Blazing Minds

127 Hours is the latest offering from celebrated British director Danny Boyle. With a string of big screen hits like Slum Dog Millionaire and 28 Days Later, Boyle has proved himself to be a visionary, using new techniques such as digital camera capture (in 28 Days Later) as well as versatile film-maker, able to turn his hand to many different genres. In 127 Hours, Boyle brings to life the true story of Aron Ralston’s adventure gone awry. In 2003 the outdoors-loving canyoneer had his arm rapped by a boulder when exploring the in badlands of Utah. Playing Ralston is James Franco, famous for his roles in the Spiderman trilogy and Pineapple express.

I personally think the whole concept of films that take place in a single setting with a limited cast have been done to death, the trend was kick-started with Phonebooth and even this year we’ve had the claustrophobic thriller Buried, and the trapped-in-a-lift horror, Devil. I’, always intrigued by these films and no matter how many I see, I tend walk into the screen wondering how such a concept can constitute an entertaining 100+ minutes, granted I’m never disappointed with the end result but the doubt is still there, lingering each time.

127 Hours doesn’t actually take place all in one location, with are provided with some context for Raltsom’s predicament. Clearly an adventure loving extreme sports-type, we see Ralston gathering his bottles of Gatorade and assorted straps and carbineer clips in preparing for a weekend away in the searing, dusty canyon-scape. In what I found the most clichéd, asynchronous part of the film, we are presented with a brief sequence that glamourises extreme sport, showing Ralston running and biking around, bunny-hoping and kicking up orange dust.

While on his excursion, Ralston meets a couple of female follow adventurers. This is as close to a love interest that the film gets but it feels irrelevant and crowbarred-in. Shortly after leaving  his new-found companions, presumably because they’re too feminine to partake in his more dangerous, extreme canyoneering, Ralston falls into a deep ravine, closely follow by an inconveniently heavy boulder, this lands on his arm, rendering him well and truly trapped.

It is here that the majority of the picture takes place, Ralston trapped alone with his own thoughts and feelings. His valiant efforts to call for help and escape quickly descend into bleak acceptance of his situation and the necessity to survive by rationing food and water. Trapped for what amounts to five days, Ralston reflects on his past life through various dream-like and hallucinatory experiences that are a product of his physical and emotion state.

In what is the crux of the picture and, if truth be told the moment the whole cinema was waiting for, Ralston makes the decision to slice his arm off to free himself from the hulking boulder that has enslaved him. The visuals are nothing a hardened horror movie fan won’t be accustomed to but the sparse setting, lack of fanfare and the fact that it is Ralston’s own decision to do so make it that bit more cringe worthy. After doing the deed Ralston continues to hike in the vein hope of finding help. Sure enough a group of hikers stumble across the severely dehydrated and emotionally damaged Ralston, calling him a rescue chopper which airlifts to safety. 127 Hours is an emotional, if flawed and in some places dull true-to-life thriller. It requires the audience to really invest in immersing themselves in Ralston’s situation and feeling his pain, both physical and emotional that comes with isolation and helplessness.

Joe is a film enthusiast and blogger current working for a Car Hire firm.

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