Hunger (2008) - McQueen
I have not seen a more powerful piece of filmmaking like this since perhaps Children of Men. Let's forget for a sec that Steve McQueen is a celebrated visual British artist. Let's set aside the fact many of the sequences are devastatingly beautiful. The year is 1981. It's Margaret Thacher's England- kids are getting shot in the head with plastic bullets by British troops in Northern Ireland. Bobby Sands (Michael Fassbender), an IRA commanding officer in Her Majesty's Maze Prison, decides to go on a second hunger strike to certain death, in protest of IRA prisoners being treated like common criminals. He dies of starvation after 66 days. 9 others follow suit.
It's a brutal film: starts out with feces, piss and blood and ends with a skeletal body, puss and bloody feces. Hunger opens with one of the prison guards with bloody knuckle preparing to leave for work, checking underneath his car for bombs, etc. It's a dehumanizing job and beating scenes are pretty brutal. The film is anchored by a powerful 20 minute uncut static wide shot between Sands and a priest (Liam McMahon) right in the middle. They talk about the pros and cons of starving oneself to death. The priest finds Sands a focused, immovable rock. The film has absolutely no sentimental moment and that is part of the strength along with its bea-u-gly cinematography. Fassbender's portrayal of man of conviction is quite astonishing. Whether you agree with IRA's tactics to achieve their political aim, one can't take away Sands' conviction in his beliefs. And that's beautiful.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Limits of Psychotherapy: Shutter Island
Shutter Island (2010) - Scorsese
In a nutshell:
+
Shutter Island is basically an impeccably crafted 50's red scare b-movie. It really feels like a Sam Fuller movie more than anything else. All the recognizable (at least to us film nerds) character actors doing their 2 minute bits is very distracting at best. Scorsese is thinking of bringing Michelle Williams up like he has been with Dicaprio with series of movies over the years? She is a total miscast here and not up to the task yet as a ghostly wife. The flow of the movie abruptly stops by the predictable climax and plays out at the LotR: Return of the King pace. Entertaining enough.
In a nutshell:
+
Shutter Island is basically an impeccably crafted 50's red scare b-movie. It really feels like a Sam Fuller movie more than anything else. All the recognizable (at least to us film nerds) character actors doing their 2 minute bits is very distracting at best. Scorsese is thinking of bringing Michelle Williams up like he has been with Dicaprio with series of movies over the years? She is a total miscast here and not up to the task yet as a ghostly wife. The flow of the movie abruptly stops by the predictable climax and plays out at the LotR: Return of the King pace. Entertaining enough.
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