AMAZING SPIDERMAN ON HACKSAW RIDGE!

Rating: 8/10 (13 May 2020)

I knew of Andrew Garfield's prior portrayal as Peter Parker AKA Spiderman in the movie THE AMAZING SPIDERMAN (2012). I thought this movie was a marvelous evolution to a more adult character dealing with similar themes.
What came to mind, perhaps oddly, while I was watching this movie, was the issue of THE AMAZING SPIDERMAN Comic Book #4. How one could transition out of adolescence reading that, to this more adult version of earning the respect of one's peers without sacrificing one's principles or values. This film also made me flash briefly about THE LAST ANGRY MAN (1959) with Paul Muni, another work of the cinema about an individual who could stick to his ideals.
The meditations on the virtues of violence versus non-violence are presented with better balance than in the uber brutal THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST (2004), and the ending is truly exhilarating. What makes it all the more astounding is its roots in fact. The characters all seemed like people I would know in the neighborhood, facing real life issues with the intensity of inner conflicts that sometimes boil over and explode.
There's no use beating around the bush about this; while I'm no particular fan of Sex and Violence in the narrative, Gibson's handling of the chaos and atrocities of war are the work of a master craftsman here. There is the sense of a growing rationale and aesthetic sensibility to his treatment of horrifics that tempts one to revisit APOCALYPTO (2006), and even THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST. There is a well-reasoned exploration of the male ethic that demands consideration in HACKSAW RIDGE.
The movie is framed in the deliberations of social responsibility and romance. When it closes with the death defying heroics of an action hero, saving lives instead of taking them, it feels like the character study of Desmond Doss has come full circle to a satisfactory conclusion. Hugo Weaving shows a surprising range as the father Tom Doss, and the chemistry between Garfield and Teresa Palmer as his love interest and future wife, Dorothy Shutte, is palpable and real. The rest of the ensemble of supporting characters is nearly seamless from Vince Vaughn as Sergeant Howell to Rachel Griffiths as Desmond's mother, Bertha, among all the others.