Movie Review—Hacksaw Ridge

by Peter J. O’Connell

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Hacksaw Ridge. Released: Nov. 2016. Runtime: 131 mins. MPAA Rating: R for intense, prolonged, realistically graphic sequences of war violence, including grisly, bloody images.

Many senior citizens know of Alvin York and Lew Ayres. York became a famous hero of World War I, though conflicted between pacifism and patriotism. With Gary Cooper in the lead, York’s story was told in the acclaimed film Sergeant York (1941). Lew Ayres was one of Hollywood’s most popular stars of the 1930s, featured in the antiwar classic All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) and the “Dr. Kildare” series of films. When Ayres was revealed to be a conscientious objector in 1942, at a time when stars such as James Stewart and Clark Gable were enlisting for combat service in World War II, he became reviled by many, and his career prospects crashed. However, his noncombatant but honorable service in the military as a medic, under fire, regained him popular respect.

The extraordinary story of Desmond Doss, however, until now has been little-known, despite periodic efforts over the years, including by Audie Murphy, the most-decorated combat veteran of World War II, to bring it to the screen. Now director Mel Gibson has brought the story of Doss—the first conscientious objector to receive the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest award for military valor—to movie audiences in the terrific Hacksaw Ridge. 

The film proceeds in three parts. The first shows us Doss as a child and young man (Darcy Bryce as the young Desmond; Andrew Garfield as the adult Desmond). His family lives in the hills around Lynchburg, Virginia. His mother (Rachel Griffiths) is quite religious. His father (Hugo Weaving) is a rather complex character. Alcoholic and abusive of his wife and two sons, he seems to suffer from some form of PTSD from his service in World War I. He frequently visits the graves of army buddies killed in the war and forbids his sons to join the military. Yet he sometimes has the two boys fight each other so as to “save him the trouble “ of punishing them himself for some infraction. In one of these fights, Desmond hits his brother, Hal (Roman Guerriero as young Hal), in the head with a brick, rendering Hal unconscious. And we learn that in another incident, involving abuse by his father, Desmond almost shot his parent. Traumatized by these events and influenced by his mother, Desmond determines never to use a weapon—or even touch a firearm.

As a young man, the gangly Desmond, while helping an accident victim, meets a charming nurse (Teresa Palmer). He is smitten, and the two marry. After World War II breaks out, both Doss brothers disobey their father and enlist in the military. This begins the second part of the film.

At Army training camp, Desmond excels at first, but trouble begins when he informs his tough sergeant (Vince Vaughn) that he wants to serve in combat but will not touch a firearm. The sergeant and higher officers attempt to get rid of Desmond by pressuring him to enroll as a standard conscientious objector. Desmond declines to do so, however, saying that he is not a standard conscientious objector but is, instead, a “conscientious cooperator,” who wants to serve with his unit in combat but not carry a firearm. Eventually, Desmond faces a court-martial but is not convicted. Harder to face than these proceedings, however, is the contempt and brutalization that he has to endure from the other members of his unit, who treat him as a coward.

The fact that Desmond is the opposite of coward, however, is revealed in the several days of fighting at Hacksaw Ridge during the protracted, very bloody battle of Okinawa, a depiction of which constitutes the third part of the film. Hacksaw Ridge gets its name from the large number of amputations carried out there on the wounded. The struggle at Hacksaw Ridge requires GIs to ascend a sheer cliff face, advance across a rock field under fire, and confront Japanese forces in bunkers, caves and tunnels.

Gibson’s direction of the battle scenes is astonishing in both its cinematography and its “choreography.” The MPAA rating is a pale description of these scenes. In their depiction of horror and heroism, they surpass even the ones in such classic films as Milestone’s All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), Kubrick’s Paths of Glory (1957), and Gibson’s own Braveheart (1995). As the man (Gen. Sherman) said: “War is all hell.” Gibson’s control of the acting and his use of both traditional special effects and computer-generated imagery shows us that hell in a shocking, spellbinding way. But Gibson also shows us amid the slaughter a kind of sacrament of sacrifice as unarmed Desmond Doss repeatedly risks his life against incredible odds to rescue and treat his fellows, including his sergeant and other officers.

Doss, never touching a firearm, manages to carry at least 75 wounded men off the battlefield and lower them down the cliff face to a field hospital. For these exploits the unassuming Doss—wonderfully played by Andrew Garfield—becomes the first c.o. (or, as he would say, “c.c.”) to receive the Medal of Honor. That award is certainly well deserved, and Hacksaw Ridge deserves some awards for telling Doss’ story so well.

“Footnotes” to the film: (1) It will be interesting to see if Hacksaw Ridge does receive any awards at Oscars time. The film, like the current The Birth of a Nation, directed by Nate Parker, may suffer because of the personal peccadilloes of its maker. (2) Mel Gibson’s father, writer Hutton Gibson, now 98, is an American veteran of World War II, a winner of Jeopardy and other quiz shows, and father of 11 children. He moved his family to Australia in the 1960s to lessen the chances of his sons being drafted to serve in Vietnam. Mel Gibson attracted attention for his role in the Australian antiwar classic Gallipoli (1981) and achieved stardom in the ultraviolent Mad Max Australian films that followed. Mel Gibson then starred in a number of popular Hollywood films, including Braveheart (1995), which he also directed. The Passion of the Christ (2004), also directed by him, was a massive hit. After that, though, he entered a troubled period, with accusations of alcoholism, reckless driving and domestic abuse swirling about him. He also was accused of sharing his father’s extremist views, which include sedevacantism and what many consider anti-Semitism. Mel Gibson has denied most of these allegations. (3) With the exception of Andrew Garfield, who is British, and Vince Vaughan, who is American, all the actors in the film portraying Doss family members or American soldiers are Australian. The movie also was filmed entirely in Australia.