The things they say....Hunger

http://theplaylist.blogspot.com/2010/02/hunger-co-scribe-enda-walsh-to-write.html

And tangentially, if you haven't seen this brutal, but lyrical McQueen debut -- about the last six weeks of the life of the Irish republican hunger striker Bobby Sands -- boasting an incredible performance by Michael Fassbender (also of "Inglourious Basterds") and featuring a subtle ambient score by David Holmes (the 'Ocean's' franchise) -- walk don't run. The Criterion Collection recently rarefied the film was well.

http://www.papermag.com/blogs/2010/02/hunger_on_dvd.php

Posted Feb. 15, 2010, 11:04 a.m. ET
Cinemaniac
Hunger On DVD!
By Dennis Dermody

Out on DVD this week is Hunger, British artist Steve McQueen's debut feature set in the notorious Northern Ireland Maze prison and during Republican Army member Bobby Sands' (Michael Fassbender) fatal hunger strike of 1981. As brutal and harrowing as much of the film is (the guards beating the inmates, the prisoners drawing on the walls of their cells with feces), the movie has astonishing lyrical beauty as well. Michael Fassbender's (Inglourious Basterds, Fish Tank) physical and emotional transformations are extraordinary. A strangely beautiful, equally horrifying film.

http://thehollywoodinterview.blogspot.com/2010/02/dvd-playhouse-february-2010.html

Fassbender is absolutely brilliant in the lead.

http://thefilmstage.com/2010/02/15/dvd-picks-of-the-week-feb-16th/

The film can be disturbing but Michael Fassbender’s tour-de-force performance immediately shot up to one of my favorites of the decade after watching this masterpiece.

http://awardscircuit.blogspot.com/2010/02/its-bit-of-down-week-for-dvd.html

Hunger
This rough drama gets the Criterion treatment right out of the gate, and it's a great movie that's well worth watching, especially for Michael Fassbender's searing performance. He gives his all, and it shows. Check it out if you think you can handle it.

http://hairstyle.mytipsonline.info/2010/02/dvd-reviews-black-dynamite-spoofs-blaxploitation-genre-tribune-review/

British filmmaker Steve McQueen’s fascinating portrait of protests by Irish Republican Army members including Bobby Sands (played brilliantly by Michael Fassbender)

http://ballotschangshayanqun.rangdebasanti.com/2010/02/16/hunger-review/

Sometimes non-standard due to the brutality of the twist by the guards against the prisoners and in the horrific self-imposed torture of ravenousness-striker Bobby Sands, passionately portrayed by Michael Fassbender.

http://punchdrunkcritics.blogspot.com/2010/02/punch-drunk-dvds-21610.html

Hunger
Before Michael Fassbender exploded onto American big screens in Inglorious Basterds, he had already made international waves and earned awards for his performance here. Hunger features him as Bobby Sands, IRA leader and prisoner at Belfast's Maze Prison in 1981. He and his brothers begin a brutal, agonizing hunger strike to protest their lack of political prisoner status according to the British government. A stirring, star making performance that simply cannot be missed.

http://www.videoroomoakland.com/2010/02/new-releases-february-16-2010.html

Michael Fassbender is riveting as Bobby Sands, the leader of a group of imprisoned IRA members who go on a hunger strike because the British refuse to recognize them as political prisoners.

http://www.knin.com/entertainment/?feed=bim&id=84586517

Finally, there's Steve McQueen's "Hunger," a beautiful film about terrible things, a look at the life of Irish hunger strikers in prison starring Michael Fassbender in a searing performance. It's a very hard sit, but a worthwhile one, and if there's any film from the last few years that deserves the high-def treatment for the painterly qualities of its image, it's this one.

http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/hungerbluray.php

The film also succeeds in presents some of the most fantastic performances ever gathered into a single film. Every single actor is totally convincing in their part, from Brian Milligan as the newcomer to Michael Fassbender as Sands. The dedication it took to get to the skeletal state which many of the actors need is amazing, but I get the feeling from watching this film that they could all have been twenty pounds overweight and still have sold the emotional depth of their situation through their eyes and voice. Although the silent sequence (which take up most of the film's running time) are amazing, the real tour-de-force is the scene between Sands and his priest and the acting there is top notch since it has to carry both the emotional core of the film along with its exposition.

http://www.eyeweekly.com/film/dvd/article/83426

Steve McQueen’s unnervingly intimate Hunger takes us to the final six weeks in the life of IRA hunger-striker Bobby Sands. Long before Inglourious Basterds, Michael Fassbender blew minds with his Christian Bale–level dedication to embodying Sands in his skeletal dying moments. .

http://artofthrowingstones.blogspot.com/2010/02/whats-up-netflix_21.html

The focus has been on Michael Fassbender (and deservedly so), however we must not overlook the other actors also laid bare before the camera.

