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.