extraordinary story, stupid movie

Rating: 5/10 (14 December 2016)

This movie is typical of what Hollywood produces about wars, and particularly what mel Gibson is involved in. The story is very poorly directed. If it wasn't for the subject matter, a movie like this would likely get panned. Mr. Doss was driven by his strong personal and religious convictions which the movie failed miserably to really explain deeply. Many parts of his story were told as if you were being tutored as school children. Are we all dumbing down? All movies based on a true story take some liberties with the facts in order to convey the story. I wouldn't have an issue if the story stayed true to Mr. Doss but instead it's boring and punctuated with cliché war threads. Interesting story, poor film making. For comparison watch "paths to glory", a film made over 50 years ago but light years ahead of this atrocity. Also, I strongly recommend watching the documentary produced about Mr. Doss with interviews of the men that he served with. On the other hand if you like special effects, blowing things up and watching body parts being torn apart, this is your movie; there's plenty of that. What it doesn't have is a script or a director who can tell Mr. Doss's story the way it should be told. It doesn't have a production designer who understands the historical period. And the whole thing looks like it was shot with video and converted to film. Lot of action in front of the camera, not so much behind the camera.