Fassbender delivers a career making performance (I can't wait to see what he does next!!). With a glance of the eye, a deep inhale of smoke, the shuttering of his body; Fassbender makes us a witness in the room to the action, not a couch potato. His 22 min uncut scene with Liam Cunningham is magnificent. It is a real testament to this film, to McQueen, to the actors; that a static 2 shot is so compelling.

http://www.ny1.com/8-queens-news-content/ny1_living/114072/ew-dvd-review---hunger-

The leader is Michael Fassbender's Bobby Sands -- a whip-smart, sharp-tongued leader of men who sees his own death as an inevitable pawn move in a struggle that will go on after he is. But that doesn't stop him from the ultimate sacrifice.

If you aren't familiar with the actor's name, you might remember Fassbender from "Inglourious Basterds" as the genteel British officer who masquerades as a German to take down the Nazis. In that movie, he was wonderfully charismatic and smooth. Here, in what's an even better performance, he's unshakable. There's a scene between him and a priest who visits him in prison to talk him out of starving himself to death that is as great an acting lesson as I've ever seen. And Fassbender, who sheds a disturbing amount of weight for the part, recalling what Christian Bale did in "The Machinist," shows how far he's willing to go as an actor.

http://www.wickedlocal.com/provincetown/fun/entertainment/x196136659/Martyrs-frauds-and-Wild-Things-come-to-light-in-newly-released-DVDs

As Sands, Michael Fassbender is a transcendent martyr, deliberate and calculating but thoroughly human

http://walshwords.wordpress.com/2010/02/22/hunger-a-no-holds-barred-and-honest-prison-sentence/

Speaking through the lens with complete honesty, McQueen’s visual efforts are aided by a remarkable and engaging performance by Michael Fassbender as Bobby Sands, the leader of the hunger strike. Fassbender went on a medically monitored crash diet to accurately portray Sands, and the results are truly frightening.

With such dedication to his work and the authentic and startling performance that comes of it, it’s tough to see how Fassbender flew under the radar in 2008. His performance is equally as great, if not better, than the lot nominated for best male actor at that year’s Academy Awards. Fassbender injects so much heart and soul into his captivating performance and the result is a lasting impression of Sands’ never break mantra.

Also of great notice is a nearly 17 minute uncut scene where Fassbender’s character discusses his upcoming plan for a hunger strike with the prison’s priest. For such a long scene of two men simply sitting, smoking and having a real conversation without any camera cuts, it’s absolutely engaging. And this lengthy scene is only proof that this film, which is often quiet and subtle as far as spoken word is concerned, was strongly and smartly written by McQueen and co-writer Enda Walsh.

http://moonwolves.wordpress.com/2010/02/22/hunger-left-me-full/

This film is McQueen’s film but at the same time it would have been nothing if not for his lead, the soon to be well known Michael Fassbender. While pretty much being a blonde version of Christian Bale he also takes a page out of Bale’s book of acting and went all out crash diet for this film. Luckily for him though the hard work paid off thanks to the director. We first see Fassbender about 20 minutes into the movie as he is being thrown down a beating line for the prisoners, and yes they used real billy clubs on the actor. He looks like a typical skinny guy, but after he makes the decision to start the hunger strike he looks so emaciated and just skin and bones, covered in bed sores its almost sickening to see.

http://www.weekinrewind.com/2010/02/hunger-dvd-blu-ray-review.html

Of course, there are certain moments in the film that make up for this lack of information, notably one specific sequence the film is most well-known for, a 17-minute-long one-take scene between Fassbender's Sands and a priest who is attempting to talk him out of the hunger strike. Fassbender and Liam Cunningham, who plays the priest, allegedly moved in together and practiced the scene 12 times a day for several weeks before shooting. The preparation certainly worked. The conversation comes off quite naturally, and the absolute power of the scene does a surprisingly great deal for Sands' character development.

