Hunger

Last week I saw an Irish film called “Hunger”. The film is based on a true story about the 1981 hunger strike carried out by IRA members that have been imprisoned for various crimes. The IRA was seeking a free and united Ireland, so they engaged in a political war with British officials for decades. The problem is that the British didn’t see the IRA as a legitimate political organization; they saw them as an organized crime ring. So when IRA members were arrested they weren’t treated as political prisoners, they were treated as criminals. The hunger strike was a protest to gain political status and treatment for their prisoners.

The film was devastating. Steve McQueen, a first time director, handled each scene with such intense realism that I felt as if I was in the prison, viewing the events as if I were a fly on the wall. Despite being an Irish film I felt that McQueen’s treatment of each side was incredibly fair. He did a great job of simply telling a story of events, and telling it well. The cinematography was particularly astounding, to the point where some critics have felt the need to criticize the camera work as being an overdone exercise in artistry rather than a story telling mechanism. I couldn’t disagree more. The true highlight of the film for me was one 17 minute long shot, the longest in any film of the modern era, where Bobby Sands consults with his priest on the strategy of the hunger strike. The film has very little dialogue apart from this one long take, and the scene explains the first half of the film while setting up the second half perfectly. The dialogue was masterfully written.

The film is graphic. Some may disapprove of the graphic nature, but for this film it is a must, and it works so well. We need to see what these men are going through, and we see it in this expertly crafted masterpiece of filmmaking. Watch it.

11 films in for March now. The latest 3 are:

Alice in Wonderland

Hunger

Trust the Man