Hacksaw Ridge

Year: 2016
Genre: War Drama
Directed: Mel Gibson
Stars: Andrew Garfield, Hugo Weaving, Rachel Griffiths, Teresa Palmer, Nathaniel Buzolic, Milo Gibson, Roman Guerriero, Vince Vaughn, Sam Worthington, Ben O'Toole, Goran D. Kleut, Luke Pegler, Richard Pyros, Darcy Bryce
Production: Cross Creek Pictures

Hacksaw Ridge is at once a pre-modernist throwback to the valor-filled WWII epics of the 50's and early-60's and a restatement of a sentiment that has never really gone away. While many of today's war films offer "war is hell" chaos and fervor with an underlying tinge of anti-war proselytizing, Hacksaw Ridge dares to be different. Underneath Private Doss's importunity to remain a conscientious objector serving his country, and underneath Mel Gibson's at times comically caricatured brief of real events, lies some startlingly effective messaging. War maybe hell, but someone's gotta do it.

Sleep tight America.

The film follows our humble and entrenched hero Desmond Doss (Garfield) whose medical services in the Battle of Okinawa saved 75 men during a month long campaign. While he never carried a gun (he was a pacifist and Seventh-Day Evangelist), Doss's perseverance under heavy enemy fire, won him the Medal of Honor, an honor no other conscientious objector had received at the point in U.S. history.

When we first meet Doss he's but a small child (Bryce), playing in the rugged backwoods of Virginia with his brother (Guerriero). The camera lovingly floats across amber waves of grain and fluttering sunlight much like the first scenes of Braveheart (1995). It's clear that despite being absent behind the camera for 10 years and having a flurry of personal struggles, Gibson's keen eye has, if anything grown sharper. Indeed there are plenty of other echos of Mel Gibson's other directorial efforts including Man With a Face's (1993) sincerity, Apocalypto's (2006) carefully cadenced intensity and a sado-masochistic glimpse into the heart of pain and suffering that has The Passion (2004) written all over it. Make no mistake Doss's baptism by fire during the invasion of Okinawa is among the most viscerally violent recreations of war ever committed to film; certainly up there with Saving Private Ryan's (1998) Normandy invasion. Those prone to nausea or suffering from PTSD may need to sit this one out.

If there is a sour note in this flick, it certainly isn't the film's ability to find glory in war. Again, most films of this breed, especially since the early 70's have replaced chest-pounding jingoism with anti-war sentiments ranging from the ethereal (Thin Red Line (1998)) to the mockish (MASH (1970)). Thanks in part to the inscrutability of our hero and the fact that WWII has always been considered "the good war" i.e. where idealism came first, Hacksaw Ridge had me and everyone in the theater agog with patriotic fervor. It of course helped that the enemy; a faceless mass of uniformly angry Japanese soldiers are so relentless on the ridge that seeing Doss apply morphine needles under heavy fire almost makes you forget we're supposed to be on offense.

Everyone meet your new Gunnery Sergeant!

The tumult on the battlefield, the bravery of Private Doss and the earnestness of the film's religiosity, goes a long way in covering the film's various faults. Unfortunately there are a few issues that remain encrusted in the tidal zones of the film's second act. I need not tell you what happens to Private Doss in basic training because, let's be honest, you've seen it all before. New recruits are dressed down and harassed into submission by their superior. A speech is made about a unit being as strong as its weakest member - and out come the socks full of pennies. Granted in this movie Vince Vaughn's patented motor-mouth delivery does raise some eyebrows but when compared to R. Lee Ermey in Full Metal Jacket (1987), Louis Gossett Jr. in An Officer in a Gentleman (1982), or heck even Tommy Lee Jones in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) he just doesn't hold a torch.

Even with a few holes in the bow, this ship not only floats but is heavily armed, stained with the sinew of battle and hungry for more. Mel Gibson was looking for a comeback and boy did he ever find one with the sincere and unabashed piousness of Private Doss's story of heroism. In the words of South Park (1997-Present) creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone "Say what you want about Mel Gibson but the son of a b***h knows story structure."

Final Grade: B+