A human story lost among the entrails

Rating: 6/10 (8 February 2017)

Don't let the fact that "Hacksaw Ridge" is about a pacifist fool you: it's just as graphically violent as you'd expect from a war movie directed by Gibson.
"The Revenant" set a new standard with its opening war scene. "Hacksaw Ridge" doesn't come close to it. Sure, it's violent, but it's also difficult to follow. So much attention is paid to all the different ways the human body can be destroyed by WWII era weaponry that you forget you're supposed to care about the individual lives being lost. Some of these scenes are so gruesome they approach ridiculousness, such as a soldier picking up the torso of a comrade - whose arms and legs were blown off - and running into battle, using him as a meat-shield.
Did I mention this movie is about a pacifist? It doesn't exactly come to the fore, but then, none of the characters do. It's just blood, guts, explosions, death, mayhem.
It almost makes you thankful the real Desmond Doss, whose story this is based on, didn't live to see this movie.