2016 / 139m - USA
War
1.5*/5.0*
Hacksaw Ridge poster

Watches

May 31, 2020

1.5*/5.0*

You don't go into a Mel Gibson film expecting nuance and subtlety, especially not when it's a war flick, but Hacksaw Ridge is as cheesy, patriotic and iffy as they come. No doubt Gibson is readying himself to take the crown from Eastwood as he just celebrated his 90th and can't go on forever. That said, this wasn't exactly the worst Gibson film either.

Mostly because his approach works pretty well during the battlefield scenes, which are brutal and in your face. Limbs and bodies fly all over the place, while our hero medic does his best to save as many people as possible without ever resorting to violence himself. The film is based on a true story, but no doubt there's plenty of Hollywood sauce to make it even juicier.

Garfield's performance is quite decent, he manages to grant his larger than life character some credibility, but even that can't save the terrible first hour, nor the moments of nasty grandeur and hero worshiping in the latter half. Cinematography and soundtrack are mostly in bad taste and the film is at least half an hour too long, but at least the gruesome bits were effective.