HUNGER: Steve McQueen's Fresh (17 1/2 minute) Take

(Director Steve McQueen and actor Michael Fassbender, as Bobby Sands, in Hunger.)

With his debut feature, the filmmaker reminds us that rules of movie-making are ripe for the breaking.

By Terry Keefe

This article is currently appearing in this month's Venice Magazine.

Steve McQueen was first introduced to Bobby Sands, the subject of McQueen's feature film Hunger, via a news photo of Sands, which McQueen vividly remembers from when he was 11-years old. Sands was the leader of the 1981 IRA Hunger Strike which took place in the notorious Maze Prison in Northern Ireland and the first of ten men who would ultimately die during the protest. Recalls McQueen, “This image of a man appeared on television, with a number. I thought it was the person’s age, but then my mother told me it was a hunger strike.” The number indicated how many days Sands had been starving himself. McQueen also remembers that the concept of a hunger strike resonated with him even as a very young man, because refusing to eat is a relatively common way for children to show their anger. “A child’s life is so dictated by his parents, and then if he refuses to eat, it’s the first time that he has taken control of his person. That stuck with me,” he elaborates.

McQueen has already had a stellar career as a visual artist, with his work acquired by the likes of the Guggenheim and MOCA. Some of his work have been films, although those were shorts. With his first feature, McQueen breaks many of the so-called rules of both screenwriting and filmmaking and simultaneously demonstrates those rules to be guidelines at best, because Hunger works on every level (except as an easy film for the squeamish to watch - the walls of the protesting prisoners are sometimes lined with feces and assorted filth, and buckets of urine are used as a weapon of protest as well.). The presumed lead character of Hunger, Davy Gillen (Brian Milligan) is a young IRA member and prisoner who we meet during his first days in the Maze Prison. We only hear of his IRA superior Bobby Sands (Michael Fassbender) at first and then see him briefly, but some time into what is ostensibly Act Two, the shift to Bobby as the lead focus happens and Davy Gillen is barely seen again. The centerpiece of the film, where we first really get into the guts of Sands’ character, is a 17 ½ minute long take in a locked-down two-shot, between Sands and the character of Father Dominic Moran (Liam Cunningham), in which Sands explains his reasons for the upcoming hunger strike, as well as the childhood experience which taught him that he had nerves of steel. McQueen is nonchalant about the tinkering with traditional narrative that he has done and says, “The [medium of] film is only 115 years old. If you think about art, painting is 1000's of years old. As long as something works, it works. The form of film is up for grabs as long as it makes sense to the audience. So, it’s a gold mine out there, for film."

(Michael Fassbender as Bobby Sands, above. This shot is one of the first cutaways which finally break up the 17 1/2 minute take between Fassbender and Liam Cunningham.)

The shooting of the long take between actors Fassbender and Cunningham was done in 4 tries and McQueen says that the actors nailed it pretty quickly. “What was so wonderful about that scene, was that it was like an avalanche the first time they did it. It was like a toy and you let it go and it was wound up and they really got it,” he says. The two actors did rehearse extensively, but often during days when McQueen was largely occupied with other parts of the shoot. He explains, “I was shooting as they were rehearsing. They were in a room together all day. I would just come in during the morning and evening to give notes.”

(Actors Michael Fassbender and Liam Cunningham during the wide 2-shot which goes on for 17 1/2 minutes in Hunger.)

Fassbender becomes disturbingly gaunt during the course of the story, and there is no doubt he was really starving himself. McQueen, while full of praise for his lead actor, notes that it was an understood prerequisite for the role. Says McQueen, “The film is called Hunger. It was part of the job and he’s a professional. We shot for 2 weeks, broke for 6 weeks (for Fassbender to lose weight), and then we shot again."

When asked if he plans on shooting another feature shortly, McQueen replies, “I like the idea of it. Absolutely. But [the experience of making Hunger] was like being with my old lady for 5 years and I’m not just going to go on to the next chick yet.”