Hacksaw Ridge (2016)
Directed by Mel Gibson
WWII American Army Medic Desmond T. Doss, who served during the Battle of Okinawa, refuses to kill people and becomes the first Conscientious Objector in American history to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.
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Consider the 1941 movie "Sergeant York," a very similar true story that takes place in World War I. Gary Cooper plays Alvin York, another backwoods CO soldier and sharpshooter, who finds his way into battle after reading the "Render unto Caesar" quote from the New Testament.
You’ll be forgiven during the first hour of Hacksaw Ridge if you wonder whether someone has slipped in a reel from Sergeant York, Howard Hawks’ 1941 war drama about the real-life pacifist sharpshooter Alvin C. York.
"Hacksaw Ridge" continues a tradition of wartime valor mixed with conscience as old as "Sergeant York" -- only here, presented in Technicolor, with a lot more gore.
Hacksaw Ridge has a patriotic valiance and dauntless candor that recall Sergeant York, the 1941 Gary Cooper film.
A devout Catholic with an almost erotic fixation on violence, Mel Gibson was the perfect choice to direct this update on “Sergeant York,” in which Desmond, a gangly young hillbilly beautifully played by Andrew Garfield, grows up in a landscape steeped in bloodshed.
There a problem arises, for Doss refuses to hold a rifle: a stance that not even Gary Cooper, as the devout pacifist of “Sergeant York” (1941), could match.
When the film shifts to basic training, the setup isn’t that different from Full Metal Jacket—here, Vince Vaughn plays the bullying, sarcastic sergeant—and soon Doss is running afoul of those around him, arguing that he wants to serve as an Army medic on the front lines.
As in the first half of “Full Metal Jacket,” Doss undergoes harsh hazing by comrades who think he might be a coward and a liability.
His introductory berating of recruits isn't cruel like R. Lee Ermey's in Full Metal Jacket, but comical, practically a standup routine feeling out of place.
Hacksaw Ridge is very much two different movies, kind of the way Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket feels like two separate and unequal films.
The gangly Vaughn channels his best R. Lee Erney, the actor who stunning portrayed the drill instructor in Kubrick’s “Full Metal Jacket.”
Gibson, who cast the film primarily with fellow Australians, then closely follows the structure of several classic war films, including From Here to Eternity and Full Metal Jacket, with a middle section that takes Doss through basic training.
“Hacksaw Ridge” is a war film of the old school, celebrating nobility, courage and self-sacrifice in the tradition of “ The Bridge on the River Kwai ,” “ Paths of Glory ” and “ Saving Private Ryan .”
Ever since Steven Spielberg’s recreation of the storming of Omaha Beach, the opening of Saving Private Ryan has been held up as the high bar for all war films to follow.
Hacksaw Ridge es la mejor película de guerra desde Saving Private Ryan, y la mejor dirección de Mel Gibson desde Braveheart.
Neither as involved as Saving Private Ryan, nor as haunting as The Thin Red Line, Hacksaw Ridge nonetheless delivers a truly frenetic sense of warfare, at times seeming closer to the clashing armies of the middle ages than the modern combat of the last century.
If the opening scene of “Saving Private Ryan” plunked viewers into the middle of war, “Hacksaw Ridge” does the same, then keeps them there with no hope of being airlifted out.
The second half is set during the Battle of Okinawa, where Doss, who described himself as a "conscientious collaborator" rather than objector, rescued 75 fellow infantrymen injured by the Japanese; it feels like an attempt to one-up the D-Day sequence in " Saving Private Ryan ," and if sheer bloody explosive nastiness were the only measure, you'd have to declare "Hacksaw Ridge" the winner.
Gibson’s big-siege scene is even more grueling than Steven Spielberg’s defining D-Day invasion in Saving Private Ryan, but it’s less artful.
Solomon Northup ( 12 Years a Slave ), Oskar Schindler ( Schindler’s List ), Karen Silkwood (Silkwood )… These are some of the names resurrected from the abyss of time thanks to filmmakers able and willing to bring their courageous stories to many of us who wouldn’t know of them otherwise.
Although Andrew Garfield is winning as Doss, oddly these scenes are among Gibson's – and the movie's – weakest, feeling like leftovers from "From Here to Eternity," as the private is bullied and abused.
In the basic-training section, where Doss is abused by his fellow soldiers — lots of echoes of “From Here to Eternity” here — Gibson sets up the mixed-platoon format familiar from countless war movies (there’s the Italian-American, the country boy, the bully, etc.).
Portrayed by Andrew Garfield with an astonishing soulfulness that recalls Montgomery Clift in From Here to Eternity, Doss was a devout Seventh-day Adventist who declined a religious exemption that would allow him to avoid military service.
