Powerful! A remarkable film about a remarkable true story.

Rating: 10/10 (3 November 2016)

Whatever opinions you may have of Mel Gibson, the man did say some terrible things in the past, but one thing we can't get over is the fact that he's a master filmmaker. HACKSAW RIDGE is a powerful depiction of pure-hearted heroism. A remarkable film about an remarkable true story you can't believe actually happened. And with his compelling performance, Andrew Garfield has placed himself among some of the greatest actors of all time.
Desmond T. Doss (Andrew Garfield) was Seventh-Day Adventist, a faithful Christian. But when WWII happened, he couldn't sit idly by while his fellow brothers went out to fight. Not believing in killing, Doss refused to take up arms and instead chose to serve as Army medic. This personal decision caused tension in his unit, but ultimately the army allowed him to go into hell fire without a single weapon to protect him. There at the Battle of Okinawa, one of the bloodiest battles of WWII, Doss ended up saving the lives of many of his fellow soldiers resulting in him being the first conscientious objector in American history to be awarded the Medal of Honor.
In this day and age when ignorant folks like Trump loudly and proudly describe masculinity as marginalizing the others and oppressing the powerless, stories like Desmond Doss reminds us what it truly means to be courageous. That's what I love about this is that it turns the notion that if you don't kill, then you're a coward, over on its head. It's a miracle if you think about it, Doss risked his life in the midst of a battlefield to pull his fellow soldiers one by one to safety, a story that remarkable deserves well-crafted film and that's what HACKSAW RIDGE gives us.
Excellent performances by all the actors involved in this film, almost all of them are not even actual Americans and yet you can't tell difference when you see them on the screen because they embody the essence and they serve the story with immense respect. That transition from this beautiful landscape of home and romance into an awful place where bodies mangled everywhere, that itself will evoke heart-wrenching emotions. Of course, this is a Mel Gibson movie, so don't expect any less than hard R, the man doesn't shy away from cinematic violence, so brace yourself for intense prolonged graphic war sequences and grisly images, just as the rating itself says, it will get you to the core. Much bloodier war sequences than "Saving Private Ryan." But I think that is necessary because in order to do Doss' story justice, you can't sugarcoat or soften what have clearly been described in war records about those fateful days.
In his portrayal of Desmond Doss, Andrew Garfield approaches it like the good guys' good guy, so convincingly that by the end of this film, even if you're not much a man of faith, you're going to say, 'I want what that guy has.' There's something that's so Gary Cooper and Jimmy Stewart about Andrew Garfield in this film. This is his most mature, most perfect performance yet.
Overall, you don't have to be a Christian to fully appreciate this film, Mel Gibson himself had said that this is a love story, a man's love for his fellow man. So if you come at it from that perspective, you'll still be able to embrace it too, because Doss' story needs to be told and shared from one generation to the next and HACKSAW RIDGE is a great way of going about it.
-- Rama's Screen --