Truth is stranger than fiction

Rating: 8/10 (23 April 2017)

Desmond Doss is one of those people whose story seems almost too perfect to be true. It's almost unthinkable that anybody would have the nerve to march into battle not carrying a weapon, and even more unthinkable that that person would somehow manage to save dozens of lives and win the respect of his armed peers in the process. But Desmond Doss did exactly that, and if the movie about his life portrays him as a gawky, unimposing saint, maybe that's just the way he was. Andrew Garfield is very good in the lead role here, bringing to life the sort of character who very easily could have felt like a cardboard cutout. The script sometimes leans a little too hard on clichés (I thought some of the supporting characters could have been more sharply drawn), but then again, this is a movie about Desmond Doss, and he is more than compelling enough to hold our attention.
This movie is unflinchingly violent. "The Passion of the Christ" was nearly pornographic in how it portrayed Christ's suffering, and this film ladles on both the dismemberment and Christlike imagery. So it's not exactly subtle. Still, it's rare to see faith explored in a way that is both explicit and not overly preachy. Desmond Doss was a pacifist and devout Seventh Day Adventist, and like most good people of faith, he clearly sees his beliefs as a private and personal thing, even as he enlists in the military and disobeys a direct order to carry a rifle.
"Hacksaw Ridge" is a film that asks its audience just what lengths we are going to go to stand up for what we feel is right. It devotes much screen time to a legal battle, and while I will not go into the specifics here, suffice to say that it can be sorely tempting to give one's tormentors what one thinks they want in hopes of some temporary release. But that is not, forgive me, what Christ would have done. You don't have to be a Christian (or even religious at all) to enjoy this movie. You need a high tolerance for bloodshed, but that's about it. It's time Hollywood let Mel Gibson back into the fold.