Grade: A
“127 Hours” is the true story of Aron Ralston — here played by James Franco — who in April 2003 made the admittedly poor decision to go hiking alone one day in a Utah canyon, only to wind up with his arm crushed beneath a giant boulder. The story’s true merit comes from the fact that Ralston, after spending more than five days in the canyon, escaped only after amputating his own arm to free himself using little more than a throwaway utility knife.
Danny Boyle, director of 2008’s “Slumdog Millionaire,” approaches Ralston’s story with the mind of a philosopher, courtesy of Simon Beaufoy’s taut script, and the heart of an action hero. From the beginning Boyle accentuates the aspects of life that Ralston feels he simply doesn’t need. Families, sports fans, cities and politics — all are the cultures that Ralston forgoes in favor of his own needs. He’s a character who doesn’t necessarily believe he’s better than anyone else, just that he doesn’t need anyone else, and as such a great deal of “127 Hours” is spent with Ralston reflecting on why it is he’s so unnecessarily alone in the world.
Countering the more thoughtful themes are a near-unrelenting pace and a style that complements the still of the situation itself. Ralston’s initial first hours in the canyon fly by while his slow struggle against the defeat of death seem to last an eternity. The climactic amputation, a scene as brutal as it is artful, is cut like an orchestrated seizure, the camera flailing back and forth as Ralston slowly cuts away at his arm toward his ultimate release. It’s bloody and painful to watch in every way, with one moment in particular involving a stubborn vein and a well-selected sound cue from the “Operation” children’s game.
You’re at once compelled to turn away, to close your eyes and stop the scene, but doing so would be buying into Boyle’s grand trick. If you turn away, you’ve quit; you’ve missed the catharsis that comes with seeing Ralston free himself from his own prison. He’s as guilty for his circumstance as is the rock, and the amputation is his liberation, his last stand against his aloneness and his recklessness in life. Witnessing it is witnessing the ultimate clash between the spiritual and the physical in Ralston, and its conclusion is a reward the likes of which few stories can ever harbor.
Ralston’s conflict is rife with anguish, but his character is selfish and absent-minded. Franco finds the soul in Ralston’s stupidity, however, and instead of being angry at Ralston’s decisions makes us forego the frustration in favor of curiosity at who Ralston is.
“127 Hours” is, above all else, a story of conflict and triumph. It’s Man vs. Nature, as Franco weathers the elements of nature in his time with the rock, but its more honestly a story of Man vs. Self, a tale of triumphing over one’s seemingly certain fate and having the humility to know when one is wrong. It is as much a parable for our own challenges in life as it is of Ralston’s. In joining Ralston on his journey and watching him overcome the impossible, you just might leave the theater believing you can do the same.
Contact the critic at vburnton@asu.edu
