I found this film to be utterly shattering personally. I've had a fascination with the history of The Troubles since I was a young fella so as a consequence had a pretty good idea of the history of this period, the dirty protests and hunger strikes in the face of Thatcher intransigence, but it's one thing to read something in a history book and quite another to see the visceral reality in technicolor.
McQueens history as a video artist could have made this a mess but instead his creative choices make for a haunting movie experience that will stay with me for years. The first half of the movie as we see the prisoners and guards of the Maze Prison struggling against each other in an endless sisyphean struggle of hatred almost completely without dialogue brutalized me into a state of near-numbness as it reflected this traumatic numbing of both the prisoners and guards. The beatings, the walls of the cells, just the horror of it all made it almost too much for my mind to fathom in some ways.
McQueens choices of what to concentrate on, a prisoner befriending a stray fly at his cells window, a single guard in riot gear in tears at it all, another slowly cleaning away the piss flooded corridor of the prison ward, made for not only a very real near-documentary feel but a somewhat contemplative one as well.
Then came the films incredible punch at it's center. After so long with the most minimal amount of dialogue, the tour-de-force scene between Michael Fassbenders Bobby Sands and Liam Cunninghams Father Moran is simply some of the finest back-and-forth acting I've seen in years. nearly twenty minutes long, in a single take the scene is utterly breath-taking. I also love that the scene, much like the first half of the film leading up to it, doesn't choose a side in the debate over whether what the prisoners are doing is right, it simply places Sands motivations front and center and leaves you to either accept them or not.
The films final act, as Sands slowly wastes away to nothing is not only an incredible piece of physical acting from Fassbender, it's a devastating piece to watch - whether you agree with what Sands was doing or not.
By the films end I felt utterly wrung dry emotionally. I think it's an incredible film and a worthy companion piece to Paul Greengrass's Bloody Sunday in giving the viewer a more visceral document of the The Troubles rather than the traditional narrative historical filmic look at a situation that it's easy to forget was so raw and seemingly unsolvable not fifteen years ago.
McQueens history as a video artist could have made this a mess but instead his creative choices make for a haunting movie experience that will stay with me for years. The first half of the movie as we see the prisoners and guards of the Maze Prison struggling against each other in an endless sisyphean struggle of hatred almost completely without dialogue brutalized me into a state of near-numbness as it reflected this traumatic numbing of both the prisoners and guards. The beatings, the walls of the cells, just the horror of it all made it almost too much for my mind to fathom in some ways.
McQueens choices of what to concentrate on, a prisoner befriending a stray fly at his cells window, a single guard in riot gear in tears at it all, another slowly cleaning away the piss flooded corridor of the prison ward, made for not only a very real near-documentary feel but a somewhat contemplative one as well.
Then came the films incredible punch at it's center. After so long with the most minimal amount of dialogue, the tour-de-force scene between Michael Fassbenders Bobby Sands and Liam Cunninghams Father Moran is simply some of the finest back-and-forth acting I've seen in years. nearly twenty minutes long, in a single take the scene is utterly breath-taking. I also love that the scene, much like the first half of the film leading up to it, doesn't choose a side in the debate over whether what the prisoners are doing is right, it simply places Sands motivations front and center and leaves you to either accept them or not.
The films final act, as Sands slowly wastes away to nothing is not only an incredible piece of physical acting from Fassbender, it's a devastating piece to watch - whether you agree with what Sands was doing or not.
By the films end I felt utterly wrung dry emotionally. I think it's an incredible film and a worthy companion piece to Paul Greengrass's Bloody Sunday in giving the viewer a more visceral document of the The Troubles rather than the traditional narrative historical filmic look at a situation that it's easy to forget was so raw and seemingly unsolvable not fifteen years ago.
