Post by StevePulaski on Sept 9, 2013 7:32:27 GMT -5
Hunger (2008)
Directed by: Steve McQueen
Directed by: Steve McQueen
One of the many beautiful, softly poetic sequences in Hunger.
Rating: ★★★★
When a film features little dialog and relies mostly on lengthy shots of a character for long periods of time and still manages to become a deeply affecting work, you know you've stumbled upon a great work. Speaking in terms of contemporary independent cinema, Steve McQueen's Hunger is one of the many powerful works I've seen, with the ability to shock and completely mesmerize a viewer.
The film is a heartstopping portrayal of the treatment the Irish Republican Army (IRA) members received in prison after their political status was revoked. In an effort to protest the British government's decision, many prisoners decide to partake in a hunger strike, along with a no-wash movement. One of them is Bobby Sands (Michael Fassbender), an IRA volunteer. Fassbender is ideal for Bobby because the character is heavily layered while simultaneously remaining very minimal, and few magnify such traits to great effect as he does.
Bobby is a committed individual, to the point where is involvement in the hunger strike becomes so trying and physically/mentally draining that it has the ability to make a viewer begin to feel the pain of the character. Bobby becomes so exhausted and weak in the later days that he lays away wasting in bed, and day after day, the nurse will bring small rations of food, be it toast with jelly or sausage and eggs, always occupied by a piping-hot cup of coffee. McQueen makes the small, basic food portions attractive, even desirable to the audience; I can't fathom how tempting they were in real life.
And so Bobby persists on with his hunger strike, while other prisoners watch in horror or partake in the events themselves. McQueen doesn't shy away from depicting the brutality endured by the prisoners, and one scene in particular treads the line of being unwatchable. It involves a prisoner being manhandled and carried away by two guards into the bathroom, to have his hair and beard viciously chopped off. Both chopped off so carelessly that his skull and lower jaw begins to bleed intensely. After enduring the brutal grooming, the man is then thrown into a tub of presumably cold water to be fiercely scrubbed with a broom. What follows this is dragging the man, who has devolved from a fighting human being to a limp, physically drained one, back to his cell to endure the hell of confinement until further notice.
McQueen is relentless and cold in his depiction of the Maze prison. He frequents the use of one-point perspective and wide shots, which often remain motionless for lengthy periods of time. This technique is wonderfully engrossing, as we are allowed to witness treatment and environment detail for great lengths of time. Never do we see the outside of the prison, giving the viewer the impression that our characters have been locked away so long that they don't know how the outside even looks anymore.
Another powerful scene comes later in the film; it's a conversation between Bobby and a priest (Liam Cunningham) captured in one single static shot lasting for a lengthy but engrossing seventeen minutes. The two talk about everything from religion, to prison life, to Irish politics, to the hunger strike, to their personal lives. After long stretches where not a word of dialog is spoken, McQueen carefully constructs a long, opus-shot on two characters makes small talk which gradually transcends into bigger, more elaborate talk. The casualness of the scene is what won me over from the beginning. It's also when we learn that McQueen isn't just a master of observation and deep-focus, but natural dialog.
Hunger is McQueen's directorial debut and I personally couldn't think of a deeper, bolder one to create a career. His followup picture was Shame, a deeply intimate film about a sex addict, ironically void of all sexuality and eroticism. Both films show McQueen as an artist first and a director second; a master of balancing characters and events along with creating a beautiful array of scenes that work to formulate a brilliant showcase for a character's life or a specific event. He keeps things broad yet personal and I couldn't think of a bigger anomaly in an auteur that works towards their favor.
Starring: Michael Fassbender and Liam Cunningham. Directed by: Steve McQueen.