Carbon copy of real event still ends as a riveting tale of survival

Rating: 8/10 (22 February 2011)

I wanted to see '127 Hours' because I kept wondering how anyone can make a film about a guy who gets his arm stuck under a boulder while hiking in the desert and then has to cut it off. Not only was I aware of the whole concept of the film and the ending but I also was wondering how do you make an interesting film about someone who is stuck in one small place for such a long period of time.
To my great surprise, '127 Hours' is a riveting tale of one man's survival in the face of certain death. How does director Danny Boyle pull it off? For starters, James Franco is a brilliant casting choice to play Aron Ralston, the daredevil hiker who ends up between a 'rock and a hard place'. Franco is an immensely likable fellow who conveys Ralston's reckless and devil may care attitude that leads him to his date with destiny. When Ralston meets the two female hikers and escorts them to an underground grotto where they go swimming, Boyle uses that scene to reinforce our perception of Ralston as a daredevil, who risks his own life (as well as the lives of two strangers) as he seeks one more thrill, sliding between a crevice, and diving into the grotto, from a distance that an ordinary person would consider to be unsafe.
The incredible thing about '127 Hours' (and I found this out after I watched the film) is that almost everything that we see actually happened. Ralston did have a video camera and filmed himself while his arm was stuck under the rock. And the video camera that was used in the film, was also the actual camera Ralston used when he was trapped! Boyle builds the tension simply by documenting everything that happened. At first Ralston believes he can move the rock through sheer strength. When that fails, he tries to be more calculating by using a pocket knife to chip away at the rock but soon discovers that plan is completely ineffectual (adding to the tension is the scene where Ralston drops the knife and must retrieve it by attaching a bent wire and guiding it down to where the knife has fallen, by placing the wire between his toes).
Calling upon his survival skills, Ralston then designs an elaborate pulley system, hoping he'll be able to lift the rock, by using the weight of his body to move it. Finally, when that fails, he must concentrate on conserving the little water he has left, and figure out some other plan to extricate himself from his dire predicament. Boyle switches things up by introducing scenes in which Ralston begins hallucinating. In one such harrowing scene, after a cloud burst above in the desert, water cascades down into the crevice where Ralston is trapped, and he sees himself drowning. In another hallucinatory scene, Boyle introduces some comic relief by having Ralston imagine himself as a game show contestant, mocked by canned laughter due to his short-sightedness in failing to tell anyone where he was going.
As to the amputation itself, I was relieved it wasn't as gruesome as I had anticipated. Actually, it was more fascinating than terrifying. In an earlier scene, Ralston discovers that he is unable to sever his arm using his small dull knife. Later, however, he figures out that he must break his arm in two places and then use the plier part of his knife kit to literally grind and twist until he cuts off his arm.
As a result of this life changing event, Ralston has the epiphany that he had taken his family and friends for granted. Visions of the family and friends appear during the denouement and at the very end, Ralston himself, swimming in a pool, without his prosthesis, This of course suggests that the amputation has not squelched Ralston's love of the outdoors and taste for adventure. But one thing is for sure: when he takes a trip, he'll never again fail to tell those he is close to, where he is going.
The cinematography and the editing is superb here in both the expansive exterior shots and in the claustrophobic area where Franco maneuvers. True, '127 Hours' is basically a carbon copy of a true event, but Director Danny Boyle manages to take a story where we already know the ending and still made it gripping and compelling. That, of course, is no easy feat!