Review: Hacksaw Ridge
That Mel Gibson is a good, sometimes very good, filmmaker has never been in question despite what one may think of the subject matter of his films or of the man himself, who has been so mired in scandals and almost absent from the screens in the past decade that the warm reception given to his latest film, Hacksaw Ridge, has resulted in murmurings of not only a comeback but perhaps an Oscar nomination or two.
Are the murmurings valid? Yes and no. Hacksaw Ridge is very much a Gibson film both in its themes - a man whose personal beliefs make him the object of ridicule and then respect - and in its execution, which means that there are as many strengths as there are weaknesses. Precisely one half of Hacksaw Ridge is excellent, but one has to slog through about an hour of very bland and clunky storytelling before it comes to pass.
The film begins with a tableaux of bloody bodies on the battlefield before rewinding sixteen years earlier to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia where young Desmond Doss contends with his drunken and abusive war veteran of a father (Hugo Weaving) and his loving mother (Rachel Griffiths). Incidents involving family violence - almost killing his younger brother with a brick, and having to grab a gun to protect his mother from his father - are pivotal turning points for the young boy, who embraces his faith as a Seventh Day Adventist and espouses pacifism rather than violence. The boy grows up to be a big-hearted and deeply devoted young man (Andrew Garfield), who soon takes an interest in medicine and a lovely nurse named Dorothy (Teresa Palmer). Feeling guilty that his brother and other young men are fighting for their country, Desmond decides to enlist despite his father's objections.
Once in boot camp, Desmond's refusal to bear arms and insistence on his constitutional right to serve only as a medic make him a target of physical and verbal abuse. His commanding officers Sgt. Howell and Captain Glover (Vince Vaughn and Sam Worthington) are both flummoxed and amused by his stance. "[Killing] is the exact nature of war," Glover reminds him whilst Howell instructs the other soldiers not to look on Desmond to save them as he'll be too busy wrestling with his conscience. Even when all odds are against him - Dorothy, at one point, exhorts him to simply pick up a rifle so that he can avoid being court-martialed - Desmond stands his ground.
Which, of course, makes it all the more inspiring when Desmond proves his mettle on the battlefield without firing a single bullet or brandishing any sort of weapon. There was indeed a real Desmond Doss, who was the first conscientious objector to receive a Medal of Honor in World War II, and what an undeniably extraordinary act of heroism he performed at the dangerous escarpment known as Hacksaw Ridge. Desmond dragged 75 wounded men, one by one, to the edge of the ridge, secured them with a rope, and lowered them down the vertical cliff to safety. All this whilst exposed to heavy enemy gunfire. It's a powerful and inspiring sight and Desmond's self-sacrificing actions could have easily comprised the whole of the film since it is in this second half where Hacksaw Ridge truly achieves its maximum potential.
Gibson's prowess as a director has always derived from the visceral and the battle scenes are unrelentingly gut-wrenching, gruesome and immersive. Yet there's a clarity in the chaos and carnage - one tracks Desmond as he scrambles from one solder to another, offering words of comfort, bandaging wounds, administering plasma, as all hell breaks loose around him. Bodies are mangled in a million and one ways, most of which are almost gleefully captured by Gibson and cinematographer Simon Duggan. The whole bloody spectacle is so well done that one almost forgives the entire first half of the film, which borders on a panto parody of 1950s war dramas, and even moments like Desmond's brief doubting of his faith and purpose before running into the hellfire and Desmond's messiah-like figure as he's lowered down the cliff. Almost. It can be hard to reconcile the film's praising of pacifism with its almost celebratory expression of violence, but that is a contradiction characteristic to its filmmaker and one that makes his work both riveting and exasperating to watch.
Hacksaw Ridge
Directed by: Mel Gibson
Written by: Robert Schenkann, Andrew Knight
Starring: Andrew Garfield, Vince Vaughn, Sam Worthington, Luke Bracey, Hugo Weaving, Ryan Corr, Teresa Palmer, Rachel Griffiths, Richard Roxburgh
