Between a Rock and a Hard Place Blogpost #5 (Boston Globe Review)

Between a Rock and a Hard Place Blogpost #5 (Boston Globe Review)

            Ty Burr is the writer to the Boston Globe article ‘The survivor: ‘127 Hours’ goes into the head and heart of Utah hiker Aron Ralston’. He gave a positive review of this movie, and praised director Danny Boyle for jazzing “this up as best he can” (Burr). Aron Ralston was played by James Franco, who was a “sly, skinny changeling of an actor, with an energy that’s almost frightening” (Burr). The many different angles of shots and the timing of each steadies the movie as we see (and feel) of his experience. Then, as Burr describes, “one of my colleagues had to forcefully resist bolting for the exits, hand over mouth” (Burr). Sure, the scene where he cruelly saws his arm off was stomach-curling for some, but at the same time it was a flick of new hope for life.

Burr, Ty. "127 Hours- The survivor: '127 Hours' goes into the head and heart of Utah hiker Aron Ralston". The Boston Globe. 12 Nov. 2010.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place Blogpost #4 (Movie Review)

Between a Rock and a Hard Place Blogpost #4 (Movie Review)

            When comparing the movie to the book, I noticed that the titles were different. The movie title was ‘127 Hours’ while the book title was ‘Between a Rock and a Hard Place’.  The movie starts out showing three columns with different activities going on, showing that the world and its people are moving. As Aron rides out on his bike in the desert, there are a lot of establishing shots and long shots, showing how vast and empty the canyon is. Then the scene I’m analyzing about is when Aron falls down and his hand is caught between the boulder and the wall.  The scene starts off with a bird’s eye shot, looking down on Aron as he looks down the canyon. The canyon down below was dim and foreshadows that something bad was going to happen. During this whole incident, Aron is wearing his headphones and we listen to his music externally. Then the camera is in a different spot, between two walls looking kind of above and far away from Aron, as if there was another person looking through this crack through the walls. The light above him is bright, and I guess this could be a hand-held shot; it shows that what he is doing is real and it sort of gives a suspense feeling. The camera then tracks nearer to Aron as he positions himself in a comfortable pose to move around and the shot changes into an overview shot (if that existed), where the camera pasts Aron and on top of the boulder, where his hand is. In a quick moment, the camera is looking up (low-angle shot) at Aron falling down, the boulder right behind him. The position of the camera changes quickly as Aron falls, giving the sense that everything happened swiftly. Then a rapid reaction shot comes up, showing his pain, and the camera points to his headphones, which have fallen off and is dangling from its wire. The music is still playing and the hanging music gives a sense that he’s alone because it’s hanging there and no one is there to pick it up. The music cease to play and there’s this suspenseful, silent sound of wind. The camera goes to a reaction shot again, as Aron looks at his hand stuck between the rocks. The camera zips to a point of view shot as we take a look at the result of his fall and it zooms out as we look at his whole right arm (a hand-held shot again?), and then back to his trapped hand. The camera’s position moves to the side against the wall trapping his hand to face Aron, and shows that he’s panting form the speedy event. The title of the movie shows up on the wall in a mission/computer like font, as if Aron has this ‘assignment’. Aron then looks up and a low-angle shot is used to emphasis the canyon walls and cerulean sky; it gives the impression of something threatening. The camera goes into a close-up of Aron, surprised, looking back down at his ensnare arm. Then the camera switches into a high-angle shot, showing how vulnerable he is right now.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place Blogpost #3 (Pgs 432-632)

Between a Rock and a Hard Place Blogpost #3

            As Aron’s death draws nearer, he gives up on his plans to free himself and only tries to maintain body heat. From his lack of water, he began to die of dehydration. Aron hallucinates about his past memories, his friends and his family while his conscious drifts back and forth between reality and imagination. The nights are worse because his body shivers from the coldness and his physical being in that condition makes it worse. On Wednesday, Aron came up with the idea to smask the gaint boulder with a smaller one, one that’s made out of the similar sandstone. The idea doesn’t work but he still keeps doing it, and Aron records on his video camera again, saying his last words for his funeral and property. He accepted death now and is prepared to leave the world; it was April 30. On the rock above his head, he carved out ‘RIP ARON, OCT 75, APR 03’, as if it was his head stone. Then as he’s about to drift off into another dream, he visions himself and a similar child on his shoulder; this belief gave him new hope. He wakes up to find himself still alive on May 1^st and then he works on pounding the rock again. While brushing away dirt particles off his arm with his knife, he accidentally ripped off a bit of decayed skin. The idea soon came to him: he could snap his fore arm into two to escape! He starts using his dull knife to saw through his flesh, tendons, muscles, arteries, veins, and tissues. After an hour of cutting, Aron is free from the boulder and wrapping his arm up, he begins to pack his stuff and leave the area to find essential water. He climbs back to the big pool he was at with the two women in the beginning and fills up his water supply and at the same time himself. Aron then begins the journey to his truck and he finds a family of three hiking. From there, he is rescue by a helicopter and taken to a small hospital. While Aron was still stuck at the boulder, his roommates and boss at work became even more worried. They contacted all of his friends by hacking into Aron’s email and tried to glean any recent information they’ve heard from Aron. So by the time Aron was cutting his arm, the police were already looking for his in the desert and found his truck. They warned other hikers to keep an eye out for Aron and the family of three knew that the crazed, bloody man that called towards them was Aron. So Aron was rescue, transferred from the small hospital to a larger one, and was reunited with his family. He had to stay there for months because of surgeries and an infection from his knife. After Aron was released, he spent time with his family and all of his friends. Even then, he still climbs mountains and later, he returned to Blue John Canyon with a few of his friends and an entire team from NBC. He continued to do all of the sports he used to do and didn’t regret the experience he gained from the incident because he gave him a chance to be reborn again. Aron ends his biographical novel by stating that “saying farewell is also a bold and powerful beginning” (Ralston 632).

“Through the fall and winter, I returned to lead climbing on rock, mountain biking, ice climbing, backcountry telemark skiing, cross-country skate skiing, and solo winter mountaineering” (Ralston 631).

            I chose this quote because I was amazed. Even though I have read Aron almost die from his experience, I would have never thought that he would still continue to do what he loves to do. Well, if I had gone through that experience, I would have been emotionally (and mentally) scarred because I would have almost died. I would have never had the guts to keep doing daring hobbies. But it didn’t surprise me as much because while Aron was talking about his past, I founded out that he’s that kind of guy to do such stuff. So yeah, I was amazed how Aron could still keep going, even though he only has one hand.