Hunger- Film Review

Tonight I watched 'Hunger' on Film4. The film started at 11oClock and finished at 1am and I can safely say that it was worth staying up for. 'Hunger' is Steve McQueen's (not 'The Great Escape' star) debut directorial work. The film was made in 2008 and is about the 1981 hunger strike in Irish Prisons supporting the IRA or the INLA.

The first thing to say about this film is that it isn't for the light hearted. It's very violent and towards the end, very troubling. The majority of the film follows Michael Fassbender as Bobby Sands, the leader of The Strikes as he starves himself until the very end of the film. The film is quite strange as Fassbender's character doesn't even appear until about halfway through the film. No one character is presented as a lead character, alot of the narrative just revolves around the horrific treatment of the prisoners before The Hunger Strike started.

*Bobby Sands & Father Dominic in the most famous shot.

The start of the film doesn't revolve around dialogue at all. Occasionally there may be a line said but not responded too, but other than this the film is just almost silent at the start. What I noticed from the film is that McQueen seems to have a certain goal for every scene, something he may want to highlight. One of the most significant scenes is that of Bobby Sands telling 'Father Dominic' (Liam Cunningham) about his plans to carry out a hunger strike. The whole conversation is about 20 minutes long known notably for an unbroken 17 minute shot*. The lack of cuts between shots forces the audience to concentrate on the conversation and take note of what the characters are saying. This is just an example of McQueen's technique. He may want to highlight a particular aspect of a scene so alot of the time dialogue or cuts aren't necessary but at other times they are heavily relied on. McQueen's style of filmaking is very unique and in my opinion brilliant.

Fassbender's characterisation is brilliant to say the least. Although his acting abilities are only really spread out in the second half of the film, he is a stand out character. Towards the end of the film the scenes start to get very harrowing with Fassbender's body being dangerously small. I'm pretty sure (and I hope) that he didnt method act this one because by the end of the film he was pretty much flat from the side. The scenes in which he's starving himself are very hard to watch. One in particular that really gripped me is a frantic moving camera over Sands lying in a prison ward bed. Superimposed over this shot are flocks of birds flying and the crackles of there wings makes it sound like Bobby Sand's bones are crumbling and his body is falling apart.

Steve McQueen & Michael Fassbender.

This film is really powerful and a fantastic debut and it makes me excited to see McQueen's next film 'Shame' which is out very very soon and also stars Fassbender.

Rating 8/10

Top Tip-The film is fantastic but extremely hard to watch. It may not be everyone's cup of tea.

The Ides Of March- Film Review

'The Ides of March' is George Clooney's 4th directed film.It was produced and the screenplay was written by him too. The films revolves around Ryan Gosling's character Stephen Meyers who's a Junior Campaign Manager for Mike Morris (Clooney)as he is running for the leader of the Democrats & Presidential Candidate. He is soon offered a job by the Campaign Manager of the other Democratic candidates. Also finding out dark secrets about his boss (Clooney) he starts to doubt where he belongs as he has always said he works for what he believes in.

I like George Clooney. 'Up In The Air' is one of my favourite comedies and I've always seen him as a pretty great actor. I thought it would be interesting to see if i had a similar reaction to his directing. I didn't. Maybe politics just isn't my thing but still I must have found it at least a bit interesting. Paul Giamatti & Phillip Seymour Hoffman are both actors I really like and for me they didn't make me enjoy the film any more than It would have done without them. The trailer really set up the film as an exciting pacey political thriller but all the main plot points were placed so far apart that it felt like it was going on for hours. If Clooney had so much control over this film then George Clooney has really gone down on my lists.


I haven't seen alot of what Ryan Gosling does but apparently he has tendencies to be a bit dull and lifeless and this being the only major role I've seen him do, my expectations were met. My general boredom of the characters just got me hoping that someone would die or something so it could all come to a finish.



I always think if there's nothing positive to say then say nothing so I'll finish here. I didn't like it. Maybe it's just not my cup of tea, but i wouldn't watch it again.



4/10 Top Tip- Have a nice little sleep while you're watching. Chances are you won't miss much.