Até o Último Homem

Just watched this movie at the pre-screening and feel like I owe it to the creators to write a review. Having read other reviews, it is hard to stay original, so first are few thoughts that I shared with the others. Great to have Mel Gibson back in the directors seat. I will be surprised if we don't see this film in a few Oscars categories. Now, few thoughts of my own. The movie depicts brutality of war in gory details, so much so, that I had to turn my eyes away from screen couple of times. However, I do understand why this was important to the story line. It was done so that we could truly appreciate Doss's act of bravery, feel it like we were there and witnessed it firsthand - nothing was left out. The story grabs you from beginning and does not let you off until very end - after the movie I turned back and half of the girls in the theater were still wiping tears. Bottom line - instant classic that will find it's place on the shelf next to the likes of Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers.

Not one of my favourite war films, like 1930's 'All Quiet on the Western Front', 'Paths of Glory', 'The Thin Red Line' and 'Apocalypse Now', but exceptionally well made and incredibly powerful.

It has been said about 'Hacksaw Ridge' that the second half is better than the first half, something that is agreed with by me. Not that the family/character study stuff is bad, far from it, it's beautifully filmed, even better acted and paints Doss as a very fascinating character that it's easy from the get go to identify with his wants to succeed against all catastrophic odds.

Just that the first third does take time to get going with a pedestrian pace, the dialogue is corny (in fact, to me the dialogue is the least good thing about 'Hacksaw Ridge' in general and the element that rings true the least) and the sentimentality is laid too thick (this is also particularly true in the slightly underdeveloped romance).

However this is made up for by the entertaining yet hard-hitting training scenes and in particular the truly jaw-droppingly brutal war/battle scenes that soar in nerve-shredding intensity and raw emotion, giving the first 30 minutes of 'Saving Private Ryan' a run for its money and perhaps making it tame in comparison (high praise for a film with one of the most gut-wrenching first 30 minutes on film, though to me the rest of the film isn't quite as good).

Throughout 'Hacksaw Ridge' has exceptional production values, in particular the cinematography in the battle scenes, and Gibson directs like his life was depending on it. Rupert Gregson-Williams' score has the right amount of pulsating energy and nuance, and the sound effects in the war/battle scenes have a terrifying authenticity.

For a vast majority of the time, the story is very compelling and makes the most of mature and very easy to relate with themes. It has a wide range of emotional impact, being for the second half intensely powerful, much of the film being poignant, some of it sardonically amusing (without it being out of place) and also all of it inspirational. Rather than straying from the facts for dramatic license, Gibson is surprisingly respectful this time round.

Andrew Garfield has yet to give a better performance than his astonishing turn here (though he is splendid too in Martin Scorsese's 'Silence'), and Gibson similarly brings the best out of Sam Worthington (often a charisma-free actor but here doubts were cast aside) and Vince Vaughn (at his sardonic best while also touchingly subdued, proof that he can be good if the material serves him all which too often in his career it hasn't but it does brilliantly here). Hugo Weaving is terrific, also giving some of his best work in some time. Teresa Palmer makes the most of her role.

In conclusion, a near-triumphant come-back. 8/10 Bethany Cox

We knew already that Mel Gibson is a filmmaker with a powerful vision and the craftsmanship to go with it. Extraordinary battle scenes. Violence, Gibson style, which means Peckinpah plus, because here there is such a personal intention that makes every frame, utterly compelling. The only drawback and I have to say it, Vince Vaughn. Why? In the moment he appears, this extraordinary film becomes a movie. It took me completely out of it. When you look at him you see an actor, acting. On the other hand, Andrew Garfield. Sublime. He makes totally believable a character that could be fictional. The humanity in Andrew Garfield's eyes makes everything real. It tells us, in no uncertain terms, that at the very center of it all, there is love. Love!

I was fortunate enough to see an advanced screening of HACKSAW RIDGE in Hollywood and was impressed. The screenplay is authentically-driven to the last detail and portrays the horrors (and prejudices) of wartime conduct. I knew we were watching an epic film when at the conclusion, the audience was stunned so much so that the applause was delayed.

If you consider yourself a true patriot of America, this movie portrays YOUR values in a blessed light. For ONE gentlemen, amidst extremely adverse treatment by his own comrades and even more deadly hated by his enemy to have save SO many men... is simply epic.

I watched the advanced screening with members of the military and faith community alike. At no time did anyone retract from the horrors of war or add asinine political commentary. We all understood that soldiers fight for one another before they fight for a cause and that hatred of war is universal; even among soldiers.

I guess that Hacksaw Ridge could probably best be compared to the great Gary Cooper film Sergeant York which hewed pretty close to the truth about Alvin C. York, his background in Eastern Tennessee and his exploits in World War I.

Like our protagonist Desmond Doss here, York had a rural background and joined a pacifist religious sect. Unlike Doss, York grew up as a hunter and was a dead shot. He wasn't sure what he would do if a combat situation arose. But he did what he did and got every decoration imaginable including the Congressional Medal Of Honor.

Doss had a tougher row to hoe. He would not touch a weapon and the film will show you why. He felt it his patriotic duty to join, but as a combat medic, save lives rather than kill. With no weapon to defend his own person, this medic saved a lot of people at an engagement at a place dubbed Hacksaw Ridge in the Battle of Okinawa.

In Sergeant York, Walter Brennan's country preacher character says that Gary Cooper has the 'using kind of religion'. That might well be said of Andrew Garfield as Desmond Doss who got a Best Actor Oscar nomination as Doss. Cooper won one of his two Oscars for Sergeant York and Garfield really suggests his character in what he does with Doss.

The battle scenes are suggestive of Saving Private Ryan, director Mel Gibson staged them well. Hacksaw Ridge did win a pair of Oscars for its Sound. Gibson got nominated for Best Director and the film itself for Best Picture.

Hacksaw Ridge shows the horrors of war and from it the beauty of heroism when people have to summon their personal best and become more than themselves. The Doss story is one that deserves telling and retelling. Thanks to Mel Gibson it will be permanently retold.