Dir. Danny Boyle
Starring: James Franco, Amber
Tamblyn, Kate Mara, Clémence Poésy
In 2003 Aron Ralston travelled
off canyoneering in the cracked and fissured terrain of Utah ’s
Canyonlands National Park
This is a tale of survival in the
most extreme circumstances. Unlike Christopher McCandless in Into the Wild Aron (here played by James
Franco, previously seen – uncredited – in Nights
in Rodanthe) likes the great outdoors but he does not fetishise it. He
fetishises himself. He is an adrenaline junkie outdoors nut. He sees himself as
a “big fucking hard hero” able to
deal with any problem himself. And as a result he pushes away those close to
him. He is a solitary superman through his own choices and inclinations. But
when his choices and actions leave him trapped he has to reassess the decisions
he has made in his life. In No Country
for Old Men Chigurh rationalises his killing of passers-by: every choice,
decision, action has led to the intersection at the same time of that person,
himself, and the coin he will toss to decide whether they live or die. Likewise
Aron is forced to confront the reality that every choice or decision he has
made, every action he has taken has led to his present predicament. “I chose this. I chose all this. This rock…
this rock has been waiting for me my entire life; it’ entire life, ever since
it was a meteorite a million, billion years ago. In space. It’s been waiting to
come here. Right, right here. I’ve been moving towards it my entire life. The
minute I was born, every breath that I’ve taken, every action has been leading
me to this crack on the outer surface.” If he had not pushed his girlfriend
(Clémence Poésy) away she would have been with him. If he had answered his
mother’s phonecall that morning he could have told her where he was going. If
he hadn’t parted company with the two hikers he had met (Amber Tamblyn and Kate
Mara) they could have helped. If he hadn’t left his Gatorade in the truck, if
he had pickd up his Swiss Army penknife… Reflecting on his life he recognises
that he has found himself in his present situation simply because of his “supreme selfishness”.
He may be selfish but he is
ingenious. Considering that Aron is stuck by himself at the bottom of the
canyon for 127 hours he has a lot of time to fill. His engineering training
comes in useful. Up to a point. He can fashion himself a harness to support his
weight. He can use a stick as a hook when he drops his Leatherman. He can work
out what he would need to support a pully system to pull the boulder off his
arm. He also tries to chisel away at the edges of the boulder with his blunt
Leatherman in the hope of being able to dislodge it. Unfortunately gravity
means that the boulder only settles more firmly onto his trapped right hand. In
the end he is out of water, out of food, out of battery and out if time. He has
to do a very grave piece of root cause analysis. What traps him where he is? A
boulder on his arm. Can he free his arm from underneath the boulder? No. In that case, can he
free himself from his trapped arm? Using the can-opener tool of his Leatherman
to hack through his own flesh the answer is: possibly. Recognising that the
hand and forearm is going to be lost anyway he chooses to try and save the
remainder of his body rather than face certain death. It takes a lot of guts to
make such a decision. Seeing the resultant action as he forces his bone to break
and then saws through muscle, nerve and tendon to separate himself from his
pinioned flesh is genuinely gruesome. 127
Hours is far more sickening than anything that can be seen in ‘video
nasties’ like A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Evil Dead or The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. The violence and gore is a result not
of evil or madness but of cold, calm rational deliberation. The only other
scene in a film I can think of that made me squirm quite so much was in A Clockwork Orange (the scene where
Alex’s eyes are clamped open and water is dripped into them).
It may be horrifying but director
Danny Boyle (of Trainspotting, Slumdog
Millionaire and 2012 Olympics opening ceremony fame) clearly has fun
playing around with the medium. He utilises a variety of styles to capture
scenes. Aron relates his impressions into a Sony Palmcorder. Early on some of
Aron’s action exploits are captured in a grainier lower resolution mode. He uses splitscreens more extensively than an episode of 24. The
first time he sucks on his Camelbak the camera gives a view of the water
rushing up the tube. Playfulness I thought. Of course, the drinking of water
and the lack of it becomes increasingly important later on… My favourite shot
though is Aron shouting for help. The camera is pointing directly down towards
him. And then, like zooming out on Google Earth the camera goes up, up, up, the
scene expands. He is a man, at the bottom of a fissure, off another canyon, in
a rocky plateau, in the middle of miles and miles of empty wilderness. This one
shot clearly shows quite how isolated and alone and without a chance of rescue
Aron is.
 |
| He had written to the council three times, yet still nothing had been done about the pot holes |
I liked 127 Hours. It is like a modern-day A Christmas Carol: presentiments of mortality make a selfish
individual reflect back upon his life and vow to be a better person. But with
better scenery.
What have I learnt about Utah
If you were not aware that Utah
While the general climate is one
of dry heat the area does get rain. Storms even. With no topsoil to soak it up
rainwater runs straight off the rock into gullys and canyons in flash floods.
Being trapped in one of these canyons as it rapidly fills with water is hence
not a very good idea. This scene in the movie turns out just to be a
hallucination by Aron, however.
The area really is wilderness.
You can trek for hours without meting anyone and mobile phones cannot get
reception (or they couldn’t back in 2003 anyway). This underlines the
importance of notifying people of your planned routes and timings. It is no
surprise that Butch Cassidy and his gang were able to successfully hide away in
the maze of canyons, as Aron relates.
We don’t see much of the wildlife
of Utah
Can we go there?
Well, okay. But don’t travel
alone, ensure that you have a full survival kit and notify someone where you
intend to be and when you intend to be back.
Those caveats aside I can
understand your desire to visit the area. The action takes place in Canyonlands National Park and it looks stunning. Aron leaves his truck at the Horseshoe
Canyon trailhead (the Horseshoe Canyon section is a ‘detached unit’ several
miles to the west of the rest of the Park). He leads Kristi and Megan through
the Robbers Roost area. He gets trapped in Blue John Canyon, about 40 miles away from the nearest paved road. The boulder
that trapped his arm can still be seen in situ (though it was shifted to
retrieve his arm). Blue John was not used for the filming however; a more
accessible – and supposedly better looking – alternative, Leprechaun Canyon was used instead. When he escapes he leaves via Horseshoe Canyon; the canyon’s prehistoric rock art (known as ‘the Great
Gallery’) is seen.
The pool used by Aron, Kristi and
Megan early in the film was a fictitious addition. It was shot at the Crater
at Homestead Resort, Midway, not far south-east of Salt Lake City.
Overall Rating: 4/5
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