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Reminding me just as much of the Quaker clan in Friendly Persuasion (1956), Andrew Knight and Robert Schenkkan’s effective screenplay, as well as Garfield’s understated performance, provides an extreme counterbalance to the cynicism and weariness that pervades most modern war pictures.
Garfield’s Doss uncannily recalls Anthony Perkins’s pacifist performance in Friendly Persuasion.
That includes, in perhaps "Hacksaw's" closest recent cousin, Clint Eastwood's tandem of "Flags of Our Fathers" and "Letters From Iwo Jima."
(And in contrast to a director like Eastwood, who paired Flags of our Fathers with Letters from Iwo Jima, Gibson isn’t very interested in humanizing the enemy.
But Spielberg’s film needn’t be the definitive WWII movie, and neither should Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line, Clint Eastwood’s diptych Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jimo, or Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds.
It has less in common with Clint Eastwood’s “Flags of Our Fathers” and “Letters from Iwo Jima” (2006), say, than with Gibson’s own “The Passion of the Christ” (2004), in which the scourging of Jesus goes on and on, until you can scarcely look, and then goes on again.
It is a brutish step down from the similarly themed Clint Eastwood diptych Flags of Our Fathers and Letters of Iwo Jima.
That said, it’s a good-if-not-great movie, old fashioned but anachronistic dialogue, action that’s more impressive than inspiring, a combat film that like Eastwood’s Western “Unforgiven,” tries to have it both ways — a sermon against the violence of man delivered in a very violent story.
It’s exactly what’s missing from “Hacksaw Ridge,” though it’s the core of another, far greater, similarly titled movie—Clint Eastwood’s 1986 war film, “Heartbreak Ridge.”
“If this hill doesn’t kill us, it will surely break our hearts” was a Marine’s comment before a battle (unseen by us) in Clint Eastwood’s 1986 film “Heartbreak Ridge.”
Audiences looking for a film that acknowledges the humanity of our Japanese enemy, of the individuality of their soldiers, are advised to go rent Clint Eastwood's "Letters From Iwo Jima" again.
That includes, in perhaps "Hacksaw's" closest recent cousin, Clint Eastwood's tandem of "Flags of Our Fathers" and "Letters From Iwo Jima."
(And in contrast to a director like Eastwood, who paired Flags of our Fathers with Letters from Iwo Jima, Gibson isn’t very interested in humanizing the enemy.
It has less in common with Clint Eastwood’s “Flags of Our Fathers” and “Letters from Iwo Jima” (2006), say, than with Gibson’s own “The Passion of the Christ” (2004), in which the scourging of Jesus goes on and on, until you can scarcely look, and then goes on again.
I'd argue that stuff like Isao Takahata's Grave of the Fireflies or even Clint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima does a fair to excellent job at it, but Truffaut has a point.
Given the audience for both, the film could tap into some of the thirst for flesh-and-blood heroes -- as opposed, as Gibson has stressed, to the costume-clad variety -- that turned "American Sniper" into a huge hit.
Hacksaw Ridge is the most clear-cut instance of this template, and one that will play extremely well to the more conservative audiences who also flock to Clint Eastwood movies like American Sniper and Gran Torino .
Whether the Lionsgate release, opening Nov. 4 in the U.S., can come close to the popular appeal of a recent war movie like American Sniper will be interesting to watch, since Hacksaw Ridge examines the experiences of a World War II American soldier who served his country by saving rather than taking lives.
It's both anti-war and rah-rah patriotism in one expertly assembled package, and in that way, it somewhat resembles "American Sniper" (that also became an unexpected blockbuster stateside).
These early scenes promise a meditative equivocation to rival “American Sniper,” and if the film’s director were anyone but Gibson, a fixture on or even atop Hollywood’s enemies list, it would be expecting several Oscar nominations.
Hacksaw Ridge is the most clear-cut instance of this template, and one that will play extremely well to the more conservative audiences who also flock to Clint Eastwood movies like American Sniper and Gran Torino .
A rousing tale of Pacific War heroism that has more in common with jingoistic Wayne staples such as Sands of Iwo Jima or The Green Berets than anything in the 21st century, this is wearily formulaic film-making that has nonetheless charmed the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences into doling out six Oscar nominations, including some arguably untenable best director and best picture nods.
El filme tiene todo el sello del actor y director australiano, quien muestra además su capacidad como un cineasta lleno de recursos no sólo para referenciar los dramas de guerra clásicos en sus texturas y puesta en escena –la primera parte de su cinta parece hecha en los años 50–, sino también para abordar los elementos psicoanalíticos propios de aquella época, lo que incluye un breve juicio marcial a la manera de The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell (1953), de Otto Preminger.
