The power of belief

Rating: 9/10 (26 November 2016)

Hacksaw Ridge is an amazing movie, one of the best films of the year. First of its depiction of war and its horrors was masterfully done, the war scenes were horrifically gory, the use of visual effects and makeup were to a degree of brilliance in these scenes. As we follow the protagonist through and through the battlefield the horrors we see just so brilliantly reflects the horrors of war, from the rats and maggots eating away the deteriorating bodies to the bodies with their internal organs out, it was like a scene from a horror movie, which makes it all the more powerful as we as audiences understand that this is in fact the 'truth of war'. It was very impactful, most importantly the atmosphere that the film sets up for the war scenes are truly indulging, through the use of smoke and special effects I really found myself sort of 'lost' in the horrors of this battle. Everything were presented in a very realist way, I remember quite vividly the scenes in which the men would just lift their heads and immediately get gunned down to their deaths or how many of the men dies almost instantaneously, this idea of how easily a life could be taken did leave a large impact on me.
Moving on to the actors, Andrew Garfield I believe gives one of the best performances from him ever, the way he portrays the character of Desmond Doss makes him such an inspirational figure, Throughout the film he never loses that sheepish grin,in contrast to his fellow comrades it is as if the war has not really left a toll on him. The way he still 'lives on' with that undefeated spirit of him was captured amazingly in Andrew Garfield's performance. It was a brilliant choice of casting Garfield, from his physique alone it would seem that he is perhaps lesser or weaker, which really helps emphasise on the character of Desmond, of how despite being weak his heart and grit may be stronger than any other. His spirit and firm belief in god is really fleshed out against his shortages in physical strength.
Hugo Weaving also delivers a masterful performance, as an audience I could just see the internal conflict that is constantly seen on Weaving's face. The internal struggle was done so subtly, this is yet another brilliant entry from Weaving. Another brilliant performance which surprised me was from Vince Vaughn, it has been sometime since he has starred in a serious film and stepped away from comedy. In this film he was at times the comedic relief providing brilliant comedy one liners, but never dismiss his ability to act out those more emotional and serious scenes because in this movie Vince Vaughn really hits the ball out of the park on that side also.
Overall the moral of this film was a great one and way portrayed very well. The power of believing, this man, Desmond truly and wholeheartedly believes in his god and the thing about this movie is how belief can be so empowering. Even when others did not approve of or agree with the way he depicts the bible and god, he stuck with it and that firm belief guided him and allowed him to save all of those people at Hacksaw Ridge. This film isn't necessarily a film about Christianity or god but more of the idea of 'believing in something', towards the end of the film there was a scene in which the men refused to storm Hacksaw Ridge without Desmond, the men did not possess the same level of belief as Desmond towards god, but they believed in one thing: 'Desmond Doss' and in turn their belief in him brought victory at Hacksaw Ridge. So the most important thing that I personally got out of Hacksaw Ridge was the idea of how important believing is, hey, believing alone can't accomplish anything indeed but if you apply belief to action then you could really cause a large impact.