Hunger

4.33
    Hunger
    2008

    Synopsis

    The story of Bobby Sands, the IRA member who led the 1981 hunger strike during The Troubles in which Irish Republican prisoners tried to win political status.

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    Cast

    • Michael FassbenderBobby Sands
    • Stuart GrahamRay Lohan
    • Liam CunninghamPriest
    • Helena BereenRaymond's Mother
    • Laine MegawRaymond's Wife
    • Brian MilliganDavey Gillen
    • Liam McMahonGerry Campbell
    • Karen HassanGerry's Girlfriend
    • Frank McCuskerThe Governor
    • Lalor RoddyWilliam

    Recommendations

    • 100

      Village Voice

      A superbly balanced piece of work, addressing the passion of Irish Republican martyr Bobby Sands.
    • 90

      New York Magazine (Vulture)

      The movie is a political remake of "The Passion of the Christ," only more aestheticized: It's rigorous, evocative, and, in spite of its grisly imagery, elegant. It's a triumph--of masochistic literal-mindedness.
    • 83

      The A.V. Club

      Hunger may be criticized for being willfully arty, or for reducing a complex political situation to a broadly allegorical vision of martyrdom, but it's never less than visually stunning.
    • 80

      Film Threat

      While Hunger is a very brutal film, it also taps into human emotions and, in the end, asks what would we be willing to die for or, better, what could we truly not live without?
    • 70

      Chicago Reader

      The fulcrum of this deeply humanist work is an extended two-shot of the strike's leader, Bobby Sands (Michael Fassbender), as he converses with a priest (Liam Cunningham); the virtuosic sequence encapsulates the whole sorry history of a horrific civil war.
    • 70

      Variety

      Picture represents a powerful, pertinent but not entirely perfect debut for British visual-artist-turned-feature-helmer Steve McQueen, who demonstrates a painterly touch with composition and real cinematic flair, but who stumbles in film's last furlough with trite symbolism.
    • 70

      The New York Times

      The brutality in the film is pervasive and often stomach turningly graphic, but what is perhaps most unnerving is the tact, patience and care with which Mr. McQueen depicts its causes and effects.
    • 60

      Los Angeles Times

      The first-time director's unflinching camera, deliberate pacing and maddeningly long takes just amplify the story's innate harshness and test audience endurance levels.

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