CS Weekly Archive > Weekend Read > 3/20/09

Visual Feast

By jenelle riley

A bleak dramatization of the final six weeks of the life of IRA hunger-striker Bobby Sands (Michael Fassbender).

Hunger

Enda Walsh and Steve McQueen (latter also directed)

There's a new Steve McQueen on the film scene, and he bears no resemblance to the quintessential American icon that starred in such '70s films as Bullitt and The Getaway. This McQueen is British-born and made his name as an artist and with such short, black-and-white films as Deadpan and Bear—silent, minimalistic pieces that could not be more of a polar opposite to the loud blockbusters of his namesake. For his feature film debut, Hunger, McQueen has maintained his experimental spirit, telling his story with a dazzling visual style and a minimum of dialogue.

McQueen, who had never written a script before, has said he originally considered making Hunger with no dialogue at all. Indeed, the first hour is virtually free of conversation. Which is not to say there is no noise; in fact, the film opens on a protest rally where the sound is almost deafening. It soon cuts to a series of wordless images of 1981 Northern Ireland as a prison guard prepares for his day—complete with a check under his car for explosive devices. McQueen's lens then plunges us into Belfast's Maze Prison, a filthy labyrinth where IRA prisoners are attempting to mount a "dirty protest"—naked, because they refuse to wear prison garb, they are smearing the walls with excrement and releasing urine into the corridors. Soon, the guards are brutally attacking the prisoners in scenes of unflinching violence.

One prisoner is dragged from his cell, his hair forcefully cut, and his body violently washed. This is Bobby Sands (Michael Fassbender), and it's jarring to realize McQueen has gone against all film convention and waited until nearly the midway point of the film to introduce the main character. The rule-breaking doesn't stop there; the next scene includes a single, 17-minute take on a fixed camera, loaded with dialogue. In it, Father Dominic Moran (Liam Cunningham) meets with Sands, who is leading the IRA prisoners, and tries to discourage him from a planned hunger strike. It says something that, despite the powerful visuals of the film up to this point, this scene is the most captivating in the entire film. Father Moran tries to convince Sands a hunger strike is pointless, but Sands' response is that "I cannot stand by and do nothing." The two debate passionately, each expressing their side of the argument in realistic dialogue that feels almost improvised. There are even traces of humor in some of the exchanges—at times, the pair are almost bantering. It also speaks volumes of the script by McQueen and playwright Enda Walsh (Disco Pigs) that the film presents both arguments with equal weight, and neither glorifies nor castigates Sands.

For the third act of the film, McQueen returns to a virtually silent landscape as the camera chronicles the disintegration of Sands' body. Much has been made of the spellbinding portrayal by Fassbender, who lost over 30 pounds on a doctor-controlled diet to portray Sands' dissolution. But Fassbender transcends mere gimmickry in his raw, visceral performance. Though it's gruesome to watch such suffering, McQueen creates images that verge on poetry: Sands' fingers playing along his exposed ribs, his body being carried like a limp rag by guards.

One can't help but think of another artist-turned-director, Julian Schnabel, who so beautifully captured suffering in films like Before Night Falls and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Like those films, Hunger will not be for everyone. But there can be no debate that it announces the arrival of an original and unique voice in filmmaking.

Hunger
IFC Films
Not Rated; 96 min.

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Jenelle Riley is a journalist and playwright living in Los Angeles. She enjoys good food and bad horror movies.



Hunger courtesy IFC Films

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