Review: Hacksaw Ridge (2016)

My ratingIMDbRotten Tomatoes
CriticsAudienceCriticsAudience
7/1071/1008.3/1086%93%
Numbers obtained from IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes on February 22, 2017.

If there was any doubt that Mel Gibson could once again be liked by the film industry, Hacksaw Ridge is here to prove that he is still on the rise. The film is nominated for 6 categories of this year’s Oscars, one of which is precisely of Best Director for Mel Gibson.

Hacksaw Ridge tells the true story of Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield, nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor), a “conscientious objector”, that is, an American soldier who refuses to fulfill certain orders based on his religion. In this case, Desmond refuses to bear arms (he does not even want to touch them). His decision astonishes his superiors, since it did not make sense for a person to go to World War II if he was not willing to defend himself with weapons. After several discussions, he is allowed to go as a paramedic and his reasoning is that he will “save lives instead of taking them”.

As is typical of a Mel Gibson film, Hacksaw Ridge has endless scenes of violence, showing clearly the victims of a war. For those who do not like this type of explicit and endless violence on the screen, this is not a good movie.

Andrew Garfield is really great on the role, but I still think he’s better in Martin Scorsese’s movie Silence, which was nominated for only one Oscar this year.

The story is really interesting and the film is well done but does not justify all the nominations and is not, in my opinion, the best movie of the year.

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