From the acclaimed director of Braveheart and The Passion of the Christ” is how the posters for Hacksaw Ridge have chosen to phrase it, hoping you’ll transfer your positive associations with those movies before the follow-up thought hits you: “Hey, wait… isn’t that Mel Gibson?” Nice try, posters!
Hacksaw Ridge tells the story of Desmond T. Doss, the first conscientious objector to win a medal of honor. Doss was a deeply religious man who believed it was a mortal sin to kill, but his desire to serve his country during WWII led to a series of incredibly selfless acts as a battlefield medic.
Rather than attempt realism (beyond some significant gore), Gibson’s Hacksaw Ridge presents wartime violence in deeply symbolic, almost biblical terms: Each frame of the climactic battle is filled with dozens of figures locked in operatic slow-motion violence. Bayonets lance flesh, men on fire march forward, and mud splatters everything. It’s Hieronymus Bosch in 4K.