Hunger

bold and artistic

hunger features many scenes that are as breathtaking as masterpiece paintings. the style of this film far exceeds the plot, but its not style over substance... there is plenty of that too. hunger is the story of bobby sands and the IRA hunger strike in northern ireland in 1981. much of the film deals with the conditions of the maze prison, the inmates, the guards, the cells, etc. a big part of the film (nearly 20 minutes!) is a single shot scene involving bobby and a priest discussing the decision to hunger strike. the scene is amazing! 20 minutes, multi tone conversation while smoking cigarettes. very impressive stuff. steve mcqueen (not the dead actor) did an amazing job on his first film. even though there are a few slow parts where we are bogged down in details, such as watching a guard scrub inmate piss out of the hallway for 5 minutes, it flows rather well. it's gritty, dehumanizing/demoralizing, and at times just gross... but overall pretty powerful and artistic.