James Franco stars in 127 Hours as Aron Ralston, a young man who is an avid outdoorsman. As the film opens, Aron sets out to explore a remote national park in Utah. He bikes a certain distance, and then heads out on foot. While hiking, he meets two fellow hikers, Megan (Amber Tamblyn) and Kristi (Kate Mara). After spending some time with them, he continues on his own and reaches the canyon which he wanted to explore. While walking along the top of the narrow canyon, a rock comes loose and Aron falls into the canyon. The rock falls with him and pins his arm to the canyon wall. Aron, armed only with a multi-tool, tries to chip away at the rock, but it won't budge. As the hours and then days pass, Aron begins running low on water. He begins to alternate between reminiscing and hallucinating. As the situation grows more desperate, Aron decides that if he is going to survive this ordeal, he will have to make a great sacrifice.

127 Hours is based on the real-life story of Ralston and his harrowing ordeal in the Utah desert. Unlike many biopics, the facts haven't been changed or altered here. Therefore, the challenge for Boyle and Co-Screenwriter Simon Beaufoy was to take a very dramatic, yet fairly simplistic story, and turn it into a feature film. In essence, Ralston walked out into the canyons, fell into a hole, got his arm pinned under a rock, and then did something drastic to escape. While this is a fascinating story of the human spirit, it's also a very straight-forward story. Therefore, Boyle and Beaufoy have chosen to focus on what Aron was experiencing during all of this. This is done in two ways. First of all, in the story, Aron has a camcorder with him, and he uses this to document the event and record confessionals. (Real-life footage like this isn't offered on the documentary included here, so I'm not sure if this really happened or if it was invented for the movie.) As Aron is all alone, it would have felt artificial if he'd constantly talked to himself, so the camcorder device allows us to hear his thoughts. Secondly, we are made privy to Aron's hallucinations, his regrets, and his dreams. Some of these fill in his backstory and let us know more about him. In essence, these elements help to make the movie more human and emotional.

But, rounding out the story wouldn't necessarily make something like 127 Hours more watchable, and that's where Boyle's undeniable visual talent comes into play. As the opening credits use a three-way split-screen device, we know that this isn't going to be an average looking movie. Given that Aron is stuck in one place, Boyle has decided to create as much motion in the image as possible. The shots from inside of Aron's water-bottle are dazzling and help to drive home how desperate his situation is. The narrative flows seamlessly into the dreams and hallucinations, forcing us to journey with Aron. Boyle could have easily shot the desert and canyon as forboding place, but he doesn't -- it simply is what it is. There is no shortage of dazzling shots in 127 Hours, my favorite involving a certain famous animated dog. The movie's great look only enhances the fascinating story.

So, where's the love for Danny Boyle? Yes, he won an Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire, and that was a nice-looking movie, but 127 Hours shows the true power of a director. I can't believe that he wasn't even nominated. Perhaps the Academy doesn't like movies where the visuals draw attention to themselves, but for me, movies like 127 Hours demonstrate that there is someone behind the camera choosing how to best tell the story in a visual manner. (While watching the movie, I was aghast that Boyle hadn't been recognized for his work. After watching the extras, I know that he actually could have made this an even better movie if he'd added a bit more of the real-life events to the story.)

Given that I knew some of the real-life story, I wasn't real excited about watching 127 Hours, as I was afraid that it would be too depressing. Now, don't get me wrong, it is depressing and the climactic scene is very, very hard to watch (this is why fast-forward was invented). Yet, this is a touching and very human story of a man survived a devastating experience and then continued on with his life. The movie culminates with a very powerful, yet simple, message: We need other people.

127 Hours reminds us to double-check our backpacks on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. The film has been letterboxed at 1.85:1 and the Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 23 Mbps. The image is very sharp and clear, showing only trace amounts of grain and no defects from the source material. The picture here is remarkably crisp, giving it an impressive amount of depth. The level of detail is good as well and we can see the textures on the rocks around Aron. The colors look very good and the image is never overly dark or bright. The Disc carries a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 4.0 Mbps. The track delivers clear dialogue and sound effects. From the outset, Aron is surrounded by sounds from the desert, and even in the quiet moments, we hear things like the wind and rocks shifting in the canyon. The music in the film also sounds very good. The fine audio really adds to the sense of place in the film.

The 127 Hours Blu-ray Disc contains several extras. We begin with an AUDIO COMMENTARY from Director Danny Boyle, Screenwriter Simon Beaufoy, and Producer Christian Colson. The Disc contains seven DELETED SCENES which run about 34 minutes. Three of these are additional taped confessionals. The "Alternate Ending" drags out the finale, but also contains some poignant moments which are effective. They also should have kept the scene where Aron explains to Kristi and Megan that he has a history of going off on his own. It's rare that I see deleted scenes which should have been left in the movie, but there's some good material here. One of the best aspects of 127 Hours is that it's lean and mean, but these scenes would have made it even better. "Search & Rescue" (15 minutes) is a brief documentary which re-tells the story. Here, we hear the tale from the real-life Ralston, his family and friends, who recount Aron's disappearance and how they tried to find him. This is a great addition to the Blu-ray, as it further explains what led to Aron's rescue. "127 Hours: An Extraordinary View" (35 minutes) is a making-of featurette which explores how the movie was shot. I must say, I had no idea that it was shot on a set. We also see that the real Aron was there. "God of Love" (19 minutes) is a short film by Luke Matheny. This won the Oscar for Best Short Film...but otherwise, I have no idea why it's included here.