Hacksaw Ridge tells the real-life story of
Desmond Doss, the first conscientious objector to receive the Medal of Honor.
Doss demonstrated remarkable bravery as an Army medic in World War II in
rescuing dozens of wounded soldiers even though he himself refused to carry a
gun due to his religious beliefs. It’s an interesting choice of topic for a
film, given that it could examine our national obsessions with both religion
and military strength. Unfortunately, given that the film is directed by Mel
Gibson, it instead at times becomes a treatise on the persecution of Christians
more than a representation of Doss’ accomplishments. Hacksaw Ridge is
certainly an accomplished film in many ways, its editing and sound quality and
cinematography, for example, but its simplistic approach to portraying most
characters besides Doss as being too weak in their faith actually works against
its impact.
Historically,
the feats that Doss accomplished were truly astonishing and deserving of
tribute and recognition, and the film does a fine job of demonstrating just how
astonishing those feats were. Doss rescued dozens of wounded soldiers even
after the battlefield was abandoned by the rest of the division, much to the
amazement of his commanding officers and fellow soldiers. He keeps dropping
them down the side of a cliff with nothing more than a rope and his own
stamina. Much of this happens while the risk of enemy fire surrounds him and
those he is trying to rescue. This is made all the most amazing given his
status as a conscientious objector who refuses to use a gun to kill a fellow
human being.
Given
how many people in his Virginia hometown had already volunteered, including his
own brother, Doss feels like he should be contributing to the war effort even if
he’s not going to fire a gun. He wants to become a medic, helping to save lives
rather than take them, but he’s assigned to a regular unit filled with men who
ridicule him for his adamant refusal to even pick up or otherwise touch a gun.
He’s physically and emotionally harassed. His superiors, Sergeant Howell (Vince
Vaughn, playing that one note of stupid anger for all it’s worth) and Captain
Glover (Sam Worthington, surprisingly more low-key than Vaughn), try to get him
discharged for psychological reasons. When that fails, they punish him with
extra duties and then punish the others too so that they will turn against
Doss. However, even when he is brutally beaten, he refuses to back down from
his convictions.
A
couple of extended flashbacks are meant to explain the depth of Doss’
resistance to using a gun. However, the two reasons on which the film focuses
seem to be rather pat explanations. He almost killed his brother with a brick
when they were young boys, and his shock over how easily he could have ended
his brother’s life sends him to a drawing of the Ten Commandments in the
family’s home. “Thou shalt not kill” becomes his mantra. Later we learn that
his father, an alcoholic still suffering from PTSD from seeing all of his
friends die in World War I, almost killed his mother when Doss was older, only
to have Doss take the gun from his father and almost shoot him. Surely, the
film could have done more work examining how Doss’ faith deepened from these
and other incidents in his life. Instead they are presented as self-evident. Of
course, the film seems to suggest that no reasonable person would want to kill
another human being after these two near-misses.
Instead
the film seems to want to show the horrors of war. It certainly emphasizes the
violence of battle even from its opening sequence. We learn quickly that Doss
has been injured and his fellow soldiers are taking him to safety. Rather than
tell the story of his life chronologically, the film instead flashes back to
Doss’ childhood to provide some explanations for why he opposes killing other
human beings. It’s almost halfway through the film before we return to what is
revealed as the Battle of Okinawa in May 1945, one of the bloodiest and most
protracted battles of World War II. To gain control over the ridge that serves
as the title of the film, the 77th Infantry Division of which Doss
is a part must replace the dead and wounded from an earlier division. It’s in
this half of the film that the destruction of war is most apparent. We get
spared very little visually in terms of the damage that war inflicts. Bodies
are mutilated and exploded and shot. The film is particularly graphic in these
scenes, an interesting addition to all of the violence that increasingly
typifies Gibson’s films.
A
subplot involving Doss’ relationship with a nurse who later becomes his wife is
charming but hardly revelatory. It primarily serves to reveal that he has
always been against killing (and that even his fiancé did not always truly
understand what his religious faith meant to him). A court martial against Doss
is also a failure other than as an excuse to redeem Doss’ father. The screenplay
fails to provide sufficient details about either of those characters or much of
the rest of the supporting roles, by the way. Some, like Vaughn’s Sergeant
Howell, rarely rise above caricature.
The
Christ imagery here becomes rather self-indulgent and heavy-handed at times, undercutting
some of the other strengths of the film. This is not meant to diminish in any
way what Doss achieved or to belittle his faith; it’s just that the moments
outside of the battle sequences seem primarily designed to support an assertion
about Doss’ righteousness and right-ness. During his “purification” ritual,” for
example, as he washes the blood of battle and rescue off himself, the light
that shimmers through the red-tinged water glows almost like a halo. And when
he is being taken down the cliff, the lighting wouldn’t have been out of place
in King of Kings or any other
Biblical epic from the 1950s or 1960s. Even when he’s jailed to await trial, he’s
bathed in golden light. All of this would be a lot easier to take if it were
possible to overlook that many of the other characters in the movie (also based
on real people) probably had very strong religious convictions too and had
somehow addressed those beliefs with the need to use force during wartime.
However, their faith gets downplayed or even overlooked (even ridiculed a bit) in
order to strengthen Doss’ depth of faith and ensure that he is portrayed as a “savior”
not just in terms of the men who owe their lives to his rescues.
In
many ways, it’s easy to see why Gibson would choose this story. Here’s the tale
of a Christian being unfairly persecuted because no one truly understands the
depth of his faith. Everyone seems to be against Doss, and they all have to be
proven wrong. Actually, the film demands more than that. Almost everyone who
doubted Doss or criticized him during the film has to realize that he’s
actually a better man than they originally realized. The plot demands that they
face him and tell him that they misjudged him. Imagine how satisfying that must
have been for someone like Gibson, who has honed his persecution complex for
decades both in public and in the angry, violent films he has produced,
directed, and starred in.
Oscar Wins: Best Achievement
in Film Editing, Best Achievement in Sound Mixing
Other Oscar
Nominations:
Best Motion Picture, Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role (Andrew
Garfield), Best Achievement in Directing (Mel Gibson), Best Achievement in
Sound Editing
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