127 Hours...

A Perfect Ending

    The cold, the pain, the hunger, the fatigue, and the thirst settled into Arons body as he later recorded his experience: “My breath rasps through my desiccated throat, and I wheeze then choke on my vocal cords…I am dying.” (Ralston 234)  These depressing thoughts were inside the head of the mountaineer Aaron Ralston as he was trapped in a deep, narrow slot canyon with an eight-hundred pound boulder pinned against his right arm.  With scant food and water, death was approaching Aaron in the remote Utah desert.  Miraculously, Aron Ralston survived, and shortly after he released a book describing his experience. Director, Danny Boyle, then recreated the incredible situation through the film, 127 Hours.  The film stunningly captures Ralston’s true tale of survival. Majority of Hollywood films have happy endings, some of which are altered to please the audience.  Like most movies hitting theaters today, this film expressed common themes such as bravery and heroism.  Man overcoming incredible odds seems to be the main concept of a large amount of movies.   The fact that memorable, popular movies today end euphorically happily reveals something about our culture:  films are a way to seek entertainment, while escaping the depressing and harsh truths of reality through fantasy.

       In the film 127 Hours, James Franco portrays Aaron Ralston, an outdoorsman who finds himself in a life-threatening situation when a boulder crashes down on his arm and traps him in the secluded canyons of Utah.  A situation predisposed with drama is re-created precisely through the film, adding a slim amount of Hollywood flair, almost as if it is a documentary of Ralston’s own experience.  

       In the film, Ralston drifts into the open land, lost in the joy being completely isolated from society.   Without a worry in the world and readily equipped for a challenge, Aaron shimmies down a steep, narrow slot canyon, and a boulder dislodges and jams his arm against the stone wall.  James Franco, portraying Ralston, stares at his arm wedged in between the rock and the wall with disbelief, his eyes quivering with nerves, looks up into the sky and desperately screams, “HELP!”   He aggressively yanks his arm outward and wiggles it up and down, and using a cheap multi-purpose knife, Aaron jabs at the boulder attempting to shave it down and release some pressure.   Desperate for assistance and struggling for food and water, Aaron ponders his life and the important people he is leaving behind as he begins to accept his death over the next 127 hours.  He speaks to his camera in the film constantly, sometimes out of sheer delirium, but other times he is honest, respectful and mournful of fellow loved ones.  

          According to Ralston’s book, Between A Rock and a Hard Place (narrated by Ralston, describing his experience), his exact experiences being stuck in the canyon were created truthfully and vividly in the film.  Several hours went by with Aron chipping away at the large boulder.  His emotions, thoughts, and reflections were poured out when he thought of relationships back home.  As shown in the film correctly, Ralston had actually been talking to his video camera.  Aron would cry things (in his actual accounts) like, “Mom, Dad, I love you, Sonja, I love you.  You guys make me proud.  I don’t know what this is about me that’s brought me to this...” (Ralston 113)  His moments of delirium that were also shown in the film actually did occur.  In his book, he wrote how he would wake up in the morning and shout out loud, speaking like he was a channel eleven news man.  Majority of Aron’s days were spent by reminiscing on past trips with friends and family vacations, so much that he sometimes forgot he was stuck.  Aron brooded over his relationships and he regretted his selfishness for travelling alone, as shown in his novel when he wrote,

Bringing to mind those memories has lifted my spirit and even made me smile despite my present circumstances.  That I spent so much of my time leaving my friends behind for solo trips, or even for some alone time when I was with them, reveals self-centeredness that displeases me. (Ralston 169)

Ralston, depressingly seeing the end of his life ahead of him, reflected on the way he acted amongst friends and family.  He got angered by his “self-centeredness” from the large amount of time he escaped the people in his life.  Life can be frustrating; seeking solitude can be necessary to stay sane.   But Ralston realized that his “memories evoking the most gratitude in life are times with my family and friends” (Ralston 169). He stated that he begins to understand “the priceless nature of their company” (Ralston 170). The film’s portrayal of Ralston’s genuine care for his loved ones was shown, and as his novel proved, he indeed thought of these people.  

