Movies that provoke visceral responses can be traced all the way back to when the Lumiere brothers first showed an audience footage of an approaching train and people scrambled from their seats to get out of the way. But what does it take to really shock the jaded audiences of today on a primal level? Apparently director Danny Boyle know, as the premier of his new film 127 Hours caused three audience members to pass out.
Note: Spoilers ahead, even though the film is based on a real-life story.
According to The Wrap, three people passed out during the screening of Boyle’s film Sunday evening and at a second screening on Monday the audience fared little better. As they describe –
The scenes of mountain climber Aaron Ralston (James Franco) taking off his own arm to free himself after a fall are among the most realistic of graphic gore ever put on film, and not for the faint of heart. At the screening Monday, once again there were several mad dashes to the door when these scenes came on, and more than a few moviegoers were looking anywhere but at the screen. You could clearly see people in shock, struggling to stay in their seats, working to get past the intensity of what was going on in front of them. The sequence is never gratuitous, just very realistic, gruesomely so, and because we have grown to care so much about the character, all the more unsettling and raw.
I have to think that many going in to the film were probably aware of the story Boyle was going to be telling, but could not conceive that the director would go for such a realistic depiction of it’s key moment. The film’s trailer sets up the film’s premise nicely, but certainly doesn’t hint at the momentarily gory turn it will take. But then again, the MPAA had some blood stains digitally scrubbed off of Emma Watson’s hands for a recent Harry Potter trailer, so it’s no surprise really.
You can see if you can make it through 127 Hours when it hits theaters on November 5.
