Before this summer, I had no idea who Michael Fassbender was. In truth, I had come across his work in Tarantino’s impressive Inglorious Basterds, in which Fassbender portrayed a British spy behind enemy lines passing as a Nazi officer in one of the films more tense sequences. Still, I merely thought of him as a very good bit actor, nothing more, nothing less. As summer began, my wife and I decided to watch Carey Fukunaga’s re-imagining of Jane Eyre, with stand-out performances by Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender. I’ll be honest, it was probably one of my favorite films of the summer, with its dark and gothic tones and – I kid you not – occasional jump-scares. Awesome stuff.
Then, of course, the behemoth that was X-Men: First Class came out and I got to witness the intensity of James MacElvoy and Fassbender go toe to toe as Professor Xavier and Magneto in their formative years – probably my second favorite film of the summer. And finally, while figuring out which movie to watch next on my Netflix account, the suggestion for a smaller film that had been released three years previously bubbled to the top of my “Recommended for You” films. I decided to give it a whirl. Called Hunger, it told the story of Bobby Sands, the Irish republican prisoner who led a hunger strike in 1981 in protest of the treatment and conditions at the HM Prison Maze in Northern Ireland.
Sands was played by none other than Fassbender, ending the trifecta of amazing performances by this talented young actor. Perhaps highlighting his dedication to the art is a 17-minnute sequence in which Fassbender and supporting actor Liam Cunningham discuss the moral and ethical implications of a hunger strike. Jeff Cannata details instances in which “dialog can be just as powerful as any action sequence” in his review of the film Doubt. This I truly believe to be the case, as the sheer volume of script that both actors passionately convey is a thing of beauty.
It was during this film that I got the “Fassbender is the next Christian Bale” vibe, as in addition to the cerebral mastery involved in “owning” this particular portrayal of Sands, there was the remarkable feat of losing 35 pounds for the role. Truly The Machinist levels of commitment here. So there you have it – by random chance Fassbender has gone from my “meh” list to my “if he’s in it, I’m watching” list along with Ian McShane, Ciaran Hinds, Clooney, and DiCaprio.