IFG 1: Hacksaw Ridge (Mel Gibson, 2016)

by

49

Hacksaw Ridge

Director: Mel Gibson

Starring: Andrew Garfield, Sam Worthington, Vince Vaughan

Country: USA/Australia

Hacksaw Ridge is the true story of Desmond Doss an army medic and conscientious objector who, during the one of the bloodiest battles of World War II, saved 75 men without firing or carrying a gun.

 

 

 

 

 

US Box Office: $67,209,615; Rest of the World Box Office: $108,092,739

IMDB Rating: 8.1 (Top Rated Film #180)

Academy Awards:

Nominated:

Best Motion Picture of the Year; Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role; Best Achievement in Directing; Best Achievement in Sound Editing

Won:

Best Achievement in Film Editing; Best Achievement in Sound Mixing

What the critics said:

Rolling Stone Magazine:

“Gibson directs with no-bull sincerity from a script by Robert Schenkkan (The Pacific) and Andrew Knight that digs past clichés to touch a raw nerve” “What’s clear is that Gibson has made a film about family, faith, love and forgiveness all put the test in an arena of violent conflict – a movie you don’t want to miss.”  Peter Travers, November 1st 2016

The Times (UK)

“It is directed by Mel Gibson, which means, alas, that it is drenched in giddy slaughterhouse gore, messianic nonsense and soppy sentimentalism.” “…the aesthetics are so crude and the characters so poorly drawn (everyone besides Doss, and including Vince Vaughn’s shouty sergeant, is either a war movie cliché or a bit rubbish)”  Kevin Maher, January 27th 2017

The IFG Ratings:

Film Reel 1  4Porcelli

Film Reel 4  Arpatilaos

Film Reel 4  Dino

Film Reel 6  Donnie

Film Reel 7  Mermaid

Film Reel 7  Rob

Film Reel 7Film Reel Half  Paul

Film Reel 10  Razvan

IFG Average Rating: 5.81

So, what did you like about the film?  What did you dislike?  Do you want to justify your rating?  Were the Academy Awards justified?  Over to you…

49 thoughts on “IFG 1: Hacksaw Ridge (Mel Gibson, 2016)”

  1. Pingback: Welcome to the International Film Group | Oasis of Fear

  2. I did actually like Hacksaw Ridge and it was an interesting story. The battle scenes were very well done and Andrew Garfield was a good choice to play the central character. I wanted to give it fewer stars because of the overt symbolism and the preachy tone, but then I wanted to give it more stars as it was well acted and filmed, so six seemed the right rating for me (despite Desmond asking for “Just one more”) 🙂 I think my problems with the film are less about the religious message, but more about how poorly written the co-stars were: they were stereotypes that just served to make the central character more righteous; there were no alternative viewpoints offered or redeeming features given to the non-pious. Being a non-believer I had a huge problem with the implication that God was protecting him and the acceptance from the other soldiers that this was the case. At one point I even wondered if God might make an appearance in the film 🙂

    I do think that most of the problems I have with the film are due to Messiah Mel who seemed intent on making it propaganda for his cause. That said, I loved the story of a conscientious objector going to war to save people (a refreshing change from the usual ‘kill as many as you can’ war ‘heroes’); there were some convincing performances; and the battle scenes were gripping.

    As an aside, here is the real Desmond on the real Hacksaw Ridge:

    Like

    Reply

    • Yeah I just don’t think you can separate the technical stuff from the message/messenger. Up next, Triumph of the will?

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      • I really think that’s the main area of discussion here – not that I think that discussion would go anywhere. I’d love to see a breakdown of e.g. IMDB voters on this; I dare to venture “str8 white Christian guys” gave it a far higher rating there than any other group.

        Liked by 1 person

      • Indeed – that is an interesting point for discussion. It is good to see/hear other viewpoints in film, but perhaps it is then subjective as to the point where it becomes political/ideological propaganda, rather than representing a story. Do you think the film would have been more acceptable if Desmond had been in every scene – so it was his personal reflection of his war experience?

        Liked by 1 person

      • I really can’t see past the director and his world view, which was reflected in the movie. I’m not sure everyone is entirely aware of that (or what demographic voters are). To my mind, any film is primarily a reflection of the director’s worldview, oftentimes with one of the main characters an idealized stand-in.

