i saw aron ralston being interviewed on tv the other day and he was very happy with every aspect of the film and surely that is what matters most and the fact the film got made in the first place i.e he survived!
u can’t really blame the director 4 using a style he likes, this is common with many directors and danny boyle has used lots of inventive techniques before in films like shallow grave and trainspotting
the real aron ralston could be why there was not so much of a study of his character emotionally as i understand he is private with some matters such as the last video recording he made 4 his family he only let james franco see
also it is understandable how scooby doo and certain vivid fantasies can stay in his mind because of his weakness at the time and these were an emphasis
The fantasies and hallucinations were fine.
He had all kinds of Jerry Bruckheimer style effects. When he drank his urine, they showed the camera view from inside the tube as it was flowing through. When he was cutting through his arm, they showed a pseudo-X ray kind of effect to illustrate the problem of the bone. At times they showed clouds moving by rapidly to illustrate the passage of time. Those things aren’t necessary in an episode of CSI, much less a survival drama. They’re window dressing that make the film a lot less immersive.
i guess it is just a matter of taste because i liked the x-ray bone part and remember there were lots of times we just see him drinking regularly without clever shots
also there might be the question of the production keeping friends employed who work in technical effects departments and could be the reason of incorporating these extra features
Jirin
When I saw 127 Hours, what I liked was the survival aspect of the film. The film showed us all of his attempts to escape and survive, and his psychological state at every point throughout. In that respect, the film succeeded.
The problem is, it’s got all kinds of split screens and gratuitous CSI-style special effects. Was there really any reason to show his mouth from the inside of his water bottle? Or an X-ray of his arm as he’s trying to cut through? Or action shots from the inside of his drinking tube? Then, he’s got all these flashbacks to a ‘lost romance’ subplot that kind of insults the audience’s intelligence.
It’s obvious why he put all of these special effects in. Because ’I’m Danny Boyle and I want another Oscar’. But I felt it detracted from the feel of realism, and made it harder for the audience to immerse in the emotional state of the main character. It could have been a really good movie if it focused more directly on the character’s emotional state and the process of his struggles to survive and escape. Instead the movie is just decent.