Hunger

Well, we start at the beginning, with the most recent movie seen. Blimey - not many laughs to be had here!

How's the movie?
I'm late seeing this movie, I admit, and by now it's picked up all manner of plaudits and awards. I believe that Sight and Sound magazine made it their movie of the year, according to a survey of movie critics. Not that I was asked.

Anyway, all this waffle is by way of delaying getting round to the point and saying that I found myself almost entirely unmoved by the film. Oh yes, I can accept that it's well filmed, and visually stunning, and powerful - to a point - but... meh. I'm, afraid I needed more meat on the bone (ouch! sorry) in terms of more back story on the characters, or on The Troubles generally. As it is, you are just plonked down in the middle of the prison. and asked to get on with it. If you weren't around in the 80's to know about the politics of the time, you won't have much of a scoob.

In the middle of the movie there is however an incredibly powerful 10 minute scene (much celebrated because it is shot as a single take) where Bobby Sands argues with his priest over the whole business of going on hunger strike. At this point the movie really kicks into life for me. But after this - once Sands embarks on the strike - the film becomes little more than an Enya music video. Who knew that dying of hunger could be so arty?

I'll say this much: towards the end I found myself wondering just how much fun it would be to go into this film and start rustling a bag of crisps noisily. Clearly I just don't get it.

Three out of five, and even then I think I'm being generous.

How's the maths?
Not much to be had here. I suppose there's a bit of brutal human biology though.

Can I teach with it?
You would have to be a brave teacher. Imagine all the parental complaints if you show a movie with so much poo in it! (OK, there's some maths for you - take the amount of poo generated in a cell in a day, then multiply by the number of days of the "dirty protest", then... or perhaps not.)