Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1274 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-02-23
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.77:1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 92 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
It’s a bold film that can seat two people opposite each other for nearly 20 minutes, just having a conversation. Hunger is that movie. What’s particularly impressive is just how enthralling the scene is, and how it makes cinematic gold out of something seemingly so straightforward. Yet straightforward is something that director Steve McQueen’s debut behind the camera absolutely isn’t. Hunger is the story of the IRA hunger strike at the Maze Prison in 1981, and it quickly pulls little punches in getting across the conditions in the prison, and the inmates’ dissatisfaction.

Hunger treads a very careful political line throughout its running time, and what emerges is a surprisingly open drama, powered by an excellent performance from Michael Fassbender as Bobby Sands. As Sands embarks on his infamous hunger strike, Fassbender mesmerises in the role, leading up to the aforementioned, gripping, single conversation that’s the highlight of the film. Mark him down as a major talent to watch. Alongside Fassbender, director Steve McQueen does really quite sterling work with Hunger. It can’t have been an easy film to direct by any measure, yet he turns in a harrowing piece of cinema that leaves the judgements to the viewer. It’s challenging film making and--despite a little stumbling as it enters its final act--it’s some piece of cinema too. --Jon Foster

Synopsis
This harrowing drama explores the real life events of the 1981 IRA Hunger Strike at Northern Ireland's Maze Prison. HUNGER stars Michael Fassbender, Liam Cunningham, Stuart Graham, and Brian Milligan. HUNGER marks the directorial debut of renowned artist Steve McQueen.

Customer Reviews

not for the faint of heart
I watched this film last night at the cinema and it justifies the hype that is surrounding it. The director, Steve McQueen, is of course most famous (up till now anyway) as the winner of the Turner Prize in 1999 (when he pipped Tracey Emin to the prize). He has been a film-maker for a long time, (his debut was Bear in 1993 which is a stark, stripped-back look at masculinity), but this is his first feature film. It retains the stripped-back feel, focussing mostly on one location, the Maze Prison, and the brutal horrors that go on therein. It is not for the faint of heart at all. Some parts of it are shocking, and yet Mcqueen has a great talent for stalling at particularly striking images and holding the shot for some time while action continues. I find this really effective, noticing the eery beauty in even the most brutal, unhappy, awful situations. This for me is the opposite of euphemism (an example of which, 'the troubles', used to refer to the war that went on in Ireland, is exposed as the lie it is in this film)... it takes a searing, brave, honest look at things, sees their terrible beauty and holds it so that you revile yourself in even thinking of beauty. These conflicting emotions are also embodied in the central character, Bobby Sands, who led the tragic 1981 hunger strike that resulted in 10 deaths.

Mcqueen's film is remarkably un-cluttered and yet a wealth of different kinds of scene are employed. We have a scene of extended dialogue in which Sands discusses the ethics of hunger striking with a priest. Thatcher's ugly voice is used as a voice-over. There are very violent scenes. A scene where a man is in tears, while extreme violence goes on beside him.

I think this is must-viewing for anyone interested in film, interested in recent history, interested in the way history is formed. It is not a simplistically judgemental film. The performances, particularly Michael Fassbender, are similarly uncompromising, brave and dedicated.

Very Good effort at showing one aspect of the "Troubles"
It is, of course, impossible to make a non political film about the Maze Hunger Strikes of the early 80's. The events came from the political situation in Northern Ireland of the previous 12 (60?) years.

In my opinion McQueen does the right thing by concentrating on a single particular and admittedly very dramatic event of the period. Perhaps someone will one day make a comprehensive epic about the period but maybe it isn't the time yet. The general political details of how the protests arose are given in the film but mostly the camera just shows the events as they arise without comment.

The film has 3 parts. The first shows the self imposed conditions the prisoners lived in during the Blanket and Dirty protests. While I knew this involved them spreading their own excrement on the walls of their cells it is still a bit of a shock to see it re-enacted on screen. There are also long scenes showing the mistreatment by the prison guards. At one point I was thinking that the filmmaker was showing bias by spending so much time on this brutality. There is then a brief scene showing one of the prison officers being shot in the back of the head while visiting his senile mother in a nursing home.
Which actions are more brutal? Are any of them justified? McQueen leaves it up to the viewer to decide.
The middle section is an extended converstion between hunger strike leader Bobby Sands and a priest before the strike begins. They discuss the morality and motivation of the strike. Again McQueen sets out both views and leaves the decisions up to the viewer. I found one suggestion the priest made very interesting ie the Sands desperately wanted to be included in the Pantheon of Irish Republican martyrs such as Tone and Pearse.
The final section shows Sands physical decline to death during the strike. I thought the flashbacks to his childhood a bit unnecessary and out of tune with the tone of the rest of the film.

Overall I thought it was a dispassionate attempt to show the events of the time. Go to see it without preconceptions and make up your own mind.

a film to endure rather than enjoy
If Steve McQueen, the writer and director of this incredible film, was never to make another film in his life, he could at least be happy in the knowledge that he has created something truly astonishing. Taking as its central core the last six weeks of the life of IRA prisoner Bobby Sands as he embarks on the hunger strike that will lead to his death, this film pulls no punches in showing the graphic nature of life for both prison officers and prisoners within the notorious Maze prison in 1981.
Beginning with a sequence involving prison officer Ray Lohan (Stuart Graham) getting ready for work and checking under his car for "suspect devices" as his wife looks on, the film then moves on to quickly establish the brutal realities of life for IRA prisoners in the Maze. Refusing to wear prison uniforms as they consider themselves political prisoners and hence should be allowed to wear their own clothes, the prisoners embark on a series of what became known as "dirty" protests (although this term is never used in the film), but here are referred to more correctly as "Blanket" and "No Wash" protests. The harsh realities of these protests are prisoners smearing their own excrement on the walls of their cells, refusing to bath or cut their hair, and wearing only blankets as they have no other clothing. Coupled with this is the unbelievable brutality with which the authorities attempted to maintain order, including forcibly cleaning the prisoners, and submitting them to degrading cavity searches.
The film then focuses on Bobby Sands (Michael Fassbender) as he reaches the decision to embark on a hunger strike, justifying this desperate action in a simply stunning set piece where he discusses the morality and reality of what he and his fellow prisoners are about to embark on with a priest (Liam Cunningham) in a relatively static 20 minute sequence which is simply two men talking, one justifying his actions of last resort, whilst the other tries to convince him of the foolhardiness of his decision, and one of the most riveting pieces of cinema I have ever seen, simply because it is simple and un-self conscious, well acted and well scripted.
This is a film that makes no judgements, and never says who was right and who was wrong (that's up to you to decide), but instead shows a snapshot of a particular moment in recent history with brutal and graphic immediacy, in particular the extended sequence of Bobby Sands death and the brief and unbelievably shocking murder of a prison guard by a Republican hitman. Fassbender is simply mesmerising as Bobby Sands, a man driven to do what he did out of desperation and dissatisfaction with a leadership on both sides of the fence that either marginalised, belittled or ignored him. The fact that Sands death lit the touch paper for many more years of sectarian violence is left unsaid, but hangs heavy throughout the closing moments of the film. But this is McQueen's film, and he handles it beautifully. Skilful use of voiceover to establish the political climate at the time (Margaret Thatcher is an unseen but brooding presence throughout the film thanks to some fantastic moments featuring her various statements and press conferences) is coupled with imagery that literally does say more than words can. Both compelling and repellent at the same time, this is not an easy film to watch, but still comes thoroughly recommended.