Interesting Use of Cinematography from Anthony Dod Mantle

Rating: 9/10 (23 October 2016)

The story line of 127 Hours is that a man backpacking alone becomes trapped by a rock in a canyon in Utah, and must figure out how to survive. The movie is mostly visually driven, which makes it interesting to focus on the work of the cinematographer, Anthony Dod Mantle. Mantle's methods for recording this film make the movie almost experimental.
Mantle never holds the same shot for very long. Within seconds, there is camera movement or a change in angle. The camera goes above, below, besides, next to, and pans past characters. Some shots are at unusual angles. There are pan and zoom combinations that move from the landscape to the main character, Aron, and vise versa. Mantle shows off the rock formations with multiple shots so wide, Aron becomes a silhouette. Little time is spent on an average shot of a character's whole face. Instead, Mantle cuts to closeups of hands, feet, eyes, objects, people's shadows, and shots from the characters' point of view. Instead of cutting to each character's face during conversations, the camera moves between characters as if it was another person standing there. Changes in camera angle are also used to subtly cut out unnecessary points in the story without changing the setting. Additionally, there are many frames within a frame, and in these moments, Mantle often shows both sides of the frame. Parts of locations that the camera looks through include cabinets, openings in rocks, tree branches, and a car window while the interior was dim. Mantle also uses the camera to view what the eye would not normally see, like inside a water bottle or Aron's camcorder while a new clip loads.
Aron's camcorder becomes another view for the audience to look through as his vlogging occasionally takes up the screen. When Aron takes photos, the scene pauses, and the photo shrinks and slides offscreen. The camcorder also becomes something for Aron to talk in order to include dialogue when no other people are around.
The movie has very little dialogue. In fact, almost all the deleted scenes included on a DVD version of the movie were the dialogue driven. One deleted scene has Aron talk about his options, but in the movie, he acts them out or the audience watches what he imagines. While there are points where a little more dialogue would have made a scene easier to understand, dialogue heavy scenes would have distracted the audience from the visual focus of this film. Instead of talking to move the story or give context, the audience is given text to mark the days, music with lyrics, visual hints, and Aron's thoughts and memories. By playing out Aron's thoughts, Mantle is able to take the audience out of the canyon, even though Aron is still trapped there. The memories also bring characters for Aron to interact with. The present Aron sometimes appears on screen with the opacity turned down to make him ghost-like on top of memories or daydreams of life outside cave. Memories further blend with the present when other characters and objects from his memories appear in the cave instead of cutting to another setting or changing opacity. His memories are also projected on Aron's eyes or a cloth he puts over his head at one point.
The passage of time in the film also relies on visuals. Natural light is almost always used, and puts an emphasis on how much daylight is left. However, there are some indoor scenes with artificial lights and daydreams with dramatic lighting. The changing color of Aron's lips as he stays in the canyon longer is also a way of showing how much time has gone by. This is probably accomplished through applying makeup before shooting.
There are more ways the movement of the camera is used. At times, the camera movement is based on Aron's emotions. There are smooth aerial shots as Aron enthusiastically starts his journey. There are shaky, quick movements as Aron tries to desperately free himself. Intentional temporary blurring and distortion of audio are also used to communicate how Aron feels at points. Pans and zooms are used to focus on smaller parts of a scene and reveal what the audience should be looking at.
Mantle does something very unique where he splits the screen into thirds that are longer vertically. Sometimes, there is a horizontal shot that continues as two others pop on top. Other times, all three appear together. The thirds of the screen show different angles of the same scene or different times of day along Aron's journey. There is a point where the left and right thirds were mirror images of each other while the middle was something else. By having clips share the screen, Mantle is able to both be creative and make the story move faster by not showing each clip individually.
I would recommend watching this movie to see a very creative and purposeful use of cinematography. The film is also interesting because it is based on a true story. However, I must warn you that it does get unexpectedly gruesome. Don't let the cheerful and comedic opening let you forget this story is about a man struggling to survive. The physical environment drives both the story and visuals, whether due to the sunlight, rock formations, wind, or water. Be prepared for what seems like unneeded shots to foreshadow to events later in the film.
While Mantle did a good job at making shots matter, the one negative point I have about the film is in the long part where Aron is trapped, the movie seems a little dragged on. I think the editors should have cut out more of the scenes in the cave and kept some of the expanded ending found in the DVD. While the alternative ending has some great scenes of what happened to Aron later, it proves the saying that the best scenes can hit the cutting room floor.