Opening

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Coming Soon

—— After Earth May 31
—— Now You See Me May 31
88% The East May 31
100% The Kings of Summer May 31

Hunger (2008)

tomatometer

90

Average Rating: 7.8/10
Reviews Counted: 115
Fresh: 104 | Rotten: 11

Unflinching, uncompromising, vivid and vital, Steve McQueen's challenging debut is not for the faint hearted, but it's still a richly rewarding retelling of troubled times.

89

Average Rating: 7.6/10
Critic Reviews: 28
Fresh: 25 | Rotten: 3

Unflinching, uncompromising, vivid and vital, Steve McQueen's challenging debut is not for the faint hearted, but it's still a richly rewarding retelling of troubled times.

audience

78

liked it
Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 70,896

My Rating

Movie Info

The final months of Bobby Sands, the Irish Republican Army activist who protested his treatment at the hands of British prison guards with a hunger strike, are chronicled in this historical drama, the first feature film from artist-turned-filmmaker Steve McQueen. Davey Gillen (Brian Milligan) is an IRA volunteer who is sentenced to Belfast's infamous Maze prison, where he shares a cell with fellow IRA member Gerry Campbell (Liam McMahon). Like most of the IRA volunteers behind bars, Gillen and

Feb 16, 2010

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All Critics (117) | Top Critics (30) | Fresh (109) | Rotten (11) | DVD (7)

Midway through the movie there's an epic 24-minute scene...in the claustrophobic cell block the protesters have already internalized their cause so deeply that the world of words seems distant and inconsequential.

April 17, 2009 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader
Chicago Reader
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It's a strength of this carefully composed, almost obsessively controlled picture that it has no interest in the conventional biographical focus on a subject.

April 17, 2009 Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
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Hunger is daunting and powerful work.

April 16, 2009 Full Review Source: Philadelphia Inquirer
Philadelphia Inquirer
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Hunger is not about the rights and wrongs of the British in Northern Ireland, but about inhumane prison conditions, the steeled determination of IRA members like Bobby Sands, and a rock and a hard place.

April 16, 2009 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
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Hunger -- the disturbing, provocative, brilliant feature debut from British director Steve McQueen -- does for modern film what Caravaggio did to Renaissance painting.

April 10, 2009 Full Review Source: Globe and Mail
Globe and Mail
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Relying on images more than words, it's a plea for humanity in times of insanity.

April 10, 2009 Full Review Source: Toronto Star
Toronto Star
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In the desolate surrounds of a prison environment that affronts humanity McQueen finds the redemptive struggles, and unrelenting spirit in the feces smeared walls of a British prison.

January 21, 2013 Full Review Source: 2UE That Movie Show
2UE That Movie Show

...simultaneously harsh and gentle; an early shot of a tiny snowflake melting on bloodied knuckles could serve as the movie's logo.

November 15, 2011 Full Review Source: LarsenOnFilm
LarsenOnFilm

Hunger will leave you feeling emotionally battered and bruised -- yet emerging from the cinema a stronger person for having witnessed such a beautiful and brutal film.

July 14, 2011 Full Review Source: Digital Spy
Digital Spy

Not just the toughest film of the year but amongst the toughest ever made.

April 5, 2011 Full Review Source: Dark Horizons
Dark Horizons

Hunger is tough going -- and compelling cinema throughout.

April 4, 2011 Full Review Source: Hollywood & Fine
Hollywood & Fine

Politically, Bobby Sands' suicide meant nothing, but it illustrated poisonous lengths to which someone would go in protecting the only reality he ever knew. This is terrorism's pox, and why the Troubles - though stabilized - still bear the scars of shame.

September 24, 2010 Full Review Source: Suite101.com
Suite101.com

As pretentious as it is engrossing...

July 19, 2010 Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews
Reel Film Reviews

Director Steve McQueen delivers one the more memorable debut features of the last several years.

May 1, 2010 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis
Movie Metropolis

a film of great visceral directness and emotional power

April 7, 2010 Full Review Source: Q Network Film Desk | Comment (1)
Q Network Film Desk

A poetic, almost abstract take on very real, tangible material -- a fitting artistic approach to a surreal, extreme experience most human beings will not have on their own.

March 3, 2010 Full Review Source: Window to the Movies
Window to the Movies

Mercifully devoid of stirring speeches and a sweeping music score, Hunger is as different from standard political biopic as can be imagined.

February 23, 2010 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine

... a study in the deterioration of the human body... and the will it takes to endure such self-mortification in the name of cause.

February 17, 2010 Full Review Source: Seanax.com
Seanax.com

[A] hard, harsh film, a triumph of the new realism that is transforming British film at the moment...

February 16, 2010 Full Review Source: Flick Filosopher
Flick Filosopher

A fitting, posthumous tribute to a martyr who freely sacrificed his own life to highlight the horror of man's inhumanity to his fellow man.

February 12, 2010 Full Review Source: Sly Fox
Sly Fox

Spurious transcendence and underlined symbolism

August 25, 2009 Full Review Source: CinePassion
CinePassion

Yes, "Hunger" is a fairly nasty affair and we don't even get to the starvation part until the third act.

July 21, 2009 Full Review Source: Film Threat
Film Threat

Audience Reviews for Hunger

To me, the whole film boils down to the long conversation, between Bobby Sands (Michael Fassbender) and Father Moran (Liam Cunningham), a scene that takes up about a quarter of the movie but keeps you riveted throughout. Much uglier depiction of the prison conditions for Irish Republicans than, say, In the Name of the Father, and in my opinion, a much less sympathetic film, too - McQueen's work does a lot more documenting than inspiring and the work hits pretty hard, in all.
January 25, 2013
danperry17

Super Reviewer

Well, that was depressing. But holy monologue, Fassbender!
December 27, 2012
Julie

Super Reviewer

    1. The Governor: There is no such thing as political murder, political bombing, political violence. There is only criminal murder, criminal bombing, and criminal violence. There will be no political status.
    – Submitted by Claudia F (7 months ago)

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Foreign Titles

  • Hunger (2008) (CA)
  • Hunger (2008) (ES)
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