Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Between a Rock and a Hard Place “Get busy living or get busy dying”(Andy Dufresne). Although this was quoted by a character in a movie, true life adventurer Chris Mccandless, also known as Alexander Supertramp, lived by this quote each day. After reading Into The Wild, the novel based on Chris Mccandless, a young scholarly man named Aron Ralston left his standard business life and devoted his life to adventuring, and living each day to the fullest. April 26, 2003, Aron Ralston embarked on a biking, hiking, and rappelling trip through Canyonlands national park where he experienced one of the most painfully enduring accident’s imaginable. In 2010, a film was created to relive his accident in great detail quite actually. April 26, 2003 Aron Ralston began a five-day survival struggle in which he cheated death at the risk of an arm. The novel Between a Rock and a Hard Place, and the film “127 Hours”, both accurately depicted the events leading up to the accident. Before Aron had the accident, he met two young girls, which were similar looking to and appropriately acted by the two actresses who played them in the movie. The directors of the film managed to also get the actor who played Aron, to wear the same type of clothes and listen to the same music he listened to that day to the exact detail. Although, the film was easily comparable to the book, the producers managed to take out some minor details from the story, for length purposes. For example, they left out information in the film concerning some parties he was planning on going to after, and some prior adventure flashbacks that he had. Reliving the moments that Aron had experienced prior to the experience, helps the reader of the novel understand how he managed to escape extremely near death and come out alive. In the film, however, the flashbacks that they went over weren’t thoroughly as detailed as the one’s that he went over in his novel. For example, in the book he explained a few life-threatening experiences that he experienced such as nearly escaping being mauled by a bear and surviving an avalanche. The wit that Aron displayed in those circumstances displayed to the readers that he had the ability to survive and stay calm in life-threatening situations. The viewers of the film however had no way of knowing how experienced he was in canyoneering. Although the film was rather similar to the novel, the readers would know much more about Aron than the viewers of the film only could learn. To get the full effect of how ridiculous and amazing his story is, the book would be a better choice to someone trying to learn about his life. However, the film is extremely close to the novel in detail.