127 Hours

Welp, my Oscar-nominated Best Picture film viewing is still going strong 24 hours later. I would much rather be occupying the hours in the day by watching films than have my forearm stuck between a canyon wall and a boulder, which, funnily enough, is exactly how the majority of the action of 127 Hours unravels. Danny Boyle is another director whose work I greatly admire. His films seem to always deal with some sort of human struggle. From highlighting the verrrrry dark side of drug addiction in Trainspotting (the scene with the baby still gives me the willies), to expounding on the true nature of humans (i.e. they are worse than any fictitious monster imaginable) in 28 Days Later, to putting a contemporary spin on the rags-to-riches story in Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle knows how to tell a damn good story. 127 Hours, the film based on events in Aron Ralston's life, is no exception.

In 2003, Aron Ralston was an overly confident and intelligent 28 year-old engineer from Colorado. It was his goal to hike all of the "fourteneers", all of the peaks in Colorado over 14,000 feet in altitude. He lived for the outdoors and spent little time caring about the well-being of others. As we all know, karma eventually catches up and in April of 2003, Aron left to spend a weekend outdoors in Blue John Canyon in Utah. In typical fashion, he didn't tell a soul where he was going and forgot his cell phone at home, to boot. Real smart, right? While canyoneer-ing in Blue John Canyon, he lost his footing on a loose boulder and fell into a crevasse of sorts. The culprit, the loose boulder, fell right on top of his right forearm pinning it to the canyon wall. This all happens within the first 20 minutes of the film. There are another 73 to go.

From the title, I'm sure you inferred that he is stuck for 127 Hours (Saturday afternoon-Wednesday afternoon). Over the course of the 5-odd days Ralston attempts futilely to free his arm. With dwindling supplies, he becomes dehydrated and delusional. You begin to see Aron come to terms with what a selfish man he has become. Memories of coldly breaking up with the woman he loved and other thoughts are tossed in with the reality of his predicament: of barely returning his loving mother's phone calls, realizing that he will be missing his sister's wedding. These moments, memories, and flashbacks are what make the film so touching. The most heartwarming memory, however, is one in which Aron remembers the first time he saw the sunrise with his father. The memory of two of them, bleary-eyed, wrapped in blankets and wearing some awesome 80s glasses watching the sunrise while sitting on the edge of a cliff together leads one to believe that this is where Aron's love of the outdoors originated. But look at him now, selfish, too independent, barely speaking to his parents who instilled the love of the great outdoors in him. He's stuck between a rock and a hard place (Also the name of Ralston's book about the event).

"You know, I've been thinking. Everything is... just comes together. It's me. I chose this. I chose all this. This rock... this rock has been waiting for me my entire life. It's entire life, ever since it was a bit of meteorite a million, billion years ago. In space. It's been waiting, to come here. Right, right here. I've been moving towards it my entire life. The minute I was born, every breath that I've taken, every action has been leading me to this crack on the out surface."

It's just an incredible story about a man who refuses to give up. Most of us when the going gets tough (like I got a bad grade tough, my boyfriend broke up with me tough, I have no money tough) we give up. Aron Ralston, hours from DEATH due to dehydration and lack of food, didn't allow himself to give up. He would rather bear the unimaginable agony of cutting off his own arm than die. Acted extremely well by James Franco. "The scene", you know the one in which he refuses to give up and die so cuts off his arm below the elbow using a DULL knife, is difficult to watch. The sound of the bones cracking is horrendous, the shrill music used to emphasize the splitting pain of cutting through nerves and muscles made me sick to my stomach, and it's not until the moment he frees himself that you realize your heart is pounding, you're squeezing the life out of a pillow and you're sweating. Yeah, it's pretty gruesome and amazing and incredible.


Updated Ranking

1. Black Swan
2. Inception
3. The King's Speech
4. True Grit
5. 127 Hours
6. Toy Story 3
7. The Social Network