Excellent and unique the war film

Rating: 8/10 (2 January 2018)

'Hacksaw Ridge' (sounds like a good horror movie!) is a World War II film that does an admirable job of spending almost half the film in America, before they even ship off to Japan to fight. This gives us plenty of time to meet Desmond Doss (Garfield) and his family and find out how/why he ticks. He decides he can't sit by why others go off to defend America, but he also conscientiously objects to killing another human, so can't use any weapons. Big moral dilemma and the film deals with it well. It also gives us time to care about some of the other characters in the unit, so we know who's who when the fighting starts.
It's kind of amazing Mel Gibson has only directed five films, considering two of them (Braveheart' and 'Apocalypto') are classics - with this film soon to join them. He could turn into the next Eastwood... He also knows his way around a war film, having been in 'Gallipoli', 'Air America' and 'We Were Soldiers', so it's no surprise 'Hacksaw Ridge' is handled expertly. It's nice to see him populate the film with quality Australian actors (it was filmed in Sydney) - Weaving as Doss' dad, Griffiths as his mum, Worthington as his Captain, Palmer as his girlfriend, Nable as a Lieutenant, Bracey as his nemesis and Roxburgh as the Colonel.
When they do arrive at Okinawa, Japan, obviously all hells breaks loose, with some great shots of the artillery explosions, then the chaos of bullets, grenades and blood - certainly no punches pulled when it comes to the body count or the gore shown. The scenes with Doss rescuing dozens of his injured comrades from the battlefield are astounding. Garfield really shines as Doss and it hits home how much of a hero he was - highlighting that there's always room for some good in the harsh world.