It's not even that big a rock. In 2003 superfit Aron Ralston, 26, went hiking through remote Canyonlands National Park in Utah — neglecting to tell anybody, even his mother, where he was going.
In a freak accident, he fell into a narrow crevasse and a boulder landed on his right hand, wedging it immoveably.
Ralston was stuck for six days, getting weaker and weaker, before accepting that the only way to free himself was to hack his own arm off with a cheap multi-tool.
It worked, he lived — and in 2004 published a best-seller about his experience, Between A Rock And A Hard Place.
It’s a hell of a story and, as the Chilean miners have just shown us, tales of survival against the odds do it for a lot of people. Director Danny Boyle — following up on the huge success of Slumdog Millionaire, which was also a study of triumph over adversity — has accordingly given this one the works.
The problems in making an action movie out of Ralston’s nasty pickle are pretty obvious. He can’t move an inch. Nobody else comes along in the whole time he is trapped. And we know just what is going to happen and precisely how long it is all going to take.
Yet 127 Hours is compelling and surprisingly kinetic. Alfred Hitchcock once said that with the right camera moves you could make an exciting film inside a cupboard — and that is pretty much what Boyle has achieved. He uses every possible device to make sure there is lots going on.
There are zoom-outs, triply split screens, speeded up sequences and weird points of view — for example from inside Ralston’s water bottle and, pretty gruesomely, from inside his arm as he gets to work on it. He had a video camera with which he filmed his plight and recorded farewell messages to his family and Boyle makes great play on this.
Ralston even acts out a fantasy appearance on a chat show. "You didn’t tell anyone where you were going? Oops!" He looks back over his life, from his childhood to breaking up with his girlfriend, not to mention a pair of fanciable hikers he met before falling down the crevasse.
Dehydrated and failing, he also begins to hallucinate. So in a way, people do come along after all.
Amateur amputation tends to be messy and 127 Hours reportedly had early viewers flaking out.
Yet, remarkably, it does eventually function as a feelgood film. Ralston finds himself and takes responsibility for his plight: "I chose all of this — this rock has been waiting for me my
entire life". Then he whacks in his blunt little blade...
On screen almost the whole time as Ralston, James Franco digs deep and convinces wholly. As ordeal-porn goes, 127 Hours is up there with Touching The Void. Not advised for claustrophobes, though.
127 Hours is tonight’s gala, closing the festival. Details at bfi.org.uk
Closing Night Gala: 127 Hours
