Aron Ralston Describes the Amputation in 127 Hours

I had to steel myself, but I finally saw ‘127 Hours’ yesterday, the true-life film about hiker Aron Ralston, who was forced to  cut his hand off to free himself from a boulder in a crevice in 2003.

First of all, canyon hikers are nuts. There’s no way I’d ever inch between two walls of solid rock with who knows what down below me. But James Franco did a great job with the role, and seems like a natural to play the thrill-seeker. Although word has it he hid his textbooks in the canyon set, to keep his mind off the claustrophobia.

Also, the camcorder Franco used was the actual camcorder that Ralston used when he was trapped there. Talk about authentic. Ralston broke into tears during a Q&A session at the Toronto International Film Festival, noting that “the movie is so factually accurate, it’s as close to a documentary as you can get and still be a drama.”

I had my eyes shut during the entire amputation scene (which was done in one take, by the way), but this description from Ralston isn’t too traumatizing. At least, not for us. It must be totally traumatizing to have to re-live it over and over again, but it really does show how strong humans can be when their survival depends on it. ‘127 Hours’ is rated R for language and some disturbing violent content/bloody images.