'Hacksaw' a hackneyed but effective hero flick

You know right off that when you walk into a film that Mel Gibson directed, there’s going to be violence. Hacksaw Ridge, his newest, is no different than The Passion of the Christ in some ways. This is a Second World War film after all, and it’s about a conscientious objector. Maybe the brutal amputations and exploding viscera are used as artistic techniques to amplify the discrepancy between unending artillery and the one man who won’t fire a single shot because of his beliefs.

Desmond Doss turned out to be the unlikeliest war hero, and his ‘based on real life’ tale still bears much retelling.

In this movie, we see the child grow up in a household under his father Tom (Hugo Weaving), a man entirely changed into a bitter hull of his former self, all because of his experiences in the First World War. As an adult, Doss (Andrew Garfield) finds himself compelled to enlist in the armed services just as America was about to engage in a ground war with Japan.

But Doss had religious objections against carrying or firing any weapon, or even training on Saturdays. He intended to become a medic. Still, he went through the training and faced some fairly brutal hazing from his fellow soldiers. He even faced discharge for psychiatric reasons and a court martial proceeding until his father showed up at the trial to prove that his actions were protected by the American Constitution.

So then he is sent off to the Battle of Okinawa, a place where he meets his fate at a place called Urasoe Mura, but the Americans call it Hacksaw Ridge. It’s a jagged escarpment hundreds of feet high and his battalion is met with such a force of gunfire and mortar shells that it seemed like they had stepped into an impossible situation.

Doss not only refused to carry a weapon but he refused to seek cover with the rest of his troop after several dozen of his fellow soldiers were wounded. He remained behind so that he could work to save those injured still on the ground. He carried 75 casualties to the edge of the slope and single-handedly lowered them to others waiting below.

That was just one of his many incredible feats. Later, he would be commended for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action above and beyond the call of duty when he received the Medal of Honor, the first time that the Americans would give such an award to a conscientious objector.

Oh, and he also was given the Bronze Star Medal, the Purple Heart, the Army Presidential Unit Citation, the Meritorious Unit Commendation, and a number of other awards.

If it weren’t for the subject matter, Gibson’s film would be not unlike so many other war movies with far too graphic detail on injuries and melodramatic music to stir the emotions. He’s an excellent storyteller and this is a tale well told but if I didn’t see Gibson’s name on it, I might have assumed that this was Steven Spielberg’s companion piece to Saving Private Ryan. I think I expected a bit more but maybe I’m just shellshocked from all of the noise.