I went to see Danny Boyles latest film on my own yesterday, having made the mistake of telling my wife what it was about; namely a guy who cuts off his own arm. She could not be persuaded, and as I sat down in the cinema I must admit that I felt some trepidation myself- and I'm not in the least bit squeamish. This story however has a certain power. For one it is true. Aaron Ralston did get trapped in Blue John Canyon, pinned by his arm by a large boulder. He did cut off that arm in order to escape a slow death.
Already the story grabs you, challenges you- would you have had the guts to do what he did? The reports of people fainting and throwing up at screenings increase both trepidation and fascination. The guy cut off his own arm- that'll sell books and cinema tickets alone! It could so easily have been a clichéd survival story, a one trick pony. Thankfully however, it was in the hands of Danny Boyle, a directer who seems to revel in taking odd or apparently over familiar subjects and making them anew. 28 Days Later could have been described as just a zombie movie, Slumdog Millionaire was about some kid winning a TV game show and Sunshine was the Core only with the sun. Not so my friends, not so- for even though all of these films could be boiled down to generic descriptions- all of them were fresh, original, gripping and smart. Similarly 127 Hours (does Boyle have a thing about numbers?) is about much more than a guy cutting off his own arm.
The film opens with bursts of colour and music, a collage of images; crowds at a sports event, crowds on the street, then Ralston alone and loving it. We see other images, things that make little sense now, but will later on, and with power. The beginning segment is vibrant, loud, frenetic- like Ralston the film never stops, never looks back until the boulder stops it. The incident is not given special fanfare, no veritable drumroll of dramatic build-the-tension soundtrack. It just happens. One moment Ralston is free, the next he is trapped. Franco really shines here, showing the full gamut of human emotions- fear, panic, shock, desperation, frustration, elation when he thinks he can move the boulder, dejection when it proves immovable time and time again. I must admit I haven't seen alot of his other work, but he is perfect here. He even looks sufficiently similar to the real Aaron Ralston.
The theme of this film is as Danny Boyle says 'No man is an island,' and that is brought home to us as Ralston begins to hallucinate. This man who had yearned for independence and self reliance (typically male and typically American) suddenly yearns for connection, and almost all of his hallucinations and visions concern connecting or dis- connecting with other people. Suddenly he wants company as badly as he wants food or water. Franco is particularly good in one moment when a Raven that had flown by every morning fails to arrive. Ralston is devastated. If the boulder had not stopped him he never would have stopped but here, in forced solitude- very different from chosen solitude- he considers his flaws, his arrogance, the mistakes that led him to this point. He is brutally honest and at times tragically funny during these conversations with his camcorder. Perhaps the most sobering moment is when he realises that the boulder has been waiting for him his whole life, its' whole life- even when it was perhaps a meteorite in space- it was coming for him.
Many directors seem concerned with how we react to situations and Boyle certianly is- but he is aso concerned here with how we experience them. The places the mind goes, the things we think about, the associations we make, either deliberately or in delirium. One scene in which Ralston is desperately thirsty does this brilliantly. Ultimately by the time he comes to cut off his arm we are ready to empathise, to feel it with him, but it is not the centrepiece of the movie. It is just what he needs to do to survive, to get back to the world and the people he has neglected. One of the most moving parts of the whole movie is when we learn that Ralston's premonitions came true- he met and married his wife Jessica and had a son three years later. At the end we see the real Ralston and his wife, and rather than break the fourth wall, it does not jar in the slightest. This was his story after all, even the boulder and the canyon were recreated down to the last detail for Franco to interact with.
You get the sense that Ralston lost an arm but gained his life, not just the ability to keep on living- but to really live. I intend to read the book soon, but will not be surprised if I find there that Ralston would not change what happened even if he could.
Go see it, it's a fantastic film. Even if you are squeamish I have to say the big moment is graphic but not laboriously so. Like Ralston, you'll be glad you went through it by the end.
