Generic War Film, Unorthodox Hero

Rating: 5/10 (31 January 2017)

Conscientious objector Desmond Doss did not win his Medal of Honor the old fashioned way by wiping out the enemy. Instead he rescued his fellow soldiers as well as give aid and comfort to the enemy by ferrying wounded combatants off of a ridge that included Japanese who one soldier adds sardonically "did not make it." In Hacksaw Ridge, director Mel Gibson builds a generic war story around Doss's bravery that seems to celebrate the spectacle of brutality with a slow motion ballet like carnage opening and subsequent excess of bloodletting.
Seventh Day Adventist Doss is drafted into the Army but refuses to carry a weapon, volunteering instead to serve as a medic. It does not go over well with his fellow soldiers and he is soon ostracized and brutalized for his principles. He faces court martial when his traumatized alcoholic WW 1 vet dad dons his army issue and miraculously pulls strings to get his son into combat without a gun. He along with his resentful unit soon find themselves in Okinawa staring up at a cliff swarming with enemy.
Gibson's direction is heavy handed as it offers up copious amounts of gratuitous violence along with mawkish stateside scenes, especially when dealing with Desmond's old man. Performances for the most part are nondescript with a miscast Vince Vaughn and minor players assuming cliché roles dating back to a Walk in the Sun. Andrew Garfield's Doss is outstanding however bringing both sensitivity and backbone to the role without pose or preachment.
Doss's story is a remarkable tale of courage and principle that needed to be told, I just wish it had been presented with less accent on battle scenes and gore to get the war is hell point across in favor of Doss's internalized struggle.