*Spoilers* A cartoonish war film that doesn't deserve its rating

Rating: 5/10 (29 July 2017)

I felt moved to write this review after having watched two war films in the past fortnight. First of all, I witnessed the event that is Dunkirk in IMAX. Then after chatting about Dunkirk, I had this film recommended to me by a work colleague who said it was one of the best films she had seen in a while. I watched it at home on a quiet Friday night. As I was pondering what I had witnessed in Hacksaw Ridge, I thought I would check to see how IMDb compared the two films. I was quite stunned to see that they were scored very similarly.
Whilst I do not intend to conduct a full and detailed comparison between the two films, I feel some comparison is warranted because they must be equally good with such similar scores? Right? Wrong.
Dunkirk is intense, gritty, utterly convincing, beautifully directed, creative, challenging, packs stunning cinematography and realism, and is a physical and mental roller-coaster of tension, hope and terror. There are no blood and guts because they aren't needed. The director is more sophisticated than that. Hacksaw Ridge is a disjointed simplistic and linear film that spends an extraordinary amount of time on a wafer thin conscientious objector story-line before dumping you unceremoniously into a completely unrealistic orgy of frenzied war porn. The bodies fly through the air comically; heads explode; hapless troopers shoot at each other whilst leaving their valueless heads left hanging over the top of trenches like sitting ducks. *Spoiler* many lose their stupid heads. Both sides charge like crazed maniacs through a hail of gunfire, grenades and flamethrowers and then we all wonder how so many ended up dead. Every now and then we cut to a jarringly terrible CGI cut-scene of a few navy battleships bombarding the battlefield. This is all interspersed by our gun-shy hero charging around rescuing everyone in a feat of human bravery that would be more appropriately placed in the latest Marvel "release".
Doesn't sound too bad you cry? Well, you only get to this madness after we are made sit through an hour of tediously clichéd love story surrounding the simplistic half baked-ideas of a slightly creepy lead character who doesn't want to use a gun because a) his Dad was a nutter and b) he likes to parrot the ten commandments. There is no real attempt to asses the arguments for or against conscious objection here. It's ethics and morality for idiots. For a complex or interesting examination of conscientious objection thematics, one will need to go elsewhere. The jewel in the crown of this saccharine first half is an unnerving cinema scene where the stunningly beautiful nurse is bowled head over heels by the relentless glassy eyed stare of a drooling yokel. *Top tip lads*; if you go to the cinema with a girl on a first date, don't sit staring at the side of her face, with your tongue hanging out, droning at her in a slightly deranged Deliverance-esque voice "... yer the most bootiful thin av evur seeeeeeeen, hyuh hyuh hyuh". *Spoiler* this will not lead to a successful outcome for you. Here however it works a treat and the stunning nurse falls madly in love with our dim-witted protagonist. This is the level of realism we are dealing with in this film.
I must caveat here that I know this is based on a true story and do not want in any way to cast negative aspersions on the actual person this story is based on. I cannot imagine in any way that what we are seeing here is in any way close to how he behaved, or thought. I'm sure he was not a fool, but unfortunately that is how he is portrayed in this film. This is undoubtedly partly intentional; to portray his conviction as a simple and noble thing, but this never really hits home as it's never really clear exactly where the conviction came from over and above a few random events in his childhood.
If you want to see a movie portraying war in a realistic, convincing and entertaining way, go watch Dunkirk. You mind find yourself intellectually stimulated! You wont argue with its gritty realism and simmering tension even if you normally have a penchant for blood and guts. If you like Transformer films, and/or enjoy sitting on your porch rocking chair caressing your beloved shotgun, you'll probably prefer Hacksaw Ridge.
Despite my obvious dislike of this film ultimately it is watchable, and the frequent jarring moments (roughly every 30 seconds) where you think "what a load of nonsense that would never happen" didn't prompt me to turn it off. Possibly because I paid to watch it. The contrast between these two recently released war films that both hold an 8+ score on IMDb could not be more stark. Much as I would like to give this a 1 star to help remedy the obvious rating injustice here, I will give this film what it deserves, an average 5/10.