127 Hours will make you faint or run away.

As an avid and genuinely proud James Franco fan, I like to keep myself up-to-date with all of this talented actor’s ventures. From his blockbusters (namely, the Spiderman franchise with Tobey Maguire) to his schooling (UCLA, then Columbia, and finally Yale this September for his Ph.D…with many many more in between), James Franco’s projects have never ceased to interest me.

So when I heard about his new film, 127 Hours, I immediately wiki-ed it and almost keeled over with anticipation for this dramatic biographical film. When I googled the movie today, I was pleased to find that it screened at three prominent film festivals. However, in that same article, attention was more drawn to the fact that no less than 6 people have fainted during the movie’s daring amputation scene. You see, James Franco plays Aron Ralston, the unbelievably determined mountain climber whose claim to fame is amputating his own arm to escape from death because it was trapped behind a boulder.

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So would this type of extreme audience reaction be a marketing dream or nightmare? Fox can certainly use this as a strategy for building hype, but as 127 Hours isn’t a horror movie, this may affect the target audience it originally intended to reach. Regardless though, I feel that this film’s admirable approach to cinematography is most respectful, and Academy-Award winning director Danny Boyle’s team does not want to “dumb down” Ralston’s experience.

I am not a fan of bloody movies, but how can I be a James Franco fan if I don’t watch his potential Best Picture winning film? I’ll let you know how bad the scene gets, but all I’ll have to do is come home to see this face as my laptop screensaver to feel grounded and alright.




Side Note (I hope this doesn’t count for the word count…): Roger Ebert thinks that “We could do it too. Oh yes, we could.”

EDIT: Going through the list of Best Pictures before the Oscars last month, I finally watched 127 Hours! And it was amazing! I promised myself I wouldn’t close my eyes but it was honestly a reflex that I had no control over. I watched probably 95% of the amputation scene and it did not make me faint. However, I was watching this movie on a 52″ TV screen. If I was to experience this film in a theatre with stellar surround sound…boy, I might have had to go on a conveniently timed washroom break. Anyway, PLEASE WATCH THE FILM. James Franco, however disappointing his acting was as host of the Oscars, is perfectly casted as Aron Ralston. (March, 2011)