Michael Fassbender (left) stars as Bobby Sands
Dir. Steve McQueen
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Liam Cunningham
Grade: A-
Steve McQueen’s “Hunger” is a harrowing portrayal of the Troubles in Northern Ireland and the events leading up to the 1981 Hunger Strike that left ten young men dead. McQueen’s film, his first, takes on an extremely difficult, very real subject matter and manages to craft an end product which both terrifies and enlightens.
The film is divided into three parts. Following an interesting prologue where we see a prison guard normally going about his day-to-day morning routine, we find ourselves in prison, where a new arrival is being processed. It is through his eyes that we are thrown directly into what seems like the very pit of hell. The prisoner is asked to remove his clothes, he requests permission to wear civilian clothes. The guard systematically writes down on a ledger “non-conformist” beside the young man’s name. We can see similar entries for earlier arrivals. After a beat, the young inmate begins removing his clothes. When he enters his cell, we notice that the walls are covered in excrement. There’s rotting food on the floor with maggots visibly rummaging around. His cellmate, with unkempt hair and wearing only a bed sheet sits in a corner, unaware or purposely ignoring the new arrival. All of this unfolds in absolute silence.
As it turns out, having unsuccessfully attempted the “blanket protest” (where the inmates refused to wear prison garb), the prisoners escalated the stand off with the “dirty protest” (where the prisoners refused to bathe and smeared their cells with their own excrement). And this is where we find ourselves during the first part of the film.
The scenes are visceral and repugnant – there is no getting away from it. And while McQueen is clearly presenting the story from a sympathetic point of view toward the inmates, we still see the effect of these acts on the perpetrators. Particularly effective is the use of Margaret Thatcher’s voice in response to the prisoners’ protests. The detachment in her voice is almost as disturbing as the inhumane scenes before our eyes and in stark contrast to the psyche of the guards who have to do the “dirty work.”
The prisoner’s methods escalate as their desperation to achieve their goals increases. We first meet Bobby Sands (played with quiet intensity by Michael Fassbender) during the second segment of the film. Sands is a strong, articulate leader, fully committed to his cause. In an extended scene that is mostly filmed in one shot, we see Sands engage in a debate with a friendly priest (a fantastic Liam Cunningham). There, Sands informs the priest about the plans for the hunger strike. This is the highlight of the film, and the dialogue is written and acted beautifully by the two actors. A particular passage has Sands explaining a memory that is so evocatively moving and indelible that the actual re-creation later in the film falls short.
In the third part of the film, when we see the effect of the hunger strike on Sands, it becomes clear that these were no mere tactics, as the men turn their acts of protests away from their surroundings and directly toward themselves. Is this an act of heroism or, as one character states, an attempt to gain pity? The answer is up to the viewer, but is very clear what McQueen’s answer is.
Overall, this is a tempered film that comes close to presenting a fully-realized picture of the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike. The performances are uniformly powerful, and I’m looking forward to seeing more work from Fassbender. However, despite the intensity of the events that unfolded before me, I couldn’t escape a sense of detachment. This was in part due to an average understanding of the Troubles and to the almost methodical portrayal of the inmates. A film need not teach or pontificate, but when portraying situations as politically-charged as the Troubles (and in order to truly understand the motivations and actions of the people on the screen), some background is simply necessary. In that sense, taking in a viewing of Ken Loach’s fantastic “The Wind That Shakes the Barley” before diving into “Hunger” might do the trick.
Lawyer by day, blogger by night.