Review of 127 Hours (2010) by David L — 17 May 2013

Quite simply, a real life tale about a man who becomes trapped by a boulder, in the middle of nowhere, and desperate to free his arm as a matter of life and death. You can view this film in two ways; the first being a relatively dull spectacle which showcases little action, minimal dialogue and limited settings, purely because the vast amount of this movie is spent watching a solitary man going through the several levels of desperation and mental states that one would be upon the realisation that death is imminent.

A second take of this flick would be impressed at how gripping and appealing such a storyline can be given the above criteria. It reminded me a little of Tom Hans in 'Castaway', just because they share the concept of a film being shot completely around a single character, which in an entertainment industry would seem a very risky option in terms of keeping an audience happy.

Some will struggle with the middle section of this film as we admittedly do watch a similar camera shot of the man being trapped for a good 30-40 minutes, but it all leads up to quite a drastic and gruesome conclusion, which for those who didn't know it was coming, is possibly the main reason why we stay appealed.

Unfortunately, it's one of those movies whereby the ending has been quite a talking point of this film, hence knowing this spoiler will undoubtedly give the rest of the spectacle far less appeal. Similarly, the style of this story doesn't exactly rouse people's desire for a second viewing anytime soon either, but you do have to fully appreciate the value of this, given that it is based on true events.