        Liked by 1 person

      • LOL i mentioned to you I was re-watching 30 Rock and last night one of the episodes was the one hitting Mel BiGotson hard.
        I just cant make a distinction between creator/”artist” and the work of art/fiction/trash… I’ve had that discussion numerous times of course incl at ET regarding Supergay Laserboy.

        Like

    • I’m glad you liked it overall. 🙂
      I do understand what you’re saying about the co-stars being stereotypes, but I didn’t really mind that in this case because I can’t really say that these people didn’t actually act like that in reality. And I would say that everything that happened in the movie when people were against him made sense, I think probably most people would not think that this guy would turn out to be such a brave guy and a hero in the end. So I can say that I understood everyone’s point of view in the movie. Also I think that there was some character development and some redeeming features to some of the side characters, like Vince Vaughn and Sam Worthington, they weren’t assholes until the end, they changed a bit thanks to Desmond’s actions. Even Luke Bracey’s character who such a prick in the beginning, they depicted some of his upbringing in one scene and made you understand a bit why was acting like he was and it turned out that he wasn’t such an awful person in the end and I liked that.

      Another thing I would like to point out is that I didn’t feel that the movie was telling us that God protecting him was the absolute truth, it just depicted a guy with these beliefs imo and then I also don’t think that the other soldiers were suddenly believing the same thing as him (I think you were referring to the scene when they were preparing to go back up but were waiting for Desmond to finish his prayers), they just had huge respect for this guy after what he did and didn’t mind his beliefs at that point which made total sense to me.

      I hope this clears up a bit why the things you minded about the film (and probably others too) weren’t problems or flaws that movie had for me. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      • Good points. I do understand that the characters could have been like that in real life and also that liberties have to be taken for dramatic purposes. It was also a remarkable story of how one man defied the odds to become a war hero without killing anyone. Perhaps knowing Gibson’s stance about certain topics made aspects of the film seem more pertinent than if it had been directed by someone else; that is, maybe I attributed some of Desmond’s devoutness to Gibson. 🙂

        Liked by 2 people

      • To be honest I don’t know much about Gibson’s propaganda (I only know he is or used to be among the most hated people in Hollywood since an incident where he verbally assaulted some police officers using anti-Semitic and sexist language), so I wasn’t influenced by that.

        Liked by 1 person

      • Over the years Gibson has been collecting the full set of bigotry: he has the quadriptych of sexism, racism, homophobia and xenophobia and often expresses these views in relation to his supposedly devout Catholicism. The story of Doss is great and technically it is a fantastic film. Personally, I would have liked all the characters, including Doss, to have been a little more nuanced (this is not just in relation to Hacksaw Ridge, but a gripe of all mainstream films in general, whereby I feel representation in film can really help promote inclusion 🙂 ) I do think I am being harsh, though, as I was unfamiliar with the story of Doss and perhaps the story is a close representation of Doss and the other characters. Stripping away Gibson and my personal gripes with diversity in Hollywood and religion, you are right, it is a fantastic story of human spirit and conviction and how that can lead to wonderful things. I hope others do not mind, but I am changing my rating to seven 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

      • Oh, well that sounds pretty despicable, which is sad..
        I agree that the characters could’ve been a bit more nuanced, it would’ve made the film even more interesting.
        I’m glad you upgraded it to 7! 😀 That helps its average rating a bit too. 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

  5. As I said to Rob earlier while sending my score, I liked the battle scenes, which I found well made and “clear” (shot in real light) and I believe Mr Garfield gave a very convincing performance. However, the rest of it was quite average, full of stereotypical Hollywood twists, poor script and corny lines (ugh religious stuff).
    It moslty felt like “Notebook” meets “Saving Private Ryan?” to me. I would have given it less but I appreciated the fact it was well made so I settled for 6/10

