Review of Hacksaw Ridge (2016) by Mcgillotine — 23 Nov 2016

When reviewing this film I was faced once again by a dilemma I never thought I would ever see again after watching snowpiecer, in which a film in the sum of it's parts is as terrible as it is amazing to watch. This ultimately becomes the case with Hacksaw Ridge a film with action bloody enough to be compared to the opening sequence of Saving Private Ryan, but ultimately weighed down by a religious agenda that feels just as pushy as the film God isn't dead. Now be warned that when watching this film that the first hour or so feels especially slow and at the same time rushed with characters stepping into the light about once or twice to share there story and then to move of the stage to stand within obscurity for the rest of the film and this becomes quite unfortunate as stand out actors such as Hugo Weaving delivering an oscar worthy performances with large degrees of pathos and ambition in his minimal role to then only disappear into the plot. In addition as mentioned before this film is a christian agenda pushing film and although it has my respect as being a true story of a Seven Day Adventist, even myself as a christian (though not devout) found Gibson to have somewhat of agenda in filming this movie with a reference to God being dropped every minute into the film which eventually becomes overly repetitious and ultimately makes me feel less sympathic to the character even despite the weight of the Desmond's heroic actions in real life. However if you're able to make it past the first hour or so what you are left with is a war movie that is about as memorable as it is at some stage even terrifying in scope of the bloodshed and tenacity of the Japanese empire who serve as intimidating foes.

Performances are A grade within this film with standout's being Andrew Garfield, Newcomer Luke Bracy, Hugo Weaving as mentioned before and even surprisingly Vice Vaughn who prior to viewing the film made jokes about in reference to his typecast characters being involved in war. The only thing that I fundamentally found lacking about the characters within the film was perhaps the romance between Palmer and Garfield's characters within the film in which I had found that although they were indeed trying their absolute best has little chemistry with one another. I was also glad to see myself rooting for just about ever character in the end to make it out of the hacksaw ridge and turning my head away when characters got killed in the most horrifying of ways. Ultimately Hacksaw Ridge is a tale of the human endevour and while it has a slow premise with a tacked on religious agenda It is ultimately definitely worth watching even for the final hour.