Liberation
A. R. Rahman
127 Hours (2010)
Kinetic is probably the adjective most commonly used to describe Danny Boyle’s directing style. In telling stories ranging from drug addiction in Trainspotting to childhood innocence in Millions, he refuses to deal with merely talking heads or merely grunting zombies. Motion is what stimulates his mind’s eye. Even when his characters are required to be and remain sedentary, as in the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? segments of Slumdog Millionaire, Boyle presents them and their surroundings in ways that are anything but static. Even when his central character is stuck in a crevasse with his arm held down by a friggin’ boulder, as in the James Franco vehicle 127 Hours, Boyle is relentless in his signature kineticism, buoyed by, among others, a good part of the scoring efforts of A. R. Rahman, his Academy Award-winning Slumdog collaborator. 127 Hours opens with Free Blood’s fantastic and athletic Never Hear Surf Music Again booming and thumping over a split screen of throngs of people in contrast with Franco as lone canyoneer Aron Ralston just hours before the grueling extent of time of the title. Enjoy the tonal energy of this song while you can, for soon after it is the somewhat forced warmth of Rahman’s The Canyon, which sounds like a cross between a lullaby and the more temperate parts of the Marlboro theme. Beyond that everything else in the soundtrack to Ralston’s Sisyphean task is determinedly pensive, save for a mocking interlude by Bill Withers and his Lovely Day and the trilogy of “liberation” tracks from Rahman. Marked by repetitive and abrasive electric guitar phrases gradually mixed with jubilant orchestral sounds, Liberation Begins, Liberation in a Dream, and the climactic, self-amputative Liberation are perfectly in sync with the kinetic riffs of this gross, yes, but ultimately inspiring nature documentary about the fiercest animal on the planet. Cue Sigur Ros’ hopelandic Festival and Dido and Rahman’s ethereal If I Rise.
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