A time of war, a time of heroes.

Rating: 7/10 (14 February 2017)

Spoiler Alert.
So here we have Hacksaw Ridge. I take it from other reviews here you may already know the incredible true story of Desmond Doss. If I'm not mistaken, Doss had already been in action on Leyte and had been decorated. So the men of his platoon already knew of his bravery before they went into action on Okinawa.
Being a fan of war movies I've come to the conclusion that the best war movies are the ones that use common sense along with a good grasp of military history. Theses qualities can put any war movie in good stead, unlike for example Fury.
To be honest I'm surprised by all the high praise and positive feedback to Hacksaw Ridge, it's a great movie but not exceptional. Putting the explicit battle scenes aside I would put it on a par with Angelina Jolie's, Unbroken (yeah I've said it), a movie that's had more than it's fair share of negative reviews.
I would describe Hacksaw Ridge as a kind of TV movie tapestry. A Waltons episode, the recruitment training of Full Metal Jacket, courtroom drama, 'you can't handle the truth', and the D -Day landing of Saving Private Ryan. Nothing we haven't seen before.
You know your in movie land, the Hollywood veneer of two coats. The first part of the movie is visually immaculate, almost too perfect to look real. The screenplay and narrative is not convincing, it had no real depth or reach, nothing more than the expected generic movie talk.
To me the new recruits in the army barracks looked too old and out of place, I'm not sure if it was standard practice for the US services in war time to recruit men of all ages. So you end up with a mixed bag of recruits of varying ages. All the usual suspects are there, including the platoon bully, who surprisingly comes good in the end. The whole training camp looked too manicured to be a true blood and guts factory of fighting men.
I'm no solider, but when the men climb the ridge they all bunched up together, making themselves an easy target for the enemy, it's just not good soldiering. Your natural instinct would be to find temporary cover until the whole platoon had climbed the ridge. I can't understand why the Japanese didn't make any attempts to cut the rope ladder from the ridge. When the bullets start flying your natural instinct is to take cover and keep your head down instead of standing up to see what going on.
The American weapons never seem to run out of ammunition. In close quarter fighting is it not sensible to attach the bayonet to your Garand rifle.? Although the battle scenes are very realistic and horrifying you get on real sense of place or space, you get the impression everything is shot (excuse the pun) in an area the size of a football field, unlike the real environment scenes of The Thin Red Line for example.
After the first days fighting, there's no chance the surviving men would sleep that night. You'd expect the men to secure the ground gained and set up some kind of defensive line. Because the following morning the Japanese attack, never saw that coming.
Be warned the violence in Hacksaw Ridge is not for the feint hearted, it's enough to take your breath away, leaving you a bit traumatized.
The acting by the entire cast is first class, Vince Vaughn gives the movie some warmth and humor.
I remain patient because the best war movie of all time has not been made yet.