One-Man Agony Opus Part 1

The theme of my recent movie watching would appear to be films starring one guy, trapped in some sort of enclosed space, suffering, and having to cut off a body part. I swear it was accidental that I happened to watch Buried and 127 Hours in short succession. To start off, I finally got around to seeing 127 Hours the other night. I had been wanting to see it for a while because I had heard so much about it, and it's directed by Danny Boyle and I may have a certain fondness for James Franco...Anyway, I'm still a little unsure about how much I really liked it, maybe because it's more a film to endure, not necessarily like.

127 Hours follows the gruelling, true story of Aron Ralston, who in 2003, while canyoneering in Blue John Canyon in Utah, got his arm immovably trapped under a boulder. He had ventured out alone, not telling anyone where he was going, and after 5 days stuck in the canyon, he was forced to do the unthinkable: cut part of his arm off with an extremely dull knife. It's a film about us seeing how close we are to the animal, a topic Danny Boyle knows a thing or two about.

James Franco makes up most of the film, aside from two girls he runs into before he gets trapped and if you watched a preview for the movie, you basically saw their entire part in the film. The only other people you see, occur in Aron's constant flashbacks and, in my opinion, the somewhat cheesy ending. I guess it's kind of impossible to avoid the cheesy factor when making an inspirational movie though. Either that or I'm just an insensitive jerk, which may also be true. Having said that, Danny Boyle was faced with somewhat of a challenge in making this film. One could easily get bored of watching one man stuck in a canyon, especially when we all know what is inevitably going to happen. He uses lots of flashy, split screen images of striking scenic footage, memories, dreams and delusions to keep you interested. However, I felt that for me, it took away the tension of the scenario, making the majority of the film unimpactful. I certainly didn't get teary when he was freed in end and I think the only part of the movie that got any kind of emotional response from me was the amputation scene.

I did think that James Franco did a great job and I feel that the style of visuals used were much more effective in the beginning, before he gets trapped. They helped to amplify his smug, extreme and uninhibited character when he starts his journey, and made you feel like you were in his head. You then see him transition into a scared and mentally strained man, fighting to keep his sanity,while capable of carving his own headstone in the rock wall. You witness as he tries to keep up his good humor in a loopy talk-show interview he does with himself, only to be crushed by the realization of the hopelessness of his situation. I felt like his performance was real and unsentimental, whereas Danny Boyle's imagery was trying to push sentimentality on the viewers.


What perhaps drew me to this movie the most was how graphic I had heard the amputation scene was. Though it didn't actually show you that much, I still was not disappointed. I admit that having heard many similar stories such as this one, involving cutting off one of your own limbs, I myself have spent some time thinking about what that would be like. Anything I have ever pictured paled in comparison to what was shown in this film. You really don't realize how horrible each moment of it would be until you see it like this. It starts with Aron having to break the bones in his arm, which is enough to make you cringe already. But then, just getting that crappy, dull knife through his flesh, which he had been further dulling over the last couple of days by attempting to chip away at the rock, was an even worse stuggle. He then had to resort to tearing at his own flesh with his fingers and in what was probably the worst part of it all, tearing the main nerve. The sort of white noise sound effects used in this part are excruciating and really make you feel the horror of that moment. I can't even begin to think about how that would feel. If nothing else about this movie really stayed with me, that part did.


In the end, I understand why Danny Boyle made this movie in the way that he did. It makes sense for the kind of story that it is. I'm sure that I'm probably in the minority of people who weren't so easily effected by the somewhat preachy, emotion grabbing aspect of the film, but I just felt that it at times seemed like the film was trying a little too hard to push the message at me. All that aside, the cinematography of the film was stunning and James Franco proved, yet again, that he is a very talented and versatile actor.


Next up, Buried. Ryan Reynolds is not quite James Franco...