Hunger (2008)
Genre: Biography / Drama
Duration: 96 minuten
Country:
Ireland / United Kingdom
Directed by: Steve McQueen
Stars: Michael Fassbender, Helena Bereen and Liam Cunningham
IMDb score:
7,5 (77.134)
Releasedate: 15 May 2008
This movie is not available on US streaming services.
Hunger plot
"An odyssey, in which the smallest gestures become epic and when the body is the last resource for protest."
Hunger is about the last six weeks in the life of Irish hunger striker Bobby Sands. Sands was in the infamous H-blocks of Maze Prison in Northern Ireland in 1981. The political prisoners revolted against the harsh prison conditions.
Actors and actresses
Bobby Sands
Ray Lohan
Priest
Raymond's Mother
Raymond's Wife
Davey Gillen
Gerry Campbell
Gerry's Girlfriend
The Governor
William
Reviews & comments
Sergio Leone
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- 4501 messages
- 3183 votes
Tough.
It is all hard, but it is difficult to really sympathize. I don't know the whole IRA history, but a prison drama is a prison drama.
The first hour is especially tough. Only with the arrival of Bobby Sands (although the long dialogue is quite boring) does the fire start to heat up.
The decay happens quite quickly and has some sentiment here and there, but is quite captivating and gripping.
Michael Fassbender is strong, but most of all he deserves credit for his physical transformation. Still, I'm left with a bit of a mixed feeling, since he gets relatively little screen time.
This can count as a debut film. Everything shows that Steve McQueen knows about filmmaking. Apart from the long dialogue, he mainly lets images speak, and I like that.
3
Translated from Dutch · View original
Vinokourov
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- 3143 messages
- 2909 votes
Hmm, didn't expect this to be such a hard film. In the first part of Hunger, the viewer gets to see how harsh the British prison regime is. The convicts want to be seen as political prisoners because they are affiliated with the IRA and commit crimes from within that organization. I never thought that Abu Graib situations happened there too.
Halfway through, the infamously long scene follows where Bobby Sands explains to a priest that he is going on a hunger strike. Of course it's well done, such an unbroken shot of 17 minutes, but I thought the part that comes after that was more impressive, namely the physical decline of Bobby Sands. All in all, a very impressive film, which is very raw and intense. It is also typically one of those films that lingers for a while.
Translated from Dutch · View original
AnyaH
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- 461 messages
- 384 votes
A poignant and haunting drama based on the true events concerns the paramilitary Irish republicans who were imprisoned in the Maze prison in Mazetown, Northern Ireland. Cinematography: everything within the walls of a gray, cold prison. Music: barely, only at the end of the film, otherwise only talking and sounds made by people or slamming doors. The living conditions of the Irish prisoners were degrading, brutal, humiliating, horribly cruel and absolutely intolerable. They protested against this with first a 'blanket protest' by refusing clothing. Later followed by a 'dirty protest' with refusal to wash, smear faeces and food on the walls and let urine run in the hallway. When that had no effect on the British government, they went on hunger strike. It ultimately cost the lives of ten inmates, of which Bobby Sandd, played by Michael Fassbender, was the first victim......
Fassbender has of course delivered a world-class acting performance due to his immense weight loss.... The film images are shocking, explicit, raw and confrontational! And to think that there are still enough prisons in the world, where the living conditions are still degrading......
It crossed my mind again: the degree of civilization is measured by how civilized people treat less civilized people. The 'prisoners' usually had something up their sleeve, but that doesn't give you a license to treat them like dogs!
Translated from Dutch · View original
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