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A rousing tale of Pacific War heroism that has more in common with jingoistic Wayne staples such as Sands of Iwo Jima or The Green Berets than anything in the 21st century, this is wearily formulaic film-making that has nonetheless charmed the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences into doling out six Oscar nominations, including some arguably untenable best director and best picture nods.
This is not exactly new terrain for the man behind Braveheart and Apocalypto, but Gibson’s first film in ten years reminds us of his unique talent for unleashing hell.
Like the lead characters of The Passion of the Christ or Braveheart, Doss represents Gibson’s admiration for rigidity and sheer force of will.
Hacksaw Ridge es la mejor película de guerra desde Saving Private Ryan, y la mejor dirección de Mel Gibson desde Braveheart.
But Gibson has made a career out of terrifyingly visceral combat scenes (see also: Braveheart and Apocalypto), and from the moment the first bullet tears through the air and into the flesh of the soldier it finds, Hacksaw Ridge sheds its corniness and transforms into a brutal, confronting and violent recreation of one of WWII's bloodiest battles.
In other words, it's a film better-suited to Gibson's proven taste for gnarly, populist piety than the likes of Braveheart and The Passion of the Christ .
Of course, it's directed by Mel Gibson , who rose to international stardom in R-rated action flicks and went on to become the true heir to Sam Peckinpah , directing a series of astoundingly violent films with cores of spirituality: " Braveheart ," " The Passion of the Christ " and "Apocalypto."
Like the lead characters of The Passion of the Christ or Braveheart, Doss represents Gibson’s admiration for rigidity and sheer force of will.
In other words, it's a film better-suited to Gibson's proven taste for gnarly, populist piety than the likes of Braveheart and The Passion of the Christ .
Of course, it's directed by Mel Gibson , who rose to international stardom in R-rated action flicks and went on to become the true heir to Sam Peckinpah , directing a series of astoundingly violent films with cores of spirituality: " Braveheart ," " The Passion of the Christ " and "Apocalypto."
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- As we've seen in "Braveheart," "The Passion of the Christ" and "Apocalypto," one of Mel Gibson's favorite things as a movie director is the combination of high-minded idealism soaked in buckets of blood.
As a movie about the power of faith and the rigors of battle (see also Gibson’s work in Gallipoli, Mad Max, We Were Soldiers, Braveheart, The Patriot, The Passion of the Christ, Apocalypto), Hacksaw Ridge plays to Gibson’s established strengths, making it a perfect comeback vehicle.
Gibson can go over-the-top with the violence, as he did in “The Passion of the Christ.”
This is not exactly new terrain for the man behind Braveheart and Apocalypto, but Gibson’s first film in ten years reminds us of his unique talent for unleashing hell.
It’s the perfect project for Gibson, a director who invests his heroes (William Wallace, Jesus Christ, and Apocalypto’s Mayan warrior Jaguar Paw) with one-dimensional goodness that endures even as they are besieged on all sides by intense (and very cinematic) cruelty.
Aunque es uno de los actores más reconocidos de Hollywood gracias a sus numerosas actuaciones memorables a lo largo de su carrera, Gibson en esta ocasión funciona como director – su primera desde la cinta Apocalypto hace 10 años atrás.
But Gibson has made a career out of terrifyingly visceral combat scenes (see also: Braveheart and Apocalypto), and from the moment the first bullet tears through the air and into the flesh of the soldier it finds, Hacksaw Ridge sheds its corniness and transforms into a brutal, confronting and violent recreation of one of WWII's bloodiest battles.
Of course, it's directed by Mel Gibson , who rose to international stardom in R-rated action flicks and went on to become the true heir to Sam Peckinpah , directing a series of astoundingly violent films with cores of spirituality: " Braveheart ," " The Passion of the Christ " and "Apocalypto."
The other movie is an annihilating, horrifying orgy of gore and violence not seen since director Mel Gibson’s (yeah, him) last film, Apocalypto, a turgid and mesmerizing fever dream about how everything in the jungle can, and will, kill you.
(It’s the first time since his directorial debut, 1993’s The Man Without a Face, that he’s embraced such homespun sentimentality.)
The central figure in Gibson’s work from behind the camera has always been the ideologically persecuted man whose intense physical suffering (or, in the case of The Man Without a Face, scarring) consecrates his steadfast values.
Instead, Gibson is lured by the temptations of war violence rendered cinematic, which shouldn’t be surprising given that every film he has directed since his debut The Man Without a Face (1993) has been defined primarily by the intensity of its bloodshed.