YES . . . . if you were Bobby Sands or the seven other 1981 IRA hunger strikers. This 1979 BBC clip aimed to show that the Iron Lady was an old softy at heart. Mrs Thatcher on Two Little Boys achieves the opposite effect. Not quite as harrowing as Hunger, the first feature from BritArt video maker Steve McQueen, but up there with the excrement-smeared H block walls in terms of its emetic potential. It should be viewed in ironic counterpoint to Hunger, one of the most bewitching and shocking films ever made.
The subject matter is difficult: Bobby Sands and his IRA colleagues were guilty of heinous crimes for which they freely claimed responsibility. The dirty protest of ‘non-conforming prisoners’ started as a refusal by convicted Irish Republican Army (IRA) activists to wear the (prison) uniform of what they termed as an occupying power. The subsequent protracted acts of self-immolation were staged partly in despair at the prevailing brutality and inhumanity of the notorious H Block of Northern Ireland’s Maze prison, but also in an attempt to force the British government to afford political prisoner status to terrorists. The moral maze had no exit. Aside from self-determination and a united Ireland, which the Loyalists, UK government and, for that matter, the Republic would not countenance, the IRA’s objectives were never clearly articulated. Their brutal, psycho- and sociopathic acts of violence were matched by the tactics of the British army and Northern Ireland police. The film portrays the toxic nihilism of this death struggle without resorting to polemic. It tells us, for example, that 16 prison officers were murdered by the IRA during the course of the blanket protests: most had ideological reasons to pursue their brutal trade but they too had families. Its uncompromising depiction the endemic torture and degredation of the prisoners creates empathy, but stops short of endorsing their cause.
We don’t walk out of the cinema shouting ‘Up the IRA.’ McQueen has made an exceptional art movie about the sorrow of the human condition, not a biopic about a the world’s most celebrated hunger striker. Michael Fassbender’s magisterial portrayal of Bobby Sands has hints of messianic symbolism, and we sympathise with his plight, but we aren’t convinced by the logic of his sacrifice. We are left agape at the horror and futility of a grotesque civil war, conducted by bigoted minorities, under rules of engagement of the abattoir. The Northern Ireland Troubles were ultimately about ‘two little boys,’ but there was little chance of them sharing a wooden horse, unless it was the Trojan variety.
McQueen has framed a powerful anthem to the doomed idealism of youth. ‘Hunger’ is a valediction against ultra nationalism, told in visual verse. You can see this film at limited Odeon outlets in the UK, elsewhere in good art theatres. Don’t plan a knees-up and a slapup meal afterwards but try not to miss it.
3 Comments
Dear John, I’m confusing this blog with a Facebook Group and leaving a reasonably trite message just to say – well done on THUS and I promise to comment freely on your ruminations thusforth. Juliaxx
Don’t quite agree on this one John. In the interests of maximising diversity of view on THUS, I refer readers here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2008/nov/03/hunger-bobby-sands?commentpage=3.
Dear David
Good to hear from you. I read your very interesting review and agree that we disagree. I have issues with glorifying the men of violence, but I don’t think torturing them achieved much, then as now. I took that away from the film. Though I agree that the long justification scene did not convince me, I felt that the artistic statements left enough ambiguity to justify the intrusion of romance. As i say, Sands and co. were guilty of heinous crimes. Their treatment at the hands of a medieval administration helped elevate them to martyr status. It was a lose-lose situation. But your reservations are at least as valid as my approval. Honoured to have you on board.