Hacksaw Needs Some Sharpening

Rating: 6/10 (8 March 2017)

Couple of things before I start. One: I wish I hadn't known who directed this movie. Yes, I think it informed my opinion on this film. That is, I expected it to be way better! And B: The first half of this movie was so...um...well... horrible. The bar for war movies has been considerably raised. (ie. Saving Private Ryan, Band Of Brothers, The Pacific) and by that standard, Hacksaw is shabby and inferior. There are two movies here. The first part so horribly acted, corny and badly written that it's hard to believe they nominated Garfield for anything but a 'Raspberry'. The second half is all combat and here Gibson is in his element and the acting improves considerably. You wont believe it's the same movie. Is it worth watching? I guess if you like combat scenes. (I do.) Vince Vaughn is miscast as the tough 'Sarge' with the heart of gold. We've seen this character so many times and Vaughn brings nothing new to it. The Aussie actors struggle with the accents. (Apparently everybody in the war was a tough guy from the lower east side of New York.) Garfield plays his character with a syrupy excessiveness. He'll have you thinking 'Forest Gump' instead of 'Audie Murphy'. This might have been better if they had left out some of the story lines with his family, father and focused on the battle front.