Hacksaw Ridge review

Hacksaw Ridge is the story of Desmond Doss, a conscientious objector who earned the Medal of Honor for his heroic acts at Okinawa during World War 2.

Im going to get this out of the way: Mel Gibson said some stuff around a decade ago, but in cases like this it is important to separate art from the artist.

Gibson's directing here is some of the best I have seen in the past year. He is able to bring a realness to the scenes in Virginia, a grittiness to the scenes in Okinawa, and brings out great performances from the cast. I expected Andrew Garfield and Hugo Weaving to be great in their roles, but I didn't expect Sam Worthington and Vince Vaughn to be as good as they are. It is definitely the best I've seen Vaughn do in years. As the drill sergeant he is able to be both hilarious and threatening at the same time.

Once the film goes over to Japan there is a tonal shift which introduces fear that Doss' beliefs will not help. The sense of hope is lost and in its place dread takes over. The battle scenes are some of the most intense cinema I have seen in a long time. Gibson and cinematographer Simon Dungan do a great job of capturing the bloody horrors of war. The violence is easily as brutal as in Saving Private Ryan, and manages to never feel exploitative.

In short: Hacksaw Ridge is one of the most well made, well acted war films if recent years.