Hunger (2009)

I had Hunger for a long time but just somehow did find the time or situation to watch it, which in retrospect I think is good because this is not an easy movie to watch. Mc Queen's debut effort that highlights situations surrounding the 1981 hunger strikes, offers or forces on us a stark and unflinching view. We are thrust into the slammer together with Fassbender's Bobby Sands which marks the start of his matryrical task that ends in his eventual death.

For a debut effort Mc Queen as a director shines here with some prophetic touches. An example of this is his understanding of how to elicit emotions with the most basic of scenes. A grimace, a frown even the movement of the iris is not wasted here. Mc Queen also understands very well when a visual might actually weaken the message that is trying to be put forth resulting in us never ever seeing Tatcher here but the strength of what she says in my opinion is so much the stronger because of that.

The scenes of the effects of the hunger strikes on the strikers is not for the faint of heart. If the boy scout of a weakened Gandhi at the height of his hunger strikes gets you bawling then you will be devastated here. The sites of scenes of bed sores, think bodies nearly sent the food in my tummy on it's anti-peristaltic journey! This is definitely not a talky movie and the dialog is as sparse as the sound track which I think is appropriate and stands to heighten the effect of creating that prison atmosphere. The only sounds that the audience will hear most of the time is the sound of scraping, clanging and the sounds of prison doors closing. This is a great choice by Mc Queen as I think those sounds are already enough to solidify the bleakness and the hopelessness of prisoners in the prison. A note about about sparse dialog, the movie culminates in a 20 minute (really!) unbroken take of the conversation of Sands and a priest. The patience and the restraint that Mc Queen and the writer Enda Walsh (Mc Queen co wrote) is testament to the a master's stroke in film making. The dialog also moves the plot forward and from it we gain insight into the background and the reasons of the whole act.

If this movie's goal is to create interest in this infamous time in our history, then it succeeds on all fronts for me. I was so interested at the end of this of what caused the hunger strike that I started to try and learn as much as I could about the reasons and the results of the strike. Right from the start the story telling is very effective in creating interest and hooking us right into the plot, from the the prison guard washing his bruised knuckle, our curiosity is piqued not only what is this guys story, we want to find out what are the situations that caused the bruises.

Find a quiet spot and get in the right frame of mind to watch this. It's only about 90 minutes but it is not easy to watch. Try to however and I guarantee you will walk away rewarded. 10/10.