Brutally violent, intense but also warm and inspiring

Rating: 10/10 (17 February 2017)

This film is just epic in so many ways.
First of all, it is based on a true story. To all people who like to complain about changes and adaptions to the rules of filmmaking, who are being made in such films: In Hacksaw Ridge the important true elements (acts of compassion, faith and wondrous strength) are not bent to adhere to the demands of a mainstream audience, they are depicted in the full glory in which they took place. What Desmond Doss did in reality is so inexplicable that it is hard to believe it happened. When Mel Gibson states that he felt he had to omit some elements of selflessness because people wouldn't believe it, that means something!
But now let's cut right down to the chase regarding the general quality of the movie.
Cinematography, music and performances are all excellent. Definitely watch this in cinema if you can. The battle scenes are smashing, gripping, loud and alarming. The dialogue is good and transports these characters well. The construction of the first half, which is calm and builds up to what inevitably has to follow later on the battlefield, is indispensable: Doss' past is important to understand why he acts like he does and what his beliefs are. The side characters, first and foremost his father (played excellently by Hugo Weaving), all contribute to the development of Desmond's character. In the second half, when stuff hits the fan, the audience is presented with what has to be expected in a Mel Gibson war movie: violence and death present on the big screen like they haven't been for a very long time. The feeling that everyone is vulnerable, everyone can be hit and die, is perfectly created. There are no exceptional characters who are safe and sound for no reason, everyone is on the edge of life and death. In addition to that, we are shown relentlessly, how fast a living young man can be turned into dead meat - the speed and mercilessness of modern, mechanized war is ever so present here.
Seeing how a man, who fights mainstream, refuses to kill in times of war, not only presents shallow beliefs, like many soldiers during that time, but a true faith in god, prevails, and finally earns the respect and love he deserves is simply uplifting.
Some critics say this movie shows jingoism but I strongly disagree. The United States of America are never exalted here. What is indeed exalted is faith and compassion. There are no Stars and Stripes, there are no patriotic speeches. What has happened in real life, the US winning this fight and Doss surviving so many attacks and injuries as well as saving so many lives, is correctly depicted here. Saying this is movie-style artificial pathos is simply not true. Even the (spoilerfree) scene with Doss being "lifted" into the sky, though undoubtedly using spiritual metaphorical language, does not feel out of place - if you consider what you have watched before that. It'd be wrong to pull scenes like these out of context and detach it from the film's morale.
Speaking of morale:
It's astounding how, even to this day, many people still don't get that saving a life costs more than taking one.
Doss faces the hardest challenge a man can face during wartime: follow the ever-existent stream of hate and anger which destroys not only the human body, but also the human soul, or go against it and fight it with love and commitment.
This is what makes this movie unique in its genre.