My Thoughts on "127 Hours"

RATING: 10 0ut of 10

Interesting story about how I wound up seeing this movie. I found myself with some time on my hands so I decided to go see a movie alone. I love doing this. I feel like that’s the only way you can truly grade a movie is watching it on your own. So I checked out the movie listings and didn’t really see anything that tickled my fancy that worked out time wise. I had settled on seeing the Denzel Washington movie Unstoppable. If anything I thought it would be good for a laugh because I have been laughing at the trailer since it came out. I get to the theater and I see a movie called 127 Hours playing at the same time. I whip out the trusty android phone and watch the trailer for the movie. The trailer was fantastic so I said screw it and saw this movie. Moral of the story is don’t limit yourself to mainstream movies because you never know when you might be missing out on a masterpiece, which is what 127 Hours is.

The movie tells the true story of Aron Ralston, A young man who could be described as somewhat of a daredevil. He loves to rock climb and to explore canyons. Ralston is immediately established as a loner which comes into play later in the story. On one of his canyon adventures, a rock gives way under his weight and he falls down the shallow canyon. This wouldn’t be that big of a problem but the small boulder crushes his arm against the canyon wall and he is stuck there. What we see for the rest of the movie is Ralston’s attempts to survive and escape with limited resources at his disposal.

Ralston in portrayed brilliantly here by James Franco, Franco, who is sure to pick up a best actor nomination for this role, spent a lot of time with the real Aron Ralston in preparation for this movie. Needless to say he nails the part completely. He really portrays every emotion amazingly. Be it fear, desperation, hunger, thirst, or determination, we the audience are able to feel it with Franco every step of the way. Franco has really honed his craft as a veteran actor and at this point can shine in a dramatic role just as much as a comedic one.

Perhaps even more impressive than the performance by Franco was the directing on Danny Boyle. Boyle’s Slumdog Millionare was a huge hit with critics. I was actually in the minority and was not overly impressed with that film. I can not say the same thing about this movie. Every decision that Boyle made ended up working to its fullest potential. The best additions were scenes where Franco was drinking his minimal amount of water. Now, to really show us how much was left, Boyle stuck little cameras inside the water container as Franco drank it. We were able to feel the emptiness of the bottle and feel his thirst. The music in the movie is used brilliantly. There are times where music is played to make you feel the craziness that is setting in, as well as times where true desperation and perseverance set in. Now there is a scene that is fairly difficult to watch. In the end, Ralston is finally able to succeed in the task he had been attempting for a couple days, and that is amputating his own arm with a dull pocket knife. This is definitely a cringe worthy moment and I’m usually not one to enjoy these scenes unless I’m watching one of the Saw movies, but it really helps you feel what Franco as Ralston must have been feeling.

127 Hours is so much more than a story about a person cutting off his own arm to get out of a horrible situation. It’s about us as people. Strip away the Iphones, the Blackberries, the hybrid cars, and your left with what we originally had to do on this planet and that is survive by any means necessary. The movie is also about the paths that we pave. Ralston found himself in that situation partially because he had been such a loner in his life. He never returned calls from his parents and pushed away the one girl that he ever loved. In a point of true clarity he remarks that the moment that the specific boulder that has him pinned was created, it was created to kill him. He realizes that every choice he has made in his life has left him so alone and that has lead to no one being able to find him after he has gone missing for days. Everything we do leads to another event in our lives. I’m just happy that whatever I did led me to see this movie.