DVD Reviews

127 Hours – DVD Review

By Jeff Swindoll Mar 18, 2011, 14:14 GMT

From Academy Award®-winning director Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire) comes the powerfully uplifting true story of one man’s struggle to survive against mountainous odds. Aron Ralston (James Franco) has a passion for all things outdoors. But when a falling boulder traps him in a remote Utah canyon, a thrill-seeker’s adventure becomes the challenge of a lifetime. Over the next five days, Ralston embarks on a remarkable personal journey in which he ...more

The movie turned out to be much shorter than its title, but it cumulated in a gruesome act of survival.

The adventuresome Aron Ralston (James Franco) goes away to Canyonlands National Park in Utah for a weekend of biking and hiking.

Along the way, he meets hikers Kristi (Kate Mara) and Megan (Amber Tamblyn) and shows them a hidden pool. He bids the girls fond farewells with thoughts of going to a party the girls are throwing the following day.

Unfortunately, he goes down a narrow passage in a canyon, jumps over a boulder, but the bolder jars loose and pins his arm trapping him at the bottom of the canyon. He soon realizes that he really didn’t tell anyone where he was going, has very little food and water, and that if he doesn’t take drastic measures that he will die.

I don’t suppose I’ll be spoiling much to say that when Aron leaves the desert that he’s minus an appendage. The terrifying part may be that it’s all based on a true story and the events did happen to the real Aron and he left the desert in the same predicament.

After the media blitz, he would write about his ordeal in his book Between a Rock and a Hard Place (a title I liked better than 127 Hours, but oh well). It’s what happens during those 127 hours trapped under a rock that make up the lion’s share of the film.

The film is a story of survival and the lengths that man will go to ensure that survival. The basic premise is a one-man show with James Franco stepping into Aron’s shoes (gloves?).

We do have some side characters, the girls he meets before the accidents and visions of his family, but the whole film rises and falls on Franco’s performance. Since he was nominated for an Oscar you can imagine that his performance is masterfully done.

The film would garner a further five nominations (best picture, best adapted screenplay, best score, best song, and best editing) but would win none. It’s a great picture that, after a rather gruesome amputation in the final act, makes you marvel at the determination that can be found inside.

127 Hours is presented in widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include 34 minutes of deleted scenes and a commentary by director Danny Boyle and co-writer Simon Beaufoy.

127 Hours is creatively shot and wonderfully acted. It’s a film that is ultimately uplifting, even if you have to endure the visual image of the loss of limb, and portrays the human spirit.

I don’t know that Aron would say that it was exactly great to live through his predicament, but he seems to have learned to love life through his experience.