In 2003 Aron Ralston went mountain biking and then hiking by himself in Canyonlands National Park in Utah. A freak accident resulted in a boulder falling onto his right arm, pinning him to a canyon wall. The story of Ralston’s ordeal and the extraordinary measures he took to escape have been adapted into film with stunning results. The single location and single character scenario presents an enormous challenge to filmmaker Danny Boyle who uses what seems like every cinematic technique imaginable to make the film dynamic. Time-lapse photography, strobe effects, hand held camera, forced perspective, flashbacks, montages, slow motion, point-of-view shots, split screen and sound are just some of the stylistic devices used to make the audience share Ralston’s experiences in a truly visceral way. We experience Ralston’s fantasies, hallucinations and memories. Shots from inside his water bottle constantly reinforce the drama of his dwindling water supply, shards of sound express pain and bursts of light convey the brief moments of serenity each day when the sun touches him.
Not only does Boyle’s command of film style make 127 Hours an engaging experience, but it is also impressively used throughout the film to build and develop Ralston as a character. The lengthy opening sequence leading up to the accident is shot like the sort of extreme sports film that somebody like Warren Miller could have made. As Ralston packs, drives to the park, mountain bikes and then sets out hiking, the film is an adrenaline pumping combination of rapid edits, energetic music and dramatic camera angels. We get a great sense of Ralston’s spirit and bravado. We also get a sense that he is a little self-absorbed and enjoys playing the adventurous lone hero, and this is certainly reflected in the reactions of a pair of lost female hikers that he helps out early in the film prior to the incident. The female hikers respond to his charisma and admire his enthusiasm, but they are also a little amused by his posturing.
The degree in which Ralston is selfish and self-absorbed creates most of the emotional drama for the film as he questions how he ended up in the situation that he finds himself in. Boyle begins 127 Hours with a variety of split screens showing crowds and groups of people from all over the world to emphasise the loneliness of Ralston’s future predicament. However, it also emphasises Ralston’s background of pushing other people away, including his family, friends and ex-girlfriend, and how such emotional isolationism led to the circumstances where he would go off for a weekend of adventuring without telling anybody where he was going. So while 127 Hours celebrates the achievement of an individual under extreme duress, it is also a critique of individualistic behaviour that manifests as a brutal lesson.
127 Hours reveals the natural environment to be beautiful and awe-inspiring but it can very quickly turn into a cruel and indifferent oppressor when not treated with respect. Boyle needed to cast an actor to play Ralston who had the physique of somebody who could believably survive such an ordeal as well as articulate both his charisma and his hubris. Boyle has done exactly that with the casting of James Franco who delivers an extraordinary performance. Franco captures the range of emotions that Ralston experiences from despair and depression through to triumph and euphoria. Franco keeps us cheering for Ralston and making us want to stay with him. It’s the final ingredient to want makes 127 Hours such compelling, vicarious and satisfying cinema.
© Thomas Caldwell, 2011
CINEMA AUTOPSY 
I saw this on Monday! I loved it! One of the best cinema experiences in recent memory. Franco’s performance was incredible, and Boyle’s dynamic visual style has this potentially repetitive story full of energy and surprises. Brilliant! Four and a half stars from me too!
Such a complete film. Best I’ve seen in a long time. I just loved all the visual ironies – chaining his bike to a tree at the beginning, for example. And it was only later that I realised how obsessively the film focuses on breakages and cuts, from the snapped twig to the scar across the landscape itself that is the canyon. It’s almost as if the universe itself is an echo of Ralston’s own body (and vice versa), which itself echoes his realisation that his entire life has been leading to his encounter with the rock.
Masterful use of music, too – the “Lovely Day” sequence is a killer, and I picked up some motifs that seemed to nod to the scores of 28 Days Later and Sunshine.
I never really rated Boyle’s post-Trainspotting stuff that highly, but this had me returning to some of his other films and finally getting how he critiques genres from within their own form.
Great commentary on the visual motifs John and I agree with pretty much everything else you say too. Along with 28 Days Later…, which I am unashamedly a big fan of, I reckon 127 Hours is Boyle’s best film after his masterpiece Trainspotting.
Have you read this (very long) piece on 28 Days Later and the politics of “fast zombies”? It really turned me around on the film and its philosophical possibilities: http://bit.ly/a4wiVB
The biggest surprise for me was how emotional I got in the final scenes.
One of the best film experiences I’ve had in a long time.