The scene is now the longest ever in a mainstream film. It's by far one of the best solely dialogue-driven I've seen from a modern feature.

I don't know what exactly was done to so accurately portray the body under starvation--presumably Fassbender went through a pretty painful diet for the majority of it--but it certainly comes across as startlingly realistic, and it's often hard to watch.

Fassbender is the real revelation of the film, though. In just the past couple years, the Irish actor has been incredibly impressive, both in recent BAFTA winner "Fish Tank" and in "Inglourious Basterds," where he had a very brief but memorable supporting role. Here, he's like another performer entirely, totally believable and fiercely dedicated to his craft, undoubtedly. He's definitely making a strong mark in very little time.

http://messagesbylight.blogspot.com/2010/02/dvd-hunger.html

Michael Fassbender, who plays Bobby Sands, stands out as an enormous talent in this movie, getting every single look, tone of voice, and reaction spot on. Fassbender knows how to court the audience, and does so incredibly well in this film.

http://justanotherego.blogspot.com/2010/03/starving.html

Fassbender is amazing in what was his stunning breakout role. One of the most talked about scenes is the sixteen and a half minute shot of him and Cunningham talking in a visiting room, and it is worth talking about. The two sit at a table, across from each other, and McQueen has such faith, and their performances have such strength, that when the shot ends you feel like you have been holding your breath the entire time. And then he follows on shortly after with an epic close up on Fassbender's face again, a long monologue, a powerful and bold statement of conviction.

http://alejandrabarrerasblog.monhappyblog.com/2010/03/03/hunger-2008/

Its hero is a young prisoner called Bobby Sands, memorably played by Michael Fassbender.

McQueen spares us nothing of the sores and lesions of bodily decay, but his film has a haunting beauty, and Fassbender's portrayal of Sands is touched by nobility.

http://boxoffice.com/dvd-spotlight/2010/02/26/hunger.php

Despite being a fan of McQueen’s presentation, the force that is Fassbender is not one to be ignored. Rather than evoke the personality of the fallen IRA figurehead—who was elected to the United Kingdom Parliament during the strike—via blasé impressions or caricatural embellishment, the rising young star instead recalls his memory by embodying Sands’ most celebrated trait: his conviction. The best example of this comes in the form of a 16.5 minute static shot that subverts Hunger’s previous dependence on moments of wanton degradation. During this scene, Sands converses with prison priest Dominic Moran (Liam Cunningham) about the moral implications of the imminent hunger strike. The two actors play wonderfully off each other, deftly voicing their own inexorably cultured stances and hinting at the unavoidable faux-Christ tropes that such a story affords. Still, the overresoluteness that Fassbender exudes does more than reduce the piece to a fabling tale of martyrdom. And with the selfish-versus-selfless ambiguity he injects into Sand’s motives, Fassbender adds an ironic slant to the Christ parallel, breading more room for discussion and, naturally, enjoyment.

http://offtheshelfreviews.com/1173/movie-reviews/hunger/

There’s a fantastic scene between Sands and a priest (Liam Cunningham) that goes uncut for what must be twenty full minutes. Just the two men discussing where they presently stand set against the shadows of the room, setting the scene for Sands’ strike.

Can’t write a review about Hunger without mentioning Fassbender’s physical performance. The man lost an unhealthly looking amount of weight to play Sands in the late stages of starvation, and the camera takes full advantage. It’s a bona-fide nightmare.

http://www.ffwdweekly.com/article/screen/new-notable/from-shakespeare-to-undead-chickens-5320/

Hunger (2009, dir. Steve McQueen, Criterion): This critically lauded look at hunger-striking IRA prisoners in the ’80s has split audiences. Some find the minimal dialogue mesmerizing, some find the film’s bleak disposition boring as hell, but all admit that Inglourious Basterds star Michael Fassbender is fantastic.

http://uselessfilmsnob.blogspot.com/2010/03/hunger.html

The feces smeared walls of the prisoners' cells, the flying batons and crumpled bodies being beaten, Sands's (played with an act of physical bravado by Michael Fassbender) emaciated figure at the end, they're all ingrained in my mind with their visceral nature. There's a sixteen minute long take, between Sands and a priest, that is dazzling filmmaking, not just in its length but its composition of the figures bathed in shadows.