Get Hunger for St. Patty’s

In theaters Friday: The Bounty Hunter, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Repo Men, The Runaways [limited]

New on DVD/Blu-ray: Astro Boy, Broken Embraces, The Princess and the Frog, Did You Hear About the Morgans?

Though many of you reading this celebrated on Saturday with some green beer and a trek through Hundred Oaks for Baton Rouge’s popular St. Patrick’s Day Parade, today is the official holiday. So put on something green and don’t get pinched!

Now, rarely do I like playing the killjoy, but there is a new film out on DVD that in its own ghastly and spellbinding way tells another side of Ireland’s legacy—one of hardship, bloodshed, subjugation, prejudice and strong-willed revenge.

Artist-turned-director Steve McQueen’s debut Hunger is the brutal but visually stunning story of the late Bobby Sands, an imprisoned Irish Republican who goes on a hunger strike for political and constitutional rights for his people at the height of The Troubles, the long-running conflict between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland and England.

At the center of the film is Fassbender. A relative newcomer, Fassbender has a supporting role last year in Inglourious Basterds, but here he gives a fully committed and haunting performance, particularly in an extended scene with his priest. There, the camera does not move or cut away for 17 whole minutes as Sands and his longtime friend and Father engage in a verbal toe-to-toe over whether Sands should go through with the hunger strike or not. The priest tries desperately to save Sands’ soul, but Sands has already chosen to give his up.

Hunger is not without its faults, however. There are needless flashbacks, and some slices of violence border on overly gruesome, Saw-style torture. Plus, we don’t even meet Sands until about 25 minutes into the film. The first act focuses almost exclusively on introducing this dank, suppressive world of 1981 Northern Ireland through the eyes of an English prison guard and a new inmate.

Even if some of the things he fought for came to pass shortly after his death, Sands’ end is tragic. The Shawshank Redemption this is not. Hunger is the Requiem for a Dream of prison movies. McQueen’s work is the kind of hard-to-watch film you probably won’t see twice. It’s not the type of film you enjoy or even love, but with its masterful direction and cinematography, and with Fassbender wholly embodying the complex, self-made martyr Bobby Sands, it is absolutely one to respect.