Watching Hacksaw Ridge is a conflicting experience, as it's got the schmaltz, subtlety, emotional cues, and acting of a mid-century American WWII propaganda film, and yet this is actually a propaganda film promoting a vaguely tolerable and pleasant message.

It's been a while since Mel Gibson directed a film, and he's been a bearded malcontent anti-Semite ever since, which hasn't been good for his press. However I still tend to give the man the benefit of the doubt when it comes to directorial intention, he's proven he's a pretty competent actor turned director; at least as competent as Ben Affleck.

I guess it follows then that Mel Gibson really did intend for the typical World War II movie cliches to fill this film, you've got your multiethnic band of brothers complete with a dude named Tex and a short peppy NYC Italian, you've got a love story straight out of a 1950s corporate ad promoting the use of washing machines (maybe that's a bit harsh and obscure), you've more or less got a film whose saccharine and trite outer coating would delight your grandma and/or grandpa (if they're still on speaking terms). It's almost Brooklyn. Almost.

Or at least this is the film-tail lure that the trap of Hacksaw Ridge sets, because not only is it using the guise of a "our boys" WWII propaganda film to promote a fundamentally subversive message of absolute pacifism and non-violence in the face of a war with immensely nationalistic and existential pressures on an individual to participate, but it's also gory as as all fuck.

I have noticed a lot of film reviews seem to emphasize the goriness of this film, though to be honest it didn't strike me as that remarkably different than the deaths in a film like Saving Private Ryan or The Thin Red Line. Looking back with the hubbub about this film in mind I suppose I could say it's a couple degrees more horrific and gory than those aforementioned films or typical contemporary war film, but not really to a particularly noteworthy degree in our post-Saw era.

What bears emphasis are the admirable themes promoted by this film based on the true story of an extremely religious man who refused to pick up a gun during WWII and ended up a war hero. It's a film about sticking to your guns (in this case your guns being the belief that you shouldn't pick up guns) and not compromising your morality in the face of almost universal condemnation and pressure, it's a story about standing for what you think is right in an ocean of depravity, which might make it the perfect lesson going into the next four years. The lead part is acted with max yokel ill-advised accent on the part of former Spider-Man Andrew Garfield, the sort of accent that you're not sure is great or terrible but certainly isn't good. His father provides one of the reasons you should stay, Hugo Weaving as a drunk Virginian with the same basic "alcoholic redneck dad" cliches but subverted. He's violent and alcoholic and domineering, but this ire is directed at a place it normally wouldn't be with a character and story like this: against the idea of war being admirable or heroic and disgusted with his son thinking of enlisting.

Watching Hugo Weaving sputter and moan in that accent of his doesn't make the whole trip worthwhile but it sure helps. NO BOOY OF MAAHNNNN WILL JOIN THE ARMMMY YALL DIE LIKE DAWWGSSS

That's not an actual quote but you get the idea. Drunken Virginian Agent Smith hates his Warboy, you'd click on that don't tell me you wouldn't.

Oh yeah, I will mention this though. Vince Vaughn shows up early on in the role of a R. Lee Ermey type drill sergeant and refuses to leave for the rest of the film. It's hilarious miscasting and one of many few flaws in an otherwise fairly near above average to decent film. Let me tell you something that won't come of any surprise, at no point in the film does Vince Vaughn become credible as a hardy intimidating man of war. If Vince Vaughn were shouting in my face or trying to do Full Metal Jacket jokes I'm pretty sure I'd just laugh and ask him if he regrets Psycho or maybe if he had some interesting stories about Tarsem Singh. We could talk Swingers. I'm not doing pushups for him. He can clean up the latrines. He's Vince Vaughn.

Hacksaw Ridge, despite the package of midcentury confectionary, generally maintains its pleasant platitudes of service without self-compromise, of heroic non-violence in the face of horrific violence. It's probably worth a rent if you're the "cool" high school history teacher and want to show it in your class or if you're one of those weird white guys in a military jacket really suspiciously way way too into World War II.

Sanbudmeter:

Rating:

THREE TACO BABIES OUT OF FIVE

Verdict:

Watch it on Netflix I guess. Or don't. Whatever. No skin off my back. I don't even care if you see it or not. Yeah I guess I'm just a pretty cool guy.