More thoughts on 127 Hours.
Jan. 10th, 2011 08:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
apocalypsosI realized sometime last night that 127 Hours worked for me a hell of a lot better for me than watching Into The Wild ever would have. Before starting the audio book of ITW and my copy of 127 Hours, I thought both Aron Ralston and Christopher McCandless had done something fairly stupid. The main difference was that at the end of listening to ITW, I still hadn't felt like McCandless had kicked himself, not even once.
127 Hours was different. Aron starts the movie bursting with youthful hubris, but you get the impression that he's kicking himself the whole damn time and you understand exactly why he thought he could get away with canyoneering alone and not telling anyone where he was going. James Franco does a wonderful job of impressing upon the audience, "Okay, that was stupid. I've learned my lesson. Now to try to keep myself alive long enough to be saved." And when that only took him so far -- well.
I really do recommend watching it at home if you feel you can't watch that particular scene. It starts at 1:13 and ends at 1:18, for the record. So if you want to skip it, that's when to skip ahead. Frankly, I think it was things other than the gore itself which upset me more, like the aforementioned soundtrack and the person his delirious if determined mind pictures watching him do it.
I managed to watch through most of it, only turning away for the nerve-cutting because it looked that painful. But there's a perfectly in-character note of levity following the whole thing, and for all that I sobbed in sympathy through the amputation scene, that one note was enough to yank me most of the way out of my shock.
I wasn't kidding when I said I think James Franco's got a good chance of winning Best Actor for this. It's a hard role and a bit of a surreal film as well, and he's fantastic in it. I can't recommend enough watching the movie -- and skipping past that one scene, if need be; the rest of the movie is almost completely bloodless -- simply based on James Franco's performance. (Although Danny Boyle's direction is equally amazing.)
In other news, my internet is still out, and I started watching True Grit last night. Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon are both great, but the actress playing Mattie is far and away my favorite.
127 Hours was different. Aron starts the movie bursting with youthful hubris, but you get the impression that he's kicking himself the whole damn time and you understand exactly why he thought he could get away with canyoneering alone and not telling anyone where he was going. James Franco does a wonderful job of impressing upon the audience, "Okay, that was stupid. I've learned my lesson. Now to try to keep myself alive long enough to be saved." And when that only took him so far -- well.
I really do recommend watching it at home if you feel you can't watch that particular scene. It starts at 1:13 and ends at 1:18, for the record. So if you want to skip it, that's when to skip ahead. Frankly, I think it was things other than the gore itself which upset me more, like the aforementioned soundtrack and the person his delirious if determined mind pictures watching him do it.
I managed to watch through most of it, only turning away for the nerve-cutting because it looked that painful. But there's a perfectly in-character note of levity following the whole thing, and for all that I sobbed in sympathy through the amputation scene, that one note was enough to yank me most of the way out of my shock.
I wasn't kidding when I said I think James Franco's got a good chance of winning Best Actor for this. It's a hard role and a bit of a surreal film as well, and he's fantastic in it. I can't recommend enough watching the movie -- and skipping past that one scene, if need be; the rest of the movie is almost completely bloodless -- simply based on James Franco's performance. (Although Danny Boyle's direction is equally amazing.)
In other news, my internet is still out, and I started watching True Grit last night. Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon are both great, but the actress playing Mattie is far and away my favorite.
