"Oops."By John DeSando, "It's Movie Time," "Cinema Classics," and "On the Marquee"
"Oops." Aron Ralston (James Franco) into his video camera as he sees his right arm pinned by a boulder.
I'm back in the saddle again, my motorcycle and Utah that is, whose canyons and monoliths mesmerized me every time a sped through them. But never did I linger in the crevices, where Nature and a certain rock had been waiting for hiker Aron Ralston to fall through and over 5 days later cut his wedged arm off to gain an independence he had been seeking his whole life, but not at such a cost.
Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle has caught the expansive and claustrophobic at the same time with eagles soaring and young man Aron exalting, be it "bounding like a Roe" on his mountain bike, as Wordsworth would say, or swimming with girls he meets along the path, ironically guiding them to freedom while he unknowingly awaits his own imprisonment.
The "prison" days are enlivened by thoughts of his thoughtlessness that led to no one knowing where he is?he ignores his mother's calls, doesn't tell a co-worker where he is going, and fails on every level of communication with his ex-love (Clemence Poesy). Consequently the figure who emerges is a lyrical, thoughtless romantic who may be more engaging than Tom Hanks' loner of Cast Away but not as responsible.
Although the survival of a superb athlete is the central story, the theme is just as simple: Being alone is detrimental to your health. Boyle verifies the theme with lively montages at the beginning and end of the film.
A thoughtlessly left-behind Swiss Army Knife and messages unanswered serve as appropriate metaqphors for the careless life of this determined loner. 127 hours brings back the wilderness of my youthful adventures that never took for granted the frailty of the 1100 CC's between my legs and the carelessness of a Nature that had better things to do than worry about me the way my mother would.
John DeSando co-hosts It's Movie Time, Cinema Classics, and On the Marquee for WCBE 90.5. The shows can be heard streaming at http://publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/ppr/index.shtml and on demand at http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/arts.artsmain Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.RR.com