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  7. Imo Hacksaw Ridge is an exceptional movie! I loved the story especially, but everything else is at the highest level imo, from directing and acting to editing and sound. It’s a very inspiring movie about this incredible guy who saved so many people in such terrible circumstances and it’s something that actually happened, as you know it’s based on a true story. I was speechless after the movie ended, it makes you think how wrong can people judge someone sometimes.
    I think pretty much everyone in this film gives a great or at least a good performance. It was Andrew Garfield’s best performance of his career most likely (and if it wasn’t for another exceptional performance that year from Cassey Affleck he might’ve won the Oscar), he was so convincing both in the war scenes and the romance scenes. We see Vince Vaughn in a different role, he usually plays the same character in every movie (mostly rom-coms), but now he plays a different character and imo is very convincing as this drill sergeant (he now has actually two other more recent interesting roles in Brawl in Cell Block 99 (2017), I actually liked this movie a lot and in Dragged Across Concrete (from earlier this year, another good movie). I liked a lot Hugo Weaving in this film as well as Desmond’s father, a war veteran and alcoholic, I thought he had such an emotional and powerful performance, probably the best after Andrew Garfield in the film.
    In the first half of the movie it was great seeing Desmond stand by his beliefs when everyone was against him and the movie showed his struggles in mentaining these beliefs. This is obviously a very religious guy, but I don’t think the movie is trying to push christianity or this guy’s beliefs down or throats, it adresses it as a strong perspective for him, but I don’t think you have be religious to really appreciate it, I’m not a very religious guy either. Then in the 2nd half of the film when they get to Hacksaw Ridge the emotional punch we get is really powerful and effective, the battle scenes are brutally realistic and so well done, they are very gory and disturbing without feeling gratuitous. The romance between Andrew Garfield and Teresa Palmer may have been a bit corny at times, but I liked their chemistry and I found their relationship pretty charming.
    In the end Hacksaw Ridge is such an uplifting film, a movie about the human spirit conquering all, it’s the probably the most powerful thing you can have. And it’s so well done and executed too imo (which is very important), it flows so effortlessly (totally deserved that Oscar for editing), this is a 2h 20 min film but I didn’t feel it at all, actually if I can find a negative thing is the fact that it could’ve been a bit longer, the ending was maybe a bit too sudden. So for me this was an easy 10/10 film and don’t think that I give this score easily to every movie I like a lot, there are only around 60 movies out of thousands that I’ve seen who got a 10/10 from me.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  10. Hi all. I’m a bit late with my review so I’ll keep it brief! I enjoyed the film and was able to look past the religious themes occasionally (which frustrate me when I know what kind of a person Mel Gibson is in real life!). What attracted me most to the story was the relationship between Desmond and his father – for me, Hugo Weaving saved the first half of the film. We’ve seen this type of intergenerational relationship before, with the parents lashing out at their children in an attempt to defend them from the mistakes they made earlier in life. In this instance, I found it heartening to see more of the father’s perspective early on rather than making him out as an ogre and Desmond as the innocent victim – instead of doing what they often do in Hollywood films which is to wait until the end of the film to reveal that they were both right in their own way! In many ways, I saw Weaving’s character as a welcome tonic to Desmond. Both are shown to be very principled, in that they refuse to stand-down from their beliefs, but the father eventually sees sense and was willing to empathise with his son’s world-view. However, with his sheer bloody-mindedness, I was hoping that Desmond received a rude awakening at some point in the film. But, no. Of course he was right to stick to his principles all along and God was there whenever he needed a bit more inspiration to go and rescue one more of his fallen comrades. I feel bad for saying that because he actually DID save those people in real-life but it’s just how director’s like Mel Gibson manipulate these remarkable stories for their own end. Having said that, there’s something I quite like about stories centred around the minutiae of WWII – these very specific battles which were crucial for Allied victory but resulted in such heavy loses with very little to show for it. For those of you who haven’t seen it, I’d recommend Letters from Iwo Jima – another film which is based on the a key battle during the war which also resulted in heavy casualties.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Hugo Weaving and Rachel Griffiths were a welcome addition in the first part of the film for me too. I think that was a really interesting aspect of the film. I know what you mean about the ‘rude awakening’ it would have added some more depth.

      Like

      Reply

  11. I have seen Scary Stories today, and will go see The Kitchen tomorrow. Scary Stories was poorly written, performed averag-y, directed ok. It was a teen flick that did its trick for a Summer horror movie, but far below “Crawl” or “Midsommar” in directing and acting. I also saw the new Tarantino, the French film “Perdrix” which are both flawed but I’d recommend for sure. Will see “Roubaix, une lumière” this weekend and “Frankie” is coming out next week, and considering I loved Ira Sachs’ previous films, and that this one has Isabelle Huppert, this should be interesting!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a comment