Hunger
2008 Directed by Steve McQueen
Synopsis
The story of Bobby Sands, the IRA member who led the 1981 hunger strike in which Republican prisoners tried to win political status. It dramatises events in the Maze prison in the six weeks prior to Sands’ death.
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This is one of the very best films I've seen in a good while. It was Steve McQueen's debut? Fuck, I can't believe it. It's a beautiful, thought-provoking, haunting and brutal film. And I mean BRUTAL.
If, for some reason you are not yet convinced that Fassbender is one of the best actors working right now, watch this film and you will be among the doubting no more. He delivers a performance that should and will be remembered forever. Looks like he almost lost as much weight as Bale did for The Machinist. Ah, maybe not quite, but it's scary as hell.
There is a conversation that takes place around the middle of the film and goes on for almost half an hour. And it's gripping. It's nearly uncut, too. I think there is a shot that lasts about 16 minutes uncut. Amazing. Just do yourself a favour and watch this film.
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I had no idea what I got myself into. The words that come to mind about Steve McQueen’s freshman effort are: brutal, visceral, grueling, splanchnic. But the epitomizing word is, REAL. Hunger is clearly directed by a talented filmmaker that understands the elements of film incredibly well. The scenes the audience witness are nothing people want to see, but like the prisoners portrayed in this true story, we are forced to watch it and mentally experience the pain of the prisoners. It’s an incredible film that I never want to see again.
McQueen creates a minimalistic film by depriving the audience of the normal supplements of film. Slight camera movements, musical scoring, set-pieces, non-essential dialogue, background conversations, these elements are…
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PTAbro's World Tour Stop 1: Ireland
Finally, a prison movie that's not afraid to show the lighter side of incarceration.
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What started as a routine browsing through my Bluray catalog turned into another viewing of Steve McQueen's fantastic Hunger. As I sit down to watch the opening scenes and the details the Criterion Bluray brings out, I am utterly transfixed by it, and before I know it, the film is over, and I am still as heavily impacted as the first time I watched it.
Although, it is true, Hunger isn't an easy movie to sit through, nor is it fast paced. Instead, McQueen rightly uses a slow paced style in order to make us feel just as uncomfortable as its subjects. But we're never really that uncomfortable with it as a watcher. That's the beauty of Hunger. This is…
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Film Number 6 on PinHeadLarry145's 30 Days 30 Countries Film Challenge!
United Kingdom, 2008.
Oh man. What a rough one.
Hunger was the film I chose for the United Kingdom because 1) I haven't seen it, and 2) it was directed by Steve McQueen. This man was officially put on my radar after the brooding mass of sexual tension that was Shame but for some reason I never got around to watching this one.
I really didn't expect what the next hour and thirty minutes of my life would look like, but I can assure you that I felt absolutely disgusting afterwards. It's a tough film to watch not because of gore or anything like that, but instead it exposes…
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Fassbender is great, Fassbender is always great, fuckin' Fassbender.
Steve McQueen's debut film, and the audacity for a first-time filmmaker to include a 30 minute long conversation scene in a 90 minute film is amazing alone, but for him to pull it off is incredible. Not to mention the scene is mostly made up of one single take.
Just as good as Shame (although I did like this more on my first viewing than I liked Shame on it's first viewing) and I can't wait to see 'Twelve Years A Slave', McQueen and Fassbender's third film together
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"Hunger is a film to admire and appreciate artistically, but not necessarily to enjoy in the same way as McQueen's later effort Shame... That said, as directorial debut's go, this is one of the most powerful and promising the 21st Century has seen so far." Full review here
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El cuerpo. Hace mucho no miraba una peli así. El cuerpo. Cómo se detoriora y transforma. Cmo la enfermedad lo transforma, en este caso el dolor y su violento trato. Hasta donde llega y hasta donde no. Incluso, en unos de mis delirios, según yo mismo, apoya mi teoría que tengo acerca de que el cuerpo se queda y la mente no. La mente va más allá, hasta donde el cuerpo no puede llegar. Eso no quita que el cuerpo, en si mismo, no tenga su propio y grande misterio. Mi escena favorita es cuando una persona de limpieza en la carcel-sanatorio-centro-de-tortura, va limpiendo con un rastrillo el agua de los pasillos y se escucha un discurso de Margaret Tatcher.…
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Incredibly difficult to watch but very well crafted. A sit-com or BBC3 recommended to calm down after.
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I had no idea what I got myself into. The words that come to mind about Steve McQueen’s freshman effort are: brutal, visceral, grueling, splanchnic. But the epitomizing word is, REAL. Hunger is clearly directed by a talented filmmaker that understands the elements of film incredibly well. The scenes the audience witness are nothing people want to see, but like the prisoners portrayed in this true story, we are forced to watch it and mentally experience the pain of the prisoners. It’s an incredible film that I never want to see again.
McQueen creates a minimalistic film by depriving the audience of the normal supplements of film. Slight camera movements, musical scoring, set-pieces, non-essential dialogue, background conversations, these elements are…
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*Film Number 1 of June 100 Challenge*
It's impossible to find a concrete political stance in Steve McQueen's debut feature, "Hunger," because there isn't one. The film chronicles the events of the 1981 hunger strike by IRA members being held in British prisons. If there is a stance in McQueen's film, it's that prison life just might be the closest thing to Hell on this earth, not just for the prisoners but for those working for the system.
"Hunger" is an incredibly hard movie to watch at times. Casual movie watchers will be frustrated by the lack of a conventional plot, while those who take the time to watch McQueen's vision unfold will appreciate not only his incredibly talented visual…
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I liked this movie tremendously and have no desire to revisit it anytime soon. It was so visceral and harrowing that I felt legitimately exhausted after sitting through it. Steve McQueen's direction is so confident and effective, and all the more remarkable for being his debut. Definitely a director I'm going to be paying attention to in the future.
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Fassbender wasting away to nothing. Did his actions accomplish anything? It is hard to say...
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Michael Fassbender is an incredible actor, and his pairing with Steve McQueen is consistently one of the best director/actor combos in film today. Hunger is an unflinching and brutal depiction of the horrible treatment endured by these prisoners, made all the more difficult to watch by its long, lingering scenes and slow pace. The centerpiece of the movie is an absolutely riveting nearly 20-minute scene between Fassbender and Liam Cunningham (Davos from Game of Thrones!). This exchange, comprised of nothing but dialogue and done almost entirely from one camera view, is one of the most incredible single scenes I can remember. Hunger is moving, shocking, beautiful, disturbing, and absolutely incredible.
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Wow, Hunger was quite the uplifting film, if I do say so myself.
While I really enjoyed the movie, my main issue was the lack of context to the events portrayed onscreen. Hunger works best as a character study, looking at how far people are willing to go for a cause. The problem is, I really had no idea what the cause was. I had to scramble to Wikipedia after the film was over to really understand the context of the situation. But as a stylish character-driven film, Hunger succeeds on all fronts.