Hunger (2008)
2008
96 Minutes
The story of Bobby Sands, the IRA member who led the 1981 hunger strike in which Republican prisoners tried to win political status. It dramatises events in the Maze prison in the six weeks prior t...
User Review
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WHAT I LIKED: Watching Steve McQueen's feature debut 'Hunger,' it's pretty evident that it's been made by a director with an extensive background in short films, as it's an intensely visual piece that uses small moments to build its context. By choosing to show the horrors of the 1981 IRA hunger strike using this kind of cinema rather than through lengthy character exploration or narrative, you get a thoroughly in-depth understanding of the beliefs and the intensity of the methods involved as there's so much time and care devoted to graphically building the picture and - during the lengthy central scene - discussing the reasoning. That often makes for a pretty grueling watch, but it's made successful by McQueen's brave brutality, and by some tough performances from Michael Fassbender and Stuart Graham (who arguably gets the most time to develop any sort of character depth) and in the end that means it's a film that commands attention for its entirety, and does justice to the horrors of its real-life subject matter.
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: It really could have been a short film (or at the very least a far shorter one), as there are many moments that linger far too long when their points have already been made brilliantly, and there's little genuine character development to fill the voids.
VERDICT: A film that sees director Steve McQueen take his short film approach and apply it to a full-length feature for the first time, 'Hunger,' does a great job of portraying the context and the horrors behind the 1981 IRA hunger strikes, but does sometimes feel like it's dragging things out.0 member like this review.
