Lanark said...

Posted on Nov 28 2008 20:23 How did they manage to smuggle in so much chocolate?

Report as inappropriate
Katherine said...

Posted on Nov 28 2008 02:45 A truely awsome film. It was spell binding from the very first frame ubtill the last. By which time I was totally absorbed by this masterpiece.
This film did the rare thing for me. I wanted to do the whole thing again.
The subject matter was hard hitting and at times challenging. Having read the, highly recommended book, Ten Men Dead. I feel this film told the storey well.
I would recomend it to anybody.
To those who say this film has no soul, remember these brave men gave their lives so others may live as free poeple. Sometimes art has to be more that just a distracting entertainment, it has to inform.

Report as inappropriate
Ron McDowell said...

Posted on Nov 22 2008 16:41 remember Bobby Sands was an indiscriminate bomber similar to Al Qaeda. Dont be fickle with your judgement of terrorists.

Report as inappropriate
paulis said...

Posted on Nov 10 2008 14:24 We will not forget you Jimmy Sands was the black humour shouted across streets in Belfast by Loyalists poking fun at moviegoers. This film is a classic and will
for good or ill immortalise the name of Bobby Sands.
Go to see highly reccomended

Report as inappropriate
kb said...

Posted on Nov 10 2008 10:30 I really enjoyed this. It's not easy - but it's not an easy subject. In an age where the body is rapidly becoming a terrifyingly common powerful tool of terrorism, this film is a measured and reflective consideration of human will.

Report as inappropriate
David said...

Posted on Nov 09 2008 18:47 Hugely over rated. The film fails to place the events in any context and is ultimately emotionally cold and rather tedious.

Report as inappropriate
Justin Berkovi said...

Posted on Nov 07 2008 23:46 A completely overrated film by the critics. For such a strong subject matter the film was soulless and in some places extremely boring. What should have had a sense of underlying tension and oppression and struggle and sense of irresolute purpose was replaced by perfectly executed cinematography, colour, lighting but little else.
A huge disappointment and immediately forgettable.

Report as inappropriate
PERFECT DAY said...

Posted on Nov 07 2008 21:42 This film proves that the makers have tremendous expertise in the use of a digital camera and music. However, this film has no soul whatsoever and because of this it will be forgotten by the end of the year.

Report as inappropriate
MAYOSTEVE said...

Posted on Nov 07 2008 10:25 This film shows what your taxpayers money was/is spent on. Maybe not a good investment considering the progress made by the Irish in recent years. 800 years of slavish media support of one of the longest most brutal oppressions the world will ever see. This conflict has an impact on every citizen of the British Isles and many spread across the world. When Ireland is finally free perhaps Britain could find democracy ?

Report as inappropriate
David said...

Posted on Nov 04 2008 17:31 The film is beautifully made, but it is surprisingly unemotional. I didn't really feel anything at the end of it. Perhaps it is because it is so starkly filmed - lots of silence, not much camera movement, little music. It definitely feels like it is made by an artist rather than a filmmaker

Report as inappropriate
Nin said...

Posted on Nov 03 2008 18:44 stark, beautifully made and stylish but very hard to watch at points. not for the faint hearted!

Report as inappropriate
Andy said...

Posted on Oct 30 2008 13:43 I think it is one of the most important films of this decade. Powerful performances, assured directing and well done to all the cast and crew involved

Report as inappropriate
Selene said...

Posted on Oct 21 2008 13:48 A stark reminder of a brutal period of recent Irish History.The lack of compassion from any of the main characters portrayed in this film are a timely reminder against losing our humanity towards others who appear to be the enemy. It seems that the brutality depicted and location of Northern Ireland in this film may have been replaced and relocated within Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib .

Report as inappropriate
Fiercehairdo said...

Posted on Oct 20 2008 01:02 This is an amazing film. Shocking and powerful cinema of the body. Stylish, unconventional, innovative, moving, powerfully somatic.

Report as inappropriate