        In the film, at the peak of Ralston’s tiredness, delirium, and dehydration he realizes the one way of surviving is through amputating his arm. Aron, mentally and physically exhausted, forgets that his arm has bones in them, and the pocket knife isn’t sharp enough to cut through them.  Ralston then has a moment of clarity.  He realizes that he can use the boulder to his advantage by using it as leverage to break his arm.  Maniacally screaming and cringing, Ralston manages to lever himself in a position where his arm snaps in half, triggering off the sound similar to a gun shot.   Determined to return home to his family and friends, Ralston uses this cheap, small, and now extremely dull knife to sever his arm all the way through.   Ralston hits nerves, tendons and muscle causing extreme pain, and each time he grazes these delicate parts of the arm, a screeching, grinding, metallic noise is produced, and he is momentarily shocked by the pain. Oozing, thick, blood pours out Aron’s right arm, and the intense pain and delirium from the loss of blood stops him from continuing.  But, visions and memories spent with family and friends fill Aron’s mind and he is able to complete the unthinkable, macabre process.

       Based on actual recordings from Aron’s perspective on the situation, these crucial moments in the film were created precisely.  The sharp pain inflicted that was represented by a triggering, metallic noise in the film depicts what actually was felt by Aron.  He wrote, “The smaller elastic nerve branches are so sensitive that even nudging them sends Taser shocks up to my shoulder…releasing a flood of pain… momentarily stunning me” (Ralston 284).  When Aron thought he could not make it through the surgery, he actually was thinking of loved ones, for he stated in his book, “I am drawing all my power from every memory of my life, and all the possibilities for the future that those memories represent” ( Ralston 284).  

        At the end of the film, as Aron climbs out of the slot canyon, Sigur Ros, an atmospheric band with an orchestrated sound that gradually builds into a beautiful, ambient noise, fills the background of the scene, as Aron gets closer to his survival and freedom.  During this dramatic scene, a sense of euphoric happiness is felt.  It is like Aron is reborn into his life for the second time.  The volume of the sound amplifies, the brightness of the screen increases, a feeling of intensity and astonishment erects, and Aron is shown swimming under water in a pool determined to get to the other side, at last reaching his destination, and coming up for a breath of air to the sight of his family and friends hovering above the water, as if they are welcoming him back into the world.  

       Ralston’s actual feelings were created perfectly in the film.  According to his book, Aron truly felt as if he was reborn and the important people in his life were awaiting him, for he wrote,

                

For the second time in my life, I am being born.  The value of my family, friends and my passions well up a heaving rush of energy that is like the burst I get approaching a hard-earned summit, multiplied by ten thousand…This is the most intense feeling of my life.  I fear I might explode from the exhilarating shock and ecstasy that paralyze my body… (Ralston 284-285)

This reveals that the intensity and emotion reflected in the film was accurate to what Aron was feeling during his final stages of survival.  

              Because the film, 127 Hours is portrayed so accurately, one can’t help but wonder why filmmakers love to create such heroic, inspiring films.  Are they supposed to have some sort of an effect on us which stirs inner emotions to live our lives as braver and more selfless people?  The endings of most popular films consist of glorious finales which the main character goes through pain, sacrifice and sorrow to get to.  I’ve noticed that people love movies with happy endings.  Someone saving the day resulting in a harmonious world of peace gives the audience a feeling of content.  One man conquering incredible odds fulfills the vast majority of themes and it seems that audiences and people in the film industry believe that a successful Hollywood film is one consisting of a happy ending.  In reality, most human beings are not capable of the actions heroes partake in to “save the day,” and the world isn’t so jolly after all…  So why do so many people become enthralled with these powerful humans and utopian societies?

       In today’s world, we are constantly being reminded of ecological, economical and political crises and how current times are only getting worse.  Whether it is the oil situation or global warming, we are informed it’s down-falling.  And we are being warned not to expect happy endings to these problems, yet we seek out those warm-heartening conclusions in the movies.  The declaration of independence states that, “We hold these truths to be self evident…that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  But aren’t heroes those who live without happiness by suffering and sacrificing for the good of mankind?  Psychologist of happiness, Neil Lutsky suggests,

 “We would all like our endings to be happy…but the challenges of real-life endings have more to do with the nature of life itself.   Endings can provide sharp reminders of the limits of human control.  The psychological challenge is to come to terms with the fundamental facts of life we cannot control (Lutsky par. 4).

       Perhaps, films are a way to escape the truth, to deny the realities of our daily lives or to give us a warm, hopeful sensation that we cannot actually achieve.  But, acceptance is the way to come to peace.  Awareness and comfort with endings will offer us a chance to grow.  This can give us a positive, honest way to tackle conclusions and be able to look at them in an earnest and effective manner.