An American Hero without a gun

Rating: 8/10 (1 February 2017)

Wow. Mel Gibson's 'comeback' as a director is a war movie more savage, more visceral than anything I've seen since Hammer's CAMP ON BLOOD ISLAND in 1958, which probably wasn't as brutal as I remember it.
Andrew Garfield is a powerful central presence as the Christian boy from Alabama who wants to serve his country with a medical kit rather than a gun and who is viewed by his comrades first as a coward, then as a hero. As he did in SILENCE last month, Garfield continues to remind me of the young Montgomery Clift. Sam Worthington contributes a solid performance as the platoon captain, Hugo Weaving and Rachel Griffiths as Garfield's violent drunken father and abused mother were presumably cast as a 'nod' to Gibson's Australian roots.
The end-credit 'portfolio' of photos and interviews with the real- life Desmond Doss and the men he served with clearly underlines the fact that this is a true story about an amazing true hero. Viewers may wonder if Gibson ramped up the battle scenes a few degrees. Was there really as much 'medieval' hand-to-hand combat between our guys and the Japanese soldiers on Okinawa as there was in the Crusades or the Wars of the Roses? Did our guys really torch the enemy with flame- throwers? Did Desmond Doss really single-handedly save so many wounded soldiers (some of them Japanese)?
As in BRAVEHEART and APOCALYPTO (and even in THE PASSION OF THE Christ), Mel Gibson focuses perhaps too lingeringly on gory death and dismemberment, but there's no denying that Hacksaw Ridge brings home the full horror of war – and the outstanding heroism that can blossom amid the carnage.