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127 Hours

Posted by Buddy Acker on March 1, 2011 at 3:37 AM

127 Hours
More films should emanate from between a rock and a hard place

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127 Hours is the most surprisingly great movie of 2010 and I say that because the whole movie basically revolves around one man stuck in one place for over five days. I hope that statement doesn't scare anyone away from seeing it. Because even though, yes, it is about a man stuck in a canyon, it is also about hope and how valuable life is. The hope in Aron Ralston's (James Franco) mind comes from memories of his past as he comes to the sudden realization that he has taken his life for granted. He uses this insight to push himself to do something that is very disturbing....okay, everybody in the world knows this by now, so I'll go ahead and say it: he cuts off his arm. Everyone at this point knows that 127 Hours is based on a true story and how that story ended.

There is one scene in the film in which Ralston has a flashback of himself as a child with "If I Rise" by Dido and A.R. Rahman playing in the background that nearly made me break down in tears (no easy feat to accomplish). It is just so beautiful. There are several beautiful scenes in the film. They are mostly hauntingly beautiful but there are a few that are visually stunning as well thanks mainly in part to the wonderful cinematography work done by Anthony Dod Mantle and Enrique Chediak. The editing work done by Jon Harris is also quite good. It seems as if he may have had his job cut out for him and he pulled it off.

The film has a majestic score. I want a copy of the soundtrack. I could feel the music like it was inside my veins in certain scenes. I had to go back and double-check (shame on me) but the movie was indeed nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score and the aforementioned song, "If I Rise", was nominated for Best Original Song, and both deservedly so. I say that this movie had the finest score out of any movie last year. I also really liked Inception's score. The fact that the lead singer of Nine Inch Nails (a great band) won the award for The Social Network's score is a travesty. Outside of that one main theme nobody can remember a single bit of music from the movie.

There is no need to comment on the acting outside of Franco's amazing performance. I am so, so happy that he was nominated for Best Actor because as I see it he is one of the most under-utilized and underrated talents in the movie industry. I wouldn't say that this is his strongest work to date because I haven't seen many of the films that he's been in but I will say that it's his strongest work to date that I have seen. I saw him in the Spider-Man trilogy, Tristan + Isolde, Annapolis, Pineapple Express, and Eat Pray Love and not one bit of his acting in any of those films came close to matching that in 127 Hours.

The real Aron Ralston was very pleased with 127 Hours after he had seen the finished product. He disagreed with one or two scenes here and there, as I did, but overall we both loved the bigger picture. Mr. Ralston would certainly know more about this subject than I would, so I'll take his word for it. I'm just happy that he thought so highly of 127 Hours because I do as well. It's one of the best movies from 2010.

Score: :lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

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