Hacksaw Ridge

Directed by Mel Gibson.

2016. Rated R, 139 minutes.

Cast:

Andrew Garfield

Teresa Palmer

Hugo Weaving

Vince Vaughn

Sam Worthington

Rachel Griffiths

Luke Bracey

Ryan Corr

Nathaniel Buzolic

Richard Roxburgh

After Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States entered World War II. Many of its young men happily volunteered to serve their country. Desmond Doss (Garfield) is one such young man. Strangely, he is also a conscientious objector who refuses to take a human life. He plans on being a field medic so that he will instead be saving lives. He has also vowed to never touch a gun. So resolute is he that he won't even pick one up to complete the requirements of training. Once he and his higher ups clear that little obstacle, it's off to Okinawa he goes where the army is trying desperately to overtake the Japanese on a stretch of elevated land known as Hacksaw Ridge. True story based heroics ensue.

Visually, this film is a stunner with some of the most brutal war scenes this side of Saving Private Ryan. Once we get to the front lines, we are quite literally dropped into the middle of the action. Bullets are flying all around us and doing some major damage to our heroes. I can't count how many times I cringed, jumped, or was awed by what I was seeing on the screen. The spectacular visuals aid in the pacing of the film. The first hour goes by at a pretty good clip, but the last hour and change zips by as its essentially one long battle scene that somehow manages to keep from becoming tedious.

Story wise, Hacksaw Ridge is beyond hokey. It pushes the idea of its protagonist as a Christ-like figure in a manner more heavy-handed than any movie since Man of Steel. After a misstep as a child, our Doss is utterly perfect. While saving lives he quotes scriptures, gives sight to the blind (quite literally), and at one point, seems to be ascending into Heaven. I'm also pretty sure sure I saw him dodge a bullet, too. And I'm not even joking. Early on, he's ridiculed by non-believers and, more or less, crucified. Making Doss a sanctified being doesn't stop there, either. The metaphor is pushed further because the film takes the term "faceless enemy" to a whole new level. The Japanese soldiers Doss's unit is fighting mostly fires at them from off-screen. When they are shown, they are shrouded by thick smoke so that they are just shadowy apparitions only capable of bringing death and destruction. For almost the entire film, we literally can't see their faces. When we can, they're in full war-mode, unleashing primal screams, or they're already dead. They are hardly human at all. To seal the deal, they are even referred to as "Satan, himself." If they are a monolithic Satan, it only makes sense that our hero is the 1940s equivalent of Jesus. It's all a little too much.

The relentless devotion of the screenplay to exalt Doss is to the detriment of every other person in the movie. Every step of the way, we're told how different Doss is from the rest of us, another Christ-like quality. It effectively separates him from the very people he wants to save. What happens is that we never get to know anyone else well enough to care. Other soldiers are introduced, given a nickname, and a quirky quality that goes wholly unexplored. We're supposed to use that to bond with them so when bad things happen to them on the battlefield we're left distraught. It doesn't quite work that way. The two characters who do get lots of talking time, Sgt. Howell (Vaughn) and Cpt. Glover (Worthington), are merely present to be naysayers until Doss proves his worth to them. Then they have to gush over how brave he is.

The people Doss interacts with away from the war only fare slightly better. Doss's dad, Tom (Weaving), a World War I vet, is a PTSD suffering alcoholic, and an abusive husband and father. Unfortunately, these things are mentioned, but never addressed. It's a little odd considering he and his wife stayed together, at least through the events of this film. His real role is to provide Doss the inspiration to stick to his non-violent ways. As a reward, he gets a moment that supposed to serve as his redemption, but feels insufficient given his marriage-long behavior. It's a waste of a fantastic performance by Hugo Weaving as the material just isn't strong enough to match his portrayal which begs for deeper examination of the man he's playing.

Doss's eventual wife Dorothy (Palmer) is little more than a pretty face. She gets swept off her feet, because he's so different of course. Later, she is merely just waiting for her man to return. It's almost as if she's a damsel in distress, but without ever facing any physical threat. The mental anguish a woman in her position must have been dealing with is non-existent. She is just another believer that we never really get to know. His mother Bertha (Griffiths) is merely there to look pained. Though she is a battered wife, her problems are framed entirely by how they affect Doss. We don't care about her as much as we care that what's happened to her bothers him. Finally, his brother Hal suffers a similar fate. Whatever happens to him is only as important as its impact on Desmond. Hal is older and enlists first, then disappears from the film.

The film strives to be an inspirational, feel-good type of story. For plenty of people, it will be just that. I chalk it up to the same reason the dreadful American Sniper is so beloved by plenty Americans. It's an apparently true story that shows us as heroes in the fight against evil and reinforces the notion that we are operating under divine providence. This is unsurprising given that Mel Gibson directs, but the whole thing still left me rolling my eyes a bit and wondering about the movie's accuracy. Even if the events depicted are one hundred percent truthful, however, it still comes off as too much. You would not be far off if you referred to Doss, the way he's portrayed here, as "Our Lord and Savior." To put it another way, if someone were sitting in front of you, verbally telling you this story precisely the way it's told here, you'd probably say "Gitdafuqouttahere."

Possible 2016 Dellies Considerations: Best Supporting Actor (Hugo Weaving), Best Overall Technical Achievement