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Reviewed by Elliot V. Kotek
(from Toronto International Film Festival 2008)
 

Director: Steve McQueen
Writers: Enda Walsh, Steve McQueen
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Liam Cunningham, Stuart Graham, Liam McMahon, Brian Milligan, Ben Peel

Hunger is a tour de force – an effective exploration of the rights decried by and denied to Republican prisoners in Northern Ireland’s Maze Prison circa 1981.

Steve McQueen’s fine art flick initially introduces us to the power of the prison through the bloodied hands and bloodshot eyes of a guard who, despite his position of authority within the system, is as much a victim of the systemic fear and force as the men locked into their shit-filled cages. Winding his way through a cast of characters each as intriguing as the last, and setting up their scenarios with sequences of images unique enough to each be worthy of a gallery wall, McQueen utilizes silence with more strength than any filmmaker in recent years. That this represents the helmer’s directorial debut makes the effort even more impressive, and marks McQueen’s arrival on the film side of the art scene with permanent ink.

The powerful parade of the prison guard’s provocation techniques, the prisoners’ internal systems and secrets, and minor yet adequate mentions of the hard-line politics responsible for the sum of its parts all build then blur away in favor of the personality provided by Michael Fassbender’s Bobby Sands. Fassbender has found his feet in many prominent projects over the past few years, but the thesp’s turn as Sands in McQueen’s cinematic award-magnet is nothing short of sensational. The actor’s obvious commitment to the craft serves up a physical transformation as extreme as Christian Bale’s in The Machinist, but, despite dramatic weight loss, Fassbender’s Sands retains an essence of power, a spirited determination to defy defeat.

McQueen slams audience senses into full gear, enlisting the viewer to bear witness to the sights, smells and severity of the situation, reminding all of the power of non-violent self-sacrifice. Of course, any cinematic happening involving such a historic personality will provoke commentary as to whether McQueen is honoring a hero or a villain, and the director has been considerate and comprehensive in representing characters of remorse on all sides of the conflict.

McQueen lets up the assault only long enough (18 minutes, in fact) to engage his “hero” with a theatrical spar in which Bobby Sands and his priest sit in silhouette and joust with jawed jabs that argue either side of the morality and meaning of a hunger strike. This theatrical moment within the fuller cinematic experience of the entire film cements the ride of the viewer, and imbues the audience with the tools to debate Sands’s decisions. Ultimately, the scene provides balance to the brave physicality of the film, forming for the audience a sense of the mental place and purpose that McQueen’s characters have established beneath their sinking skin.

Simply said, this is one of the best films of the year and may even be the most deserved work of 2008. The effect of the film’s beauty and brutality appropriately appoints McQueen and his leading charge, Michael Fassbender, to all must-watch lists, and it simply must be experienced by any for whom the cinema is a purveyor of discourse. -MPM

Hunger won the Gold Hugo at the 44th annual Chicago International Film Festival – the jury cited the film as an “uncompromisingly disturbing story of the courage to fight for one’s belief.”
Hunger also picked up The Silver Hugo Award for best actor for Michael Fassbender.