Hunger Criterion #504

So on Wednesday I got Hunger in the mail. It was directed by Steve McQueen. In Northern Ireland's Maze prison in 1981, twenty-seven-year-old irish Republican Army member Bobby Sands went on a hunger strike to protest the British government's refusal to recognize him and his fellow IRA inmates as political prisoners. It premiered  in 2008 at the Cannes Film Festival wining Steve McQueen the prestigious Caméra d'Or award.

I bought the film on Blu-ray because I wanted to see the amount of detail that Steve McQueen put into his frist movie and It was outstanding. Other then the 18 minute still shoot there is maybe 5 minutes of talking. He uses the camera to show whats going on rather than explaining it. I really like how the prison looks on the inside.This movie is pretty brutal if you have a weak stomach or don't like violence, That's this whole story. Now this film set a record for the longest uncut still frame shot in a mainstream movie. The length is 18 minutes long which I didn't find boring but I found it hard to understand what they where talking about, they talked really fast I recommend subtitles for the scene.

Over all this film was really powerful. The 18 minute scene comes out of no where but the film is still great. The sound is powerful. There is a part where all the guards are banging their shields and then bringing the criminals out and beating them and just the sound in that scene really puts you in that hallway. For a criterion film there is no commentary track on the disc which is a huge let down. But there is an interview with McQueen and Michael Fassbender (who plays Bobby Sands). Also a BBC program on the prison and a short documentary on the making of Hunger + a booklet with a 5 page essay.