Feb
23
Oh the irony! 127 Hours is a movie presenting a man stymied by a boulder from moving. Offering a story of drama and survival, it is the screen adaptation of the book based on the life of Aron Ralston entitled Between a Rock and a Hard Place. Interestingly, this film was able to nick nominations for the Oscar’s, Golden Globe Awards and several others, commending both the cinematography and the performance of James Franco. Firing away, I agree with the nominations, and with its second-look worthiness, 127 Hours may well be worthy of awards (not that everybody agrees of course).
James Franco (Spiderman, Milk) stars as Aron Ralston, the 28 year-old hyperactive man who thrills himself by trekking and mountaineering land forms. In April of 2003, he set for another adventure in the unbelievable landscapes of Blue John Canyon in Utah. The sceneries captured in this film were nothing short of spectacular – proof that there is still a touch of heaven on Earth. But this heaven stays not for long. With a little but costly climbing mistake, Aron stumbles down a crevasse and a prehistoric predator of a boulder crushes his hand, trapping him. Then hell takes over. As desperation to defeat the boulder grows in his five-day predicament, he finds nothing more than the resilience of his spirit to cling on.
15 percent into the movie is the revelation of Aron’s personality, admiring the beauty of Blue John Canyon, and the two girls he meets who apparently didn’t matter in the film. Danny Boyle’s (Director, Slumdog Millionaire) attempt to add a preamble to this story of survival was pretty obvious but clever nonetheless. The rest was focused on depicting Aron’s one on one death match with the only antagonist of the film that is the boulder, giving a clear picture of the dread and swelling psychosis he had to endure. Let’s face it, the story does not commensurate entertainment movie material, and one cannot be blamed for being bored for most of the film (at least for first time viewers that is). But having a second look, we find that the movie wasn’t really meant to give out a five star entertainment value, rather it supposes a dishing out of a message – the will of the human mind to live.
One cannot immediately expect 127 Hours to be an instant movie hit from a story of a man stuck in a crevasse having his hand crushed by a huge rock. How then did Danny Boyle do it? The pivotal factor he succeeded on was getting James Franco to play the lead role. His performance was enough to make it to the Oscar’s. Such critical expressions like horror, demise, fear, anxiety and even humour were lucidly displayed upon his face – proof that he gets better and better every time he gets himself into the frame.
I have to give it to Danny Boyle for attempting to pull off his camera and scenery tricks to add that entertainment value we all are searching for to this story of survival. Along with the central theme, he inserted Aron’s hallucinations and flashbacks of his family along with his girlfriend, serving as his roots for self-discovery and inspiration to live and survive. The race against food and water, the tools he had to free himself, the camera he used to record his day to day five-day suffering, the imaginary talk show where he played as both host and guest, even the cut back to the refreshing Gatorade beverage he left at the back of his truck were tools of the trade Boyle had to use in order to complete the story’s metamorphosis into a movie. Imagine if these things didn’t exist at all. Of course if he lets the story stand alone, we won’t have a movie to watch at all considering there was only one protagonist and one antagonist.
For its title and all its offers as a film, one cannot expect 127 Hours to be an R-rated film – which it is. I don’t care what your foundations are made of, but when you see a man amputate his crushed arm with a blunt Chinese-made utility knife and a pair of pliers without any censorship, the brutality and gore gets into you and that is one factor sure enough to never leave your mind as a viewer – a gift Boyle gives the story. It offers you an idea as to what horror Aron Ralston really went through. You might even find yourself lucky you didn’t share the same fate as he had.
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