Its definetly not to be filed in the enjoyable section of my brain, but it is a brutally unflinching cinematic experiment and it leaves a mark like a sledgehammer

Fassbinder is certainly a man suffering for his craft as he gets tossed around like a abused doll for the running time, and I must mention one scene that involves a murder in an old folks home as the best depiction of violence you'll see outside of a Cronenburg film.

The centerpiece is the 20 minute uninterrupted cut sequence though. Talk about an intense labour of love.

My only problem with this film is how hard to catch the Irish-English in this film. Fortunately, for most parts, there wasn't much of talking. I loved the using of sound within the scene, reminds me of Paranoid Park, as strong as powerful. A

PS. the poster in the first post of this thread is jaw-dropping awesome. And you wouldn't get its awesomeness until you watch this damn amazing film.

If you know about the Hunger strike already its easy to see what it is, althou yes its a cool poster.

Really? Oops

Admittedly, yes, I know nothing about the Hunger strike before I watch the film.

This is sorta exceptional.

It's all about the little things in life, and how they are a microcosm of something larger and more important. The camerawork draws our attention to this almost immediately, as it purposefully and languorously focuses on the small actions resulting from the prison guard's morning routine. The entire film is like this: tiny events build on top of each other until the film arrives at Bobby Sands' grand sacrifice. But this, too, is only a tiny event in the scale of the IRA conflict. As terrible and tragic and heartbreaking as it is, it's only one little action. And that's what the film's about.

It's also nearly impossible to watch, and yet impossible to look away from. Unrelentingly intense but also terrifically powerful; the film purports to put the viewer in an uncomfortable position through the brutalizing long takes, disgusting imagery, and heightened sound, but they only add to the artistic effect. The lengthy shot of the caretaker cleaning up the urine-stained hallway might have been unwatchable in another film, but here, with its rhythmic sound effects and restrained cinematography, it's poetic and musical and even beautiful. The whole film is a kind of elegant obscenity.

And yet, the extended shot in the middle of the piece - which I thought I would love - is shockingly out-of-place and momentum-killing. It's far too dialogue-heavy for such a visual and lyrical film, and lends too much thematic weight to such a politicized moment. For a film that relied so much on universal ideas and themes, it's rather one-note and narrow-minded. Still, it's well-acted, restrained, and interesting enough to glide by on mere concept, even if it fails aesthetically and ideologically.

Not as totally brilliant as I was expecting, but close enough.

And when I awoke, I was alone, this bird had flown
So I lit a fire, isn't it good, norwegian wood.

Amazing visuals, very tasteful use of sound, and about eight moments of cinematic genius. I for one found the conversation in the centre of the film to be a welcome respite, a way of refreshing that right side of my brain before diving back into the stark horror.

Definitely a great film. It goes "there," full stop. Hard to endure and harder still to shake afterwards. You can almost taste the piss, shit, and blood. And when it goes in different directions--the sentimental flashbacks in the third act--it's nicely done and moving.

And Fassbender can just do no wrong. Top-notch actor, badass movie star with charisma to spare, etc. Love him. Should've been Oscar nominated for this.

I enjoyed Shame a little more but Steve McQueen has definitely made some of the best two films for a starting director. This film is very gruesome, hard to watch at times but Fassbender takes over the role so very well. ****

Not impressed. It's not terrible, just ugly. I expected more from a so called "acclaimed visual artist".

At the end it says that 16 prison guards were killed by paramilitaries during the bathing strike. Where was this? That's the movie I would have rather watched.

Big props to Fassbender though. Did he really lose all that weight?