Unsung hero, until now

Rating: Null/10 (5 December 2016)

After watching this movie, you would be wondering why it took so long to make into a movie this inspiring true WW II story of how a Conscientious Objector firmly holding onto his convictions finally erased the accusation of cowardice and won the respect of the entire world. The answer, if you don't already know it, is simple. Desmond Doss, our modest hero, shuns publicity and has not released the right to this movie until reaching old age.
Mel Gibson has organized this 140-minute movie into deftly crafted segments. The first hour comprises a brief opening montage, a short prelude of childhood scenes 16 years ago, and two establishing sequences (a) romance and (b) training camp (which starts with a light-comedy tone, then switches abruptly into intense drama). The remaining 80 minutes carry the full weight of the movie, the Battle of Okinawa, or more specifically: Hacksaw Ridge. My observations on this movie below follow these sequences.
The brief opening montage comprises carnage of soldiers at the receiving end of flamethrowers. While the agony is disturbing, you see no gore. But don't congratulate yourself. What is to come later gives new literal meanings to "a bloody mess", making "Saving Private Ryan" look like Walt Disney family entertainment.
The prelude shows pre-teen Desmond Doss, in the course of everyday children's play, dealing his brother a near-fatal injury. Fortunately, there is no permanent damage. "I could have killed him" he remorsefully whimpers. "Yes, you could", replies his sympathetic mother. The injured brother's role, a little unexpectedly, fades into oblivion after this. Much more important is his father who has been left an alcoholic wreck after witnessing the hideous deaths of brothers-in-arm during WW I. Later in the movie, there is a flashback showing Doss on the brink of pulling the trigger of a revolver pointing directly at the head of his father who has just beaten his mother. These only two scenes of Doss in violence, with brother (unintentional) and father (intentional) respectively, serve to underline his pacifist conviction. Hugo Weaving is excellent in his depiction of the father, especially in a later scene that I'll elaborate.
The romance sequence looks like it could have come from a different movie, retro, tender, squeaky clean. And yet Teresa Palmer brings to nurse Dorothy Schutte, a role that provides not much more than a traditional love interest, something extra. If you have seen her in "I am Number Four" (2011), a futuristic Sci Fi in which she plays "Number 6", the super-cool, lethal, effective heroine, you will recognize here a trace of that undaunted spirit.
The training segment, as mentioned, starts with an unreserved comic sequence. Instrumental to this is the training officer Sgt Howell, played by Vince Vaughn, whose range goes from blood-chilling Norman Bates (the unfortunate remake of "Psycho" in 1998) to a slew of hilarious comedies such as "Wedding Crashers" (2005). However, there is more to the familiar persona of the gruff sergeant. His immediate and apparently casual assignment of nicknames to the soldiers has a subtle effect on bonding and morale. An additional layer, for the movie, is to enhance audience recognition and empathy with the group of individuals surrounding the protagonist.
Again as mentioned, what follows is swift gear-shifting. Upon adhering steadfastly to his Conscientious Objector and Seventh-day Adventist principles to the extreme of refusing to touch a rifle, Doss finds himself descending into the hell of an outcast, harassed, beaten, and finally facing court martial. Unexpected rescue comes from the estranged father who humbles himself in seeking help from a WW I superior who has since risen to high places in the army. Weaving's portrayal of the added dimension of the tormented but still loving father is absolutely remarkable.
On to Hacksaw Ridge, a 400-foot escarpment providing a Japanese stronghold on Okinawa. There is really not much to be said about this key segment of the movie. I have mentioned the gore and carnage which, although hard to stomach, recreates the grim reality of the battlefield better than any I have seen before. Anchoring this segment is the solid performance of Sam Worthington playing the veteran Captain Glover. Needless to say, centre to all these is Doss's miraculous feat of rescuing 75 wounded soldiers, lowering them one by one down the 400-foot cliff amidst Japanese bullets wheezing dangerously past their heads. By this time, Andrew Garfield has also completely convinced the audience how good an actor he is.
This movie concludes with clips from a live interview of Doss in 2006, a year before his death at 83. He speaks with alert clarity recounting a scene we witnessed recreated in the movie: how after he washed the blood clogging at a wounded soldier's eyes, the latter exclaimed in jubilation "I can see! I though I've been blinded". "That moment", said Doss, "Makes everything worthwhile".