Director Steve McQueen is a visual art artist. First debut movie and he demonstrated his personal touch and feel to it.The entire move split into 3 phrases, the first phase is the background of the movie: 1980’s Britain does not admit they have political prisoners in North Ireland. The prisoners of the subject are on hunger strike: They do not take food of any kind, no bath or shower, only use rags to cover their body as a silence confrontation. As the terms silence confrontation suggested, the movie have very little dialogue, story telling thru acting.
The second phase of the movie is a twist and distinctive portion of the film: One scene is a long shot with 20 minutes straight of dialogue. The close friend of the hunger strike leader came visit his old friend. The leader’s friend is a priest himself, try to persuade his old friend to end this madness. The leader refused and they are so determine to fight till death...
The third phase of the movie is images of the hunger…For an individual, what kind of thoughts and believes he needs to have in order to starve to death? It is a very striking scene...
I always appreciate movies story telling thru visuals but not dialogues. Compare to narrative movies, this is quite a contrast and very unforgettable.
Hunger official website
I watched that one too. I like how McQueen introduced Bobby Sands by first following the prison-guard, then the other 2 prisoners who were just brought in and eventually meeting Bobby. And as you've said, the cinematography is totally stunning. Also, the way it presented the historical event is a bit unconventional as it focuses more on the moral conflicts and psychological hardship of Bobby himself than explaining the event. Although a few other films used similar approach, the excellency of the camera movement just added so much on the tension. Great film!
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