Hacksaw Ridge
A true tale of bravery and determination
It has taken over a decade but finally Mel Gibson (Braveheart, The Passion of the Christ) is back in the director’s chair and once again, what we have is a gripping story of selflessness, determination and bravery in the sight of untold obstacles. Mel has always known how to tell a good story.
Hacksaw Ridge tells the story of conscientious objector (he prefers to be called a conscientious cooperator) Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield) who enlisted in the army during World War II and fought at the front-lines as a medic but refused to carry a single weapon. It was not easy getting to this point of course and Desmond was faced with difficulties first from his commanding officer and then from members of his platoon. Yet he stood his ground at every turn and went on to save over 75 lives without carrying a single weapon, firing a single shot or killing a single soul.
If this were an original story, it would be outstanding even on its own and we would marvel at the bravery of it but would still put it out of our minds as nothing more than the fantasy of someone who wanted to create an extraordinary hero. That however isn’t what we have here and that makes it all the more incredible that this is a true life story and that what we see here — although dramatized for the sake of cinema — actually did happen seventy odd years ago.
The real story aside, this film is actually breathtaking in how visceral and unrelenting it is. It’s easy to classify it as another World War II movie that has been done over and over again but what I realize as I watch each one, is that we can never fully know the full story of what went down in World War II. We may know the overall outcome and the big stories, but there were so many personal stories going on that it would be impossible to tell them all in a single lifetime. Mel Gibson has taken the life of a conscientious objector during this phase of the war and shown us that even in the face of great violence and insanity, different forms of bravery will emerge.
The cast are truly secondary in this tale and before long you forget who’s actually playing whom and just get drawn into the story and with each second you realize that taking part in such a battle will truly scar a man for life. That aside though, casting Andrew Garfield in the lead is good casting. He has the ability to play nuanced characters who evoke emotions simply from their body language and facial expressions.
This shows what a grasp Mel has on film making. Unlike Quentin Tarantino that tends to exaggerate violence in his movie, Mel uses his violence to further enhance the story. He tells you that there is no glory in war. There is nothing beautiful about it. It is brutal, it is unforgiving and one slight misstep or ill calculated move can be the last in a man’s life and as you see Doss move around trying to find survivors in the midst of this chaos, you understand that it is only his God that could have been pushing him over and beyond to save just one more life.
…there is no glory in war.
Hacksaw Ridge is a dynamite of a movie in every form. The acting is superb, the cinematography is outstanding, the sound is magnificent and the score is rousing and for two hours plus, you’ll be transported to a place seventy years ago where history was made by a man without a gun.
