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Certificate: 
Director: Steve McQueen
Release Date: 31 October 2008
Tagline: An odyssey, in which the smallest gestures become epic and when the body is the last resource for protest.
Main Cast:
Michael Fassbender … Bobby Sands
Liam Cunningham … Father Moran
I was born in 1971 and grew up with the threat of IRA terrorism every day of my life for the best part of thirty years. I avoided the Hyde Park bombing by a matter of days, and I never went to London at Christmas because the threat was far too great. I have nothing but contempt for those responsible for the deaths of so many. Let us not forget that these people were responsible for the Enniskillen Remembrance Day service bombing atrocity.However, I heard that Hunger was supposedly neutral, so, despite my reservations and being the film lover that I am I decided to watch it.
No matter how hard the director may have tried for neutrality Hunger almost ends up being pro IRA as there is no balance between viewpoints. The film seems to wish to portray the IRA (and Sands in particular) as men who were treated unfairly by the denial of the Government to grant them political status.
I do see what Steve McQueen was trying to get across, but I think that the film fails in the respect that, as mentioned above, the IRA are seen to be persecuted. The point that Sands made the ultimate sacrifice for his beliefs would have been powerful enough – there was no real need for the first half of the film. The brutality shown seemed to justify the killing of one of the wardens. I get the feeling that we were supposed to cheer when he got shot in the back of the head.
Hunger is a powerful film. I hope it has not been the cause in the recent uprising of the so-called ‘Real IRA’ who have committed yet more murders over the last fortnight.
Asking me to have sympathy for Bobby Sands and the IRA is like asking me to sympathize with Al Qaeda. It’s never going to happen.
I cannot rate this film as I am unable to remove my personal feelings.