The One Who Writes The Memoirs Is Right - Reviews

2023 Author: Oswald Adamson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-21 20:18

127 hours

directed by Danny Boyle, 2010

A simple American guy Aaron Lee Ralston (James Franco), by the will of fate and not without the participation of his own stupidity, in 2003 found himself for more than five days in a picturesque but little-visited gorge, with his right hand clamped by a stone and without any hope of salvation. He, you see, did not bother to tell anyone where he was going!

Here one could once again "walk" about the fact that the Americans, hungry for sensations, again "made an elephant out of a fly," if not for the documentary honesty of the film narration "127 Hours", which in a remarkable way demonstrates the transcendent possibilities of man in terms of survival.

But first we need a little digression into thanatology (1).

According to experts, the process of dying itself is a gradual transition from resistance, when a person experiences fear, realizes the danger and actively resists it, through the realization of the futility of attempts, when a person begins to feel serenity and calm, to the stage of reviewing life, which takes place in the form of memories. replacing each other in quick succession and covering the entire past of a person, which is most often accompanied by positive emotions. Then comes the final stage - transcendence: life is seen as a single whole, and at the same time every detail is distinguishable in it. Then this state is also overcome, and the dying person seems to go beyond himself.

Studies confirm that most dying people do not feel fear, they are more likely to experience a feeling of discomfort, pain or indifference. And about one in twenty people show signs of elation.

I had to communicate with a person who had the experience of dying of hunger. His impressions ultimately boiled down to the fact that dying like this is "not scary": at some point, the body stops tormenting you and begins to prepare to leave. No wonder that ancient philosophers chose death by starvation as a method of suicide.

That is why a dumb delight evokes the ability of a person who honestly went all this way almost to the end, to suddenly find the courage in himself to disagree with the destiny.

And here I want to talk, firstly, about the traditional attitude towards death in modern culture, and secondly, about the sources of Aron Lee Ralston's phenomenal resistance.

For a long time, a worthy death was valued, perhaps, even higher than the ability to survive despite the circumstances. It is not for nothing that there is a whole layer of all kinds of proverbs and sayings, starting with “death is red in the world”, clearly fixing the value of “correct”, from the point of view of a particular culture, dying. At the same time, the subjects who survived in all sorts of troubles automatically found themselves in the camp of cowards unworthy of respect. Only in the twentieth century, with its hitherto unprecedented scale of destruction of their own kind, a "new ethics" emerged, based on the values of individual survival.

(1) Thanatology is the science of death and dying.

The struggle between man and nature and the victory over it has always stood somewhat apart. They were universally respected because, firstly, nature is fatally stronger than man, and secondly, from that destructive side, there are no spectators / performers who introduce an element of polysemy into what is happening. And in front of a man, nothing forces him to "pose as a hero", except, perhaps, those reasons, about which the film directed by Danny Boyle was shot.

Using the example of Aron's story, one can trace exactly what considerations can serve as a basis for making extraordinary decisions in a critical situation.

In a strange way, animal fear, which, as Jack London aptly put it, “is inextricably linked with life and is closely intertwined with its deepest roots”, did not act as such a reason / resource. This fear, it turns out, recedes at some point.

After all, no matter how strange it sounds, the main thing in death is the consent of a person. Voluntariness is always present - if not in the choice "to live - not to live", then about the moment at which it is better to retire to another world. So the person, as a rule, makes the last decision himself. And Aaron almost agrees!

Convinced of the futility of his efforts, Aaron begins to enter the logic of dying and successfully moves to its last stage - accepting his own fate. He hesitates on the brink when he decides that everything is natural, that the stone “has been waiting in the wings since it was a meteorite. I've been walking here my whole life! Everything led me to this rift."

Absentee communication with relatives does not help either. In trouble, Aaron does not withdraw into himself - he is in constant, albeit in absentia, contact with loved ones. However, relatives do not provide the necessary resource for salvation. According to the logic of the review of life, it is enough for them to apologize and say goodbye those warm feelings that in their daily running simply did not have enough strength or time to express: “I love you all! Sorry if something goes wrong! Don't forget about me, please! " Communication with a video camera - initially acting as a way of self-control and dialogue with parents, later turns into a kind of testament. After all, Aaron understands that, most likely, he will not get out of the trap.

It is worth emphasizing the fact that Aron has one more resource: he is a trained and prepared person for extreme situations. This is evidenced by all his initial behavior: a sober assessment of what happened, timely and competent distribution of water and food, "brainstorming" over the objects he has, the ability to organize his space for rest, understanding of the peculiarities of physiological processes - a hand twisted in time with a tourniquet so as not to poisoning with the products of decomposition - and still a lot of actions correctly performed, but useless in the sense of final salvation. All that civilization can offer him is to prolong his physical existence as long as possible in anticipation of the arrival of help. But Aron violated the rules of operation of these civilizational security mechanisms. So there is nowhere to wait for help. The situation has gone "out of scope"!

And therefore, the resource of survival comes in a sense from outside the bounds of what is permitted - from hallucinations that arise in the "inflamed" brain of Aron. It is in these visions that the ancient motive of responsibility for procreation is manifested, which materialized in Aaron in the figure of an unborn son. In this case, we can say that Aaron's level of biological responsibility merges with the human one, pushing him to search for an extraordinary, animal solution to the problem. Recall, for example, that foxes can bite off a trapped paw.

In addition, it is the altered state of consciousness that provides a kind of "anesthesia" for the implementation of extraordinary actions. In a normal state, a person has practically no chances to amputate his hand on his own: there is a high probability of dying from pain shock.

Thus, the human principle manifests itself precisely in “going beyond the limits” (in transcendence - remember the last stage of dying), but in going beyond the possible options for survival!

And about the educational aspect. Twenty years ago, we massively abandoned the old "positive examples" for educating the younger generation, leaving young people alone with the harsh realities of modern existence. At the same time, we automatically resigned ourselves from responsibility for what kind of philosophy of life are assimilated by our children - the romance of heroic death or heroic survival.

More than once in my life these "role models" learned from childhood helped me a lot, starting with the aforementioned story by Jack London "Love of Life" and ending with all kinds of stories like the now forgotten "odyssey" of four Soviet sailors who managed in 1960, practically without food and water, survive for 49 days on a small vessel dangling in the ocean.

However, times have spawned new role models. I remember how in the turbulent nineties in many offices there was a drawing replicated by someone depicting a frog sticking out of its beak, which managed to grab a bird trying to swallow it by the throat. Under the image was the inscription: "Never give up!" So, I think that this drawing played a certain role in getting out of the then crisis.

So we will assume that the collection of modern plots helping to survive has been replenished with another successful sample called "127 hours".