IT took mountaineer Aron Ralston an hour and four minutes to amputate his own arm.

Using a blunt pocket knife, he cut through skin, flesh, and muscle. He broke his bone, severed his nerve, and sawed through the remnants of his damaged arm, before finally ripping himself free.

It was a moment that saved his life and “recalibrated” the adrenaline junkie’s “personal scale of what it feels like to be hurt” after being pinned alone for five days in the Utah wilderness by a fallen boulder.

Scenes of the main character (played by James Franco) stabbing his penknife through his forearm, breaking his bones and then sawing through the flesh to free himself earned the film an MA15+ rating.

No wonder, then, that moviegoers worldwide have fainted and walked out of 127 Hours - the critically acclaimed film up for six Academy Awards that dramatises his excruciating ordeal.



But the images have caused seizures in some people, while others fainted or vomited. Rowan Virbickas, 27, blacked out, fell to the ground and began convulsing after seeing the film in Sydney.

"Girls were screaming, everyone was panicking - an ambulance was called and everything," he told The Daily Telegraph.

Publicists for the movie have refuted Virbickas' claim, saying that while some 800 people attended the screening in Sydney on Monday night, no one walked out or reported feeling queasy.

Ralston himself says that the filmmakers “underplayed it a little bit”. He even has the evidence after recording his grisly 2003 escape using a handheld Sony camcorder.

“The toughest thing for my mum, was actually watching the real video that I made during the days that I was there,” he says.



“It was hard for her to really move past that. She wished that she’d never seen it, but you can’t ‘unsee’ it, you can’t undo that.”

While audiences will be spared this footage - he says it is too personal to be released - it was what helped Boyle and Franco bring the story to life.

“Far and away, more than the people who fainted (in the movie) are the people who have applauded or cheered,” Ralston says.



“That to me is the reaction that tells me that the filmmakers just nailed it.

“As far as watching the movie itself, it’s extremely emotional. And to be able to share that with my loved ones...it’s a gift.

“It draws me in to remember the intensity of my experience. It was like watching a ghost of my past, or being transported back in time.”

Ralston thinks that the film is “brilliant” – and with Academy Award nominations including Best Actor, Best Picture, and Best Adapted Screenplay - the industry agrees.

-Additional reporting by Nathan Klein, The Daily Telegraph.