Mel Gibson shows through his latest movie Hacksaw Ridge which is based on a true story that you can become a war hero even without carrying a gun in the battlefield.
The protagonist Desmond Doss, a Seventh-day Adventist Christian wins the heart of Americans as he saves the life of seventy five wounded soldiers from the jaws of death during the war against Japan.The film is amazingly beautiful, truly gripping, horrifying, intense and touching.
Hacksaw Bridge can rightfully claim a berth in the best of War movies and is much more than a pure war drama with emotions, action and violence soaring high right from the start showing the selfless attitude of Doss and that too by risking his own life in the process. Doss who is hailed as one of the greatest heroes in American history never fired a bullet in the battlefield and yet won the heart of the people and Hacksaw Ridge the movie shows the way as to how it was achieved through an inspirational and powerful story.
Desmond Doss as an army medic helps save the life of many American wounded soldiers during World War 2. Though Doss justifies war, he doesn't endorse killing in the name of war and hence had to face turbulent times during the initial stages of his induction into the army due to his reluctance to touch the gun or for that matter weapons of any sort.Though the movie begins with a war footage, the proceedings shift into a flashback mode depicting how Doss grew up as a child and how the character in him takes its shape. Later on its the army training camp which is in focus where a stubborn Doss who behave just like what he is made up inside and show his true personality in the battle field.Mel Gibson as a director has very few movies to his credit, five to be precise and that includes Hacksaw Ride as well. But each of them has a distinctive style and flavor to it.
Apocalypto, Braveheart and The Passion of the Christ are all movies that have been received well by both the audience and critics alike. Here too he is in fine form bringing the best out of him and the effort taken is very much evident and visible in each and every scene.The war scenes were highly realistic and captured brilliantly making it one of the best in this genre. Story build up quite slowly and once it is ready and set, there is no turning back and the audience is kept engaged right till the end, thanks to a brilliant screenplay, excellent direction and above all some energetic performances in front of the camera from the actors.By far the best performance from Andrew Garfieldwho is more familiar to us in his spiderman avatar.Screenplay has given enough prominence and lot of space for the character of Doss and the actor lived up and gave his best shot ensuring that the role comes out really well. One also cannot ignore the contributions of the supporting casts who were all impressive. Hugo Weaving playing the character of Senior Doss was brilliant. Teressa Palmer, (nurse Dorothy and girlfriend of Doss), theactor who played the Sergeant, Sam Worthington as Captain Glove were some of the standout performers.It would be unfair if I don't mention about the inspiring final scenes captured from the interviews and photographs of some of the real life people including Doss himself appearing whose life was pictured by Gibson in the movie.
Verdict:
Overall, Hacksaw Ridge, a movie not recommended for the faint-hearted is a brilliantly executed biographical war drama. The movie is emotionally touching and motivating with some of the best war shots almost at par with Saving Private Ryan narratted with lot of violence, blood shed and gory scenes. A big thumbs up to Mel Gibson and his whole crew in making this movie a memorable and must watch one.
Rating - 4. 5 / 5
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