Review of HACKSAW RIDGE (2016)
From Letterboxd (October 7, 2017).
I am no fan of Mel Gibson, but I was taken aback by the noble warmth assumed, even if at times unearned, in Doss + his faith that this may very well amount to Gibson’s best film as a director. His Passion — that infamous picture rebuked by most viewers left of hard-right politics, from mainstream critics to Stone + Parker — was indeed an abomination, one that was repulsed by humanity + offered little to no sliver of redemption beyond what was distortedly depicted as the “divine”. Apocalypto, at least, didn’t wear the maker’s faith (except, of course, his faith in movie violence + brutality) on its bloody sleeve.
For a film that was reported by some critics as pornographic, Hacksaw Ridge certainly didn’t give the impression that it needed to rely on violence to succeed. It wasn’t drawn-out or egregious, but merely expected when tuning in to either a “war movie” or a “Mel Gibson picture”. Sure, there are sequences + techniques that verge on excessive; fortunately, and again perhaps due to the spirit + generous treatment of Doss’s character, they never tip. They are appropriate, literal depictions of Doss’s hell. Admittedly, the religious overtones do sometimes border on specious self-righteousness (“God, what do you want of me?”), but the payoff is graciously humbling rather than smug.
