Cast: Andrew Garfield, Teresa Palmer, Hugo Weaving, Vince Vaughn, Sam Worthington

Director: Mel Gibson

 Duration: 131 mins

 The story of Desmond Doss is so remarkable that it’s surprising it took this long for someone to make a film based on his life. Although Hollywood has produced plenty of material over the years about real-life war heroes, Doss is a fairly unique case: a U.S. Army medic and devout Seventh-day Adventist who single-handedly saved 75 men during the Battle of Okinawa, without ever touching a gun far less shooting one single bullet. It’s the kind of material that Mel Gibson typically gravitates towards as a filmmaker, which is why it’s so fitting that Hacksaw Ridge marks the director’s long-awaited return to the director’s chair. While it certainly isn’t as great as some of Gibson’s past work, it’s an extremely well-made drama bolstered by a superb central performance and the best battle sequences since Saving Private Ryan. Before plunging the audience into the horrors of WWII, Gibson flashes back to a year earlier to show how Desmond’s (Andrew Garfield) upsetting home life and how his romance with local nurse Dorothy Schutte (Teresa Palmer) led him to enlist in the Army. Though Desmond doesn’t believe in violence, his sense of patriotism and duty compels him to follow in his brother’s footsteps, much to the disapproval of his violent, alcoholic father (Hugo Weaving), who witnessed all of his friends killed in action during the first World War. Desmond wants to serve as a combat medic so that he can save lives rather than take them, but upon arriving at Fort Jackson for basic training, he’s met with resistance by his commanding officers, Sergeant Howell (a surprisingly restrained performance by the improving Vince Vaughn) and Captain Glover (the perennially wooden Sam Worthington), who try to convince Desmond to quit and then court-martial him for his refusal to carry a weapon. But since we already know how the story ends (in fact, Gibson opens the film with a shot of Desmond being carried across the battlefield), it’s safe to say that he wins the case and is shipped out with the rest of his unit to Japan, where he would go on to earn the respect of his fellow soldiers in a miraculous act of heroism and bravery.

Filmed in New South Wales mainly with Australian actors, Hacksaw Ridge is nonetheless a quintessentially American war outing that honours the spirit and values of the U.S. military during one of the most destructive wars in history. Andrew Garfield is outstanding, and perfectly cast as the type who shows his true colours when it counts. Garfield has an inherently likeable quality to him that’s required in the early scenes, as well as the grit and intensity to pull off the more dramatic material later on. None of the other characters are provided with quite the same depth, but Palmer, Weaving and Vaughn are all very good in their respective roles. Those familiar with Gibson’s previous films are well aware that as a director, graphic detail isn’t avoided when it comes to portraying gore and violence on the screen, and even after ten years, he hasn’t softened his attitude. The battle scenes are utterly harrowing and unrelenting – and masterfully shot by Gibson and cinematographer Simon Duggan, who make the action easy to follow amid the chaos of bodies being ripped apart by bullets and catapulted through the air in fireball explosions. While Gibson isn’t exactly subtle with his use of carnage and Christianity in the film, he is clearly sincere in his depiction. This is the comeback that Gibson deserves – it’s an excellent film with its heart in the right place.