Buzzman
Senior Member
127 Hours (2010)
From director Danny Boyle comes this harrowing tale of real-life mountain climber Aron Ralston (James Franco), who literally cuts himself loose from danger -- and lives to tell about it when sliding rock pins his forearm under a boulder during a climb in Utah. To stay alive, Ralston resorts to his basest survival instincts.
Much like last year’s surprise hit, The Hurt Locker, 127 Hours doesn’t feel as if there is a story at all, rather mere flashes and acts of a man desperate to outlive his regrets. What makes it so appealing is it never once felt out of the realm of possibility. There is no miraculous transformation that swoops up and saves our protagonist. He has to deal with the situation at hand (see what I did there?), as anyone else would.
As this is based on a true event, you won’t find yourself yelling at the character inside your head because they didn’t try something obvious. The entire thing rightfully feels real. Aron’s attempts to free his hand are brutal to watch. He degrades himself to do anything to prolong his life. You never get a full story, but they give you quick memories of past regrets aimed mostly toward his family, not unlike many of us. It does a great job of wanting you to want him to get through this. That’s where James Franco comes in; he’s the entire movie and easily delivers the best performance of the year. When you take a look at him from the beginning and then the end, he’s an entirely different person. Not a very easy task when you’re stuck in one spot the entire film.
The conclusion and the answer to Aron’s problems comes in a manner which is not easy on anything, and after watching such a physically draining movie, your in for one last gut wrenching scene that makes Saw looks like a children’s movie. What will be known as the famous “arm scene” was extremely well done and is one of the rare moments in a film that is hard to watch, but only further delivers the theme of how far someone will go to survive.
You can’t have a Danny Boyle film without a beautifully shot film and a variety of cultural music. You’re constantly reminded of the vast emptiness around the canyon through beautiful drop-back shots. And in moments of hopelessness, well fit instrumental music that adds intensity to uneventful moments. Danny Boyle is one of the best directors at accomplishing these things that can make an ordinary film into an astounding one.
127 Hours is one of the best films of the year with the best performance, you’d be cheating yourself to not give this a watch. The “arm scene” alone is enough to get anyone to watch it, but it’s everything that happens before it that makes it such a great piece of work.
Overall Score: 10/10
From director Danny Boyle comes this harrowing tale of real-life mountain climber Aron Ralston (James Franco), who literally cuts himself loose from danger -- and lives to tell about it when sliding rock pins his forearm under a boulder during a climb in Utah. To stay alive, Ralston resorts to his basest survival instincts.
Much like last year’s surprise hit, The Hurt Locker, 127 Hours doesn’t feel as if there is a story at all, rather mere flashes and acts of a man desperate to outlive his regrets. What makes it so appealing is it never once felt out of the realm of possibility. There is no miraculous transformation that swoops up and saves our protagonist. He has to deal with the situation at hand (see what I did there?), as anyone else would.
As this is based on a true event, you won’t find yourself yelling at the character inside your head because they didn’t try something obvious. The entire thing rightfully feels real. Aron’s attempts to free his hand are brutal to watch. He degrades himself to do anything to prolong his life. You never get a full story, but they give you quick memories of past regrets aimed mostly toward his family, not unlike many of us. It does a great job of wanting you to want him to get through this. That’s where James Franco comes in; he’s the entire movie and easily delivers the best performance of the year. When you take a look at him from the beginning and then the end, he’s an entirely different person. Not a very easy task when you’re stuck in one spot the entire film.
The conclusion and the answer to Aron’s problems comes in a manner which is not easy on anything, and after watching such a physically draining movie, your in for one last gut wrenching scene that makes Saw looks like a children’s movie. What will be known as the famous “arm scene” was extremely well done and is one of the rare moments in a film that is hard to watch, but only further delivers the theme of how far someone will go to survive.
You can’t have a Danny Boyle film without a beautifully shot film and a variety of cultural music. You’re constantly reminded of the vast emptiness around the canyon through beautiful drop-back shots. And in moments of hopelessness, well fit instrumental music that adds intensity to uneventful moments. Danny Boyle is one of the best directors at accomplishing these things that can make an ordinary film into an astounding one.
127 Hours is one of the best films of the year with the best performance, you’d be cheating yourself to not give this a watch. The “arm scene” alone is enough to get anyone to watch it, but it’s everything that happens before it that makes it such a great piece of work.
Overall Score: 10/10
