Battle of Okinawa, 1945. Conscientious objector Desmond Doss takes on the blood-riddled Maeda Escarpment armed with only tourniquets and morphine. He refuses to touch a gun, much less take another human being’s life. With 75 rescued soldiers under his belt, Doss emerges as one of the most famous Medal of Honor recipients in the Second World War.
Leave it to director Mel Gibson to create the goriest film ever about a pacifist. As embroiled as it is in the intricacies of the Second World War, Hacksaw Ridge is no war flick; it’s a movie about a man’s decision to hold fast to his beliefs amidst immense pressure.
The film goes through a series of tonal shifts as Desmond’s life barrels to his destiny in Hacksaw Ridge. The film is at first, a coming-of-age as Desmond survives a harsh childhood brought on by his WWI veteran dad (Hugo Weaving). As he comes to terms with his childhood, he meets local nurse Dorothy Schutte (Teresa Palmer) whom he falls in love and gets engaged with. From coming-of-age to cheesy teenage romance, Desmond’s time in Virginia is haughty exposition for his motivations in the plot’s ultimate act: how and why Desmond Doss chose to be a pacifistic medic in the World War.
As quickly as it came, Virginia is kept aside and Hacksaw Ridge remembers that it should be a war movie. Doss is shipped off to boot camp in North Carolina. The movie experiences its second tonal shift when Vince Vaughn commands the screen as the wise-cracking Sergeant Howell. It’s an odd montage of comedy when Howell throws brutal quips at his soldiers. Again, the comedy is short-lived after Howell discovers that Doss won’t even touch a gun.
The actual build-up occurs when Howell and Captain Glover (Sam Worthington) try to kick Doss off the army, even resorting to a court-martial. Doss comes away steadfast in his beliefs but not without bruises. Reluctantly, the army agrees that Doss has a right to charge into the battlefield without a single weapon to protect him. He is soon transported to Okinawa where the film’s titular battlefield is located.
As history suggests, the Battle of Okinawa was one of the bloodiest battles in World War II history. Director Mel Gibson quickly gets to work in painting a gruesome depiction of the battlefield. Compared to Mayan drama Apocalypto and gore porn Passion of the Christ, Hacksaw Ridge is tamer in violence depiction but nonetheless bloody to watch. Gibson doesn’t shy away from showing that war is never pretty.
Strangely enough, Hacksaw Ridge stumbles in its depiction of the Japanese forces. Whereas the relationship between Doss and his fellow soldiers was always a factor, the Japanese were typical bad guys: mindless, hive soldiers throwing blood and bones at the enemy.
The spotlight, however, is always on Doss. The few scenes we see of the other soldiers are only means to set up how Doss can help them. True enough, Doss goes on full superhero mode, rescuing soldier after soldier even if his entire division has already retreated. For all its short-comings in depicting other characters, Hacksaw Ridge (and Andrew Garfield’s stellar performance) delivers the most incredible and heart-warming heroes of wartime history.
Hacksaw Ridge ends with a montage of real-life scenes and interviews of Doss and his division. More than anything, its ending underlines how amazing the story of Hacksaw Ridge is. It’s not terribly bloody or patriotic. It’s a great story that tells the horrors and philosophical problems of war.
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