Hack­saw Ridge – first look review

Mel Gib­son returns to the director’s chair after ten years in order to pay trib­ute to army medic Desmond Doss who, dur­ing World War Two, sin­gle-hand­ed­ly car­ried 75 men to safe­ty in the Bat­tle of Oki­nawa after the rest of the troops had retreat­ed. He was the first con­sci­en­tious objec­tor to be award­ed the Medal of Hon­our, a man who defend­ed his right not to bear arms and who stood up for his con­vic­tions in the face of great adver­si­ty. In its ear­ly sequences, screen­writ­ers Andrew Knight and Robert Schenkkan deliv­er a cliché rid­den war-time romance, but it evolves into a bru­tal and bloody gore fest.

Andrew Garfield takes on the lead role of Doss and approach­es it with a For­rest Gump-ian type swag­ger. On meet­ing nurse Dorothy Schutte (Tere­sa Palmer) at the local hos­pi­tal, he falls head over heels in love and, after donat­ing blood, goes back the very next day to ask her out on a date. Doss mar­ried Schutte in real life, so there’s good rea­son to include their ini­tial meet­ing. As the two kiss, set against a back­drop of the Blue Ridge Moun­tain and with an over­bear­ing score from Rupert Greg­son-Williams swelling to the extreme, it’s a lit­tle dif­fi­cult to become tru­ly invest­ed in their roman­tic relationship.

Doss’ belief in peace at all costs was born out of a fight with his broth­er that saw him cor­rect his aggres­sive ways at the very last minute. His rea­son­ing for enlist­ing in the army, and his stead­fast refusal to take up arms, are explored via flash­back sequences that depict a vio­lent home life. His father (Hugo Weav­ing) also served in the war, with the reper­cus­sions of his ser­vice cul­mi­nat­ing in alco­hol-fuelled fury against his fam­i­ly. There’s lit­tle nuance reserved for these com­plex and sen­si­tive issues, with Gib­son more inter­est­ed in Doss’ hero­ic deeds in a cold and vio­lent place.

Vince Vaugh­an appears, play­ing what is sup­posed to be the aggres­sive sergeant, but he’s about as intim­i­dat­ing as a field mouse no mat­ter how loud­ly he shouts. Doss’ fel­low sol­diers are intro­duced in typ­i­cal fash­ion, with each giv­en a nick­name and, over the course of their train­ing, we get to know them. This serves as the final third of the film, which boasts a grip­ping emo­tion­al heft as the men fall one by one. Sam Wor­thing­ton turns in a con­vinc­ing per­for­mance as Cap­tain Glover who is forced to admit he is wrong to call out Doss’ paci­fism as cow­ardice. He plays the role shrewd­ly until he is made to give a pri­vate speech to Doss declar­ing him a hero.

As soon as the pla­toon reach the precipice of the gloomy waste­land of Hack­saw Ridge, the blood, guts, limbs and innards start fly­ing, wav­ing a sharp farewell to the corny dia­logue and sweet sen­ti­ments of romance and the humour of the get­ting-to-know-you train­ing sequences. We wit­ness a sol­dier using a corpse as a shield and flamethrow­ers burn­ing men alive. The Japan­ese troops swarm the ridge, pre­sent­ed as cold-blood­ed killers for the most part. Their icky stereo­typ­i­cal por­tray­al doesn’t sit right with­in this tale of paci­fism and faith. Say­ing all that, it’s dif­fi­cult not to admire the intense and breath­less sequences from Gib­son and cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er Simon Dug­gan. They expert­ly whip up a relent­less fren­zy of vio­lence to con­vey the uncon­veyable cru­el­ty and car­nage of war.