“127 Hours”
Written by Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy based on the novel “Between A Rock And A Hard Place” by Aron Ralston; Directed by Danny Boyle; Stars: James Franco, Amber Tamblyn and Kate Mara. Story: Aron Ralston, adventure seeker, gets caught under a boulder in the middle of the Utah desert, alone. He grow introspective as he waits to die.
Seen by Adam and Lars, November 7, 2010
LARS:
If you were trapped in the wilderness with no real chance of being discovered, how long would it take for you, before you realized that your only chance of survival would be to cut off your own arm with the equivalent of a sharp stick and a dull knife? For Aron Ralston it took 127 hours. He did it and somehow managed to survive and write the aptly named book “Between A Rock and A Hard Place” about his experience. That’s the story, and much like when you’re doing movies like “Titanic” or any of Shakespeare’s plays where everyone knows the ending, the challenge for the filmmaker is how to keep the viewers engaged on the journey.
Apparently it took Danny Boyle a long time to convince Aron Ralston that they should tell his story as a feature film and not as a documentary. Ralston was doing the speaking circuit, talking abut his experience, and it’s easy to imagine that putting something so traumatic and life-changing into the hands of another person would take some convincing. In the hands of a lesser filmmaker than Boyle (“Slumdog Millionaire”, “Trainspotting”), it could easily have been a movie that felt like it was 127 hours long, as the minutia of increased suffering was listed - one horrifying event after next.
Ralston’s book breaks up the flow of his 127 hours with flashbacks to other parts of his life, a standard construct that Boyle mostly avoids. Instead he introduces Ralston as a bit of a devil-may-care dude, who basically brought this down on himself by making every stupid mistake in the book. Ralston is happy-go-lucky and thinks he’s immortal and that nothing can ever happen to him. So even when it does, he thinks that somehow ingenuity (Ralston is an engineer by trade) or the luck he’s had in life so far will get him out of the bind he is in. It’s only in the latter part of his ordeal that he begins to wonder, if he’s missed some beats in life and realizes that unless a small miracle occurs, this is it. Then the movie becomes a meditation on the fact that no man is an island and no matter how much you think of yourself, you can’t go it alone.
The scene where Ralston is finally cutting off his arm is not for the faint of heart. It’s such a monumental decision and it is not treated lightheartedly. The gunshot-like sounds of bones breaking and the extreme pain of cutting nerves and tendons are all shown and heard in excruciating detail. Reputedly, there have been people fainting in theaters during those scenes.
The movie is gorgeously shot by no less than two DPs. They capture the beauty of the Utah wilderness perfectly and make it clear why it’s such an attractive place to leave civilization behind for a spell. Boyle uses every trick in the book to make you fall in love with the place before it then viciously turns on Ralston, and the beauty is revealed as just a clever disguise for a place that is not friendly to humans at all.
The movie is very much a one-man-show for James Franco. He does a great job of capturing Ralston’s freespiritedness and love of life and then takes his character through hell with no fear of going to ugly and scary places. It’s a performance with no vanity. Franco is probably in line for a nod come Oscar time.
Frankly, “127 Hours” is not a comfortable watch and anyone with a phobia against small, enclosed places or fear of being trapped will have a hard time sitting through the movie. But as another stellar entry in Danny Boyle’s ever more impressive filmography, it is highly recommended.
ADAM:
I’ll start this review with a few disclaimers: First, I’m assuming that most people who might even consider seeing this film already know what they’re in for: a little less than 2 hours of hopefully good drama interrupted by a few minutes of very uncomfortable, realistic looking and sounding improvisational survival surgery. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, and you’re squeamish, this movie might not be the one for you. If you do know, then I probably won’t be ruining anything for you. Second, as much as I can understand the story here and can feel for the main character and those who care for him, I still have a hard time relating to the situation. Mind you, that’s not a bad thing — learning about other people’s point of view can help you grow as a person. For me this is not the case. I think it’s important going into the review that you understand my thinking and philosophy here; In my mind, I have cleverly reduced my chances of dying while skydiving to zero point zero by never skydiving. There is no chance of death from debris of an accidental crash at an air show if I never purchase an air show ticket. No chance. Ditto for spelunking, alligator wrestling, window washing and ice climbing. Color me non-adventurous or boring; I color me breathing.
So with these thoughts in mind, we travel to a crevasse near Moab, Utah where Aron Ralston got caught between a rock and a hard place — the name of the book upon which the film was based, and in this case, trapped between a boulder and the rock wall after the boulder became loose and caught Ralston at the forearm. And all without having told anyone where he was planning to be.
The film, Directed by Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, Slumdog Millionaire) sets up nicely and quickly as we see Ralson, played by James Franco ignore everything around him (phone calls, etc.) to get to what consumes him — physically challenging himself against and becoming one with nature, all alone, him and the plants and the hills and the sky. Ralston does spend some time with a couple of lost girls(Amber Tamblyn and Kate Mara), and entertains them before getting them back on their path, then it’s back to the adventure, the solitude, and the inevitable moments when rack meets arm and when panic sets in. And once confined to that space, Boyle does a tremendous job of pacing the movie incorporating flashbacks, attempts of self rescue, moments of wit and others of regret, hallucinations without ever losing the overriding tension ever present in the situation. Yes, the name of the film (and the countdown that it refers to) convey an obvious ticking clock, but the director’s efforts are what really make for both a physical and emotional claustrophobia that’s ever present.
And James Franco is very strong in this demanding role, one which has him on screen for nearly ever frame. Franco shows quite a bit of range in the movie, from goofy to charming to hallucinogenic to introspective to completely defenseless and ultimate filled with resolve. And it’s this resolve that convinced Ralston of what he had to do.
Though the movie only reignited my passion to never put myself anywhere near a rock, hard place or crevasse, it did increase my respect for Boyle and especially Franco. Boyle translated the confined spaces Ralston dealt with exceptionally and Franco, who spends nearly the entire film acting against the camera shows he’s capable of creating palpable drama on his own. It’s by far the best he’s ever been.
