An inspiring and admirable true story about survival and the will to live.
Ever since the advertisement at 3.07AM on Living while watching CSI and pulling an allnighter, I have waited for this movie. At first patiently and then since the last two weeks, I have been pulling strings, taking time off school and blowing off friends and family to see this movie in the cinema.
I was sat with my popcorn and coke, tutting at all the people coming through the doors, I had the best seat in the house. I was ready.
No, I wasn't.
I didn't come prepared for this movie. I heard stories on Ellen about amputating his own arm and as much as I was looking forward to seeing that part, nothing could have prepared me for this movie.
I was absolutely flabbergasted at the intent and the thrive the live and the attempts Aaron [played by James Franco] does for the smallest hope to survive that much longer.
There was actually a woman next to me, in her mid twenties, who was complaining about the slow and boring pace of the movie. It got the part when Aaron saw the hallucination of Scooby Doo that I actually politely but seriously told her to 'shut up and watch.'
You don't disrespect such a genius movie like this and get away with it, sorry Miss.
And that was what this film was, genius. Genuinely expetise. The acting was incredible and Danny Boyle really captured the whole concept of on the brink of dying and hopelessness and then suddenly bursting into this new person and so determined to live.
I think that the hallucinations and the dreams he has is the motivation and I think without them, the movie wouldn't exactly make sense because you would constantly be asking, 'so what gave him the drive to cut his own arm off and prosper through the canyon to live? Why not give up?' 'What inspired him to do that?'
And the answer was, because of the dreams. His brain was constantly giving him inspiration and a reason to sacrifice something to achieve the better part. In this case he sacrificed his own arm to live and that, to me, is admirable.
The acting was like I said, incredible. Considering it's based on a true story there is a lot of pressure on the main actor always, in this case James Franco to portray Aaron and do his best to show the audience and show us how difficult it was to gather the will and the courage to do that. James had to give it his all and because he hadn't personally experienced something like that, it would be an acting challenge. But he performed and conquered and really did an amazing job and fairplay to accept that kind of role and deliver so convincingly. Completely genius.
It's hard to comment on the two girls or any other actors in the movie because James/Aaron had the main part so therefore had a much bigger part to play resulting in more to say.
So, the entire movie is about him and his life and death situation which takes you on a journey through Aaron's eyes; his life. As he sits there stuck he ponders about his regrets in life and his good memories and most importantly, his family. His future and where it would go if he came out of this alive. The movie goes on to show how Aaron dealt with simple things like, tying his hiking rope to a rock above so he was able to sit down and rest. He ate his contact lenses. He savoured water and even reached the desperate measures to drink his own urine. He gnawed away at the rock and took into consideration the things he took for granted like, sunlight. Warmth, the raven that constantly appears every morning.
I rate this movie a 9/10.
Favourite Scene: The part when he has finished amputating his arm and he drinks water for the first time in like three days.
Least favourite: The actual amputating. Even though I was hugging a pillow and saying, 'do it, do it,' it's pretty difficult to sit through and watch without squirming just a little bit.
I absolutely DO recommend this movie to everyone to watch at least once. It will give you a completely different outlook on life which everyone needs once in a while. I don't, however, recommend this movie who prefers action straight away and finds it difficult to sit through a movie with only one main character and not much killing or shooting, and for the ladies who prefer a romance and a hot and steamy love scene, definitely not the movie for you.
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