Full of Story, Light on Style

Rating: 6/10 (21 August 2017)

Hacksaw Ridge is a good movie. If you're only curios if I recommended this movie then yes I do. But I will not say that this movie is as good as many people are saying.
The movie is really cut into three sections (which nicely break this movie into the traditional three act structure quite well) which are the scenes before joining the military, the scenes of the main character at fort Jackson, and the titular battle of Hacksaw Ridge. To Be quite blunt the first two portions are really well done if a bit melodramatic in a lot of sections. The acting all around is really good, especially from Vince Vaugnh and Guy Pierce who kind of steal the scenes that they are in. However the story takes a strange turn once it gets to the battle the film was named for for chopping it up so much that a lot of the vital information is lost and has to be indirectly told to the audience such as: 1. How many people has he saved? 2. How long has he been up there? 3. How is he feeling during this time?
Truthfully, what should have been its greatest moment turned into a confusing and totally bland montage that does little to enlighten the audience on the mental toll being taken on the character, the test of his morals under fire, and if his relationship with his God/religion ever waver during the hell of war. The worst bit is when Garfield's Character sneaks into one of the Japanese tunnels to help wounded men and then leaves. no real extended tension on if is caught, no mental dilemma about literally walking into enemy hands, it just happens.
And that's the real on the movie, it fails to really add tension to what could have been an edge of the seat, heart-pounding, nail- biting, third act. Its more interested in showing what happened rather than to entertain which is not a bad thing but it is a facet that is better handled by documentaries than it is for a blackbuster with the goal to entertain.