Hacksaw Ridge

This is an extraordinary story. Hence the PURR. If it were not an extraordinary story--by which I mean, literally, the story; not the script nor the movie made therefrom--then by any standard this film would be run-of-the-mill and not worthy of such high marks. What's the problem? Probably director Mel Gibson, whose moviemaking acumen seems to have failed him here. So much of this presentation is so self-consciously standard for a war movie. For instance, the saccharine, almost silly narrative of Desmond Doss' courtship of his eventual wife; the stock and trade, almost cut-out characterizations of the Army officers who are so not accepting of Doss' unusual "terms of service," and their eventual reversal; and the hyper-dramatic moment when the young man's father--who up till then has been portrayed as simply a drunk, damaged, and violet veteran--saves his son from a court-martial through an intervention scene complete with portentous yet wooden lines of dialogue. All of these are story elements that have had their parallels in dozens of WWII dramas. Even the battle scenes--which everyone supposedly does brilliantly these days--feature just a few too overly cinematic shots of soldiers getting blown backwards in almost balletic arcs through the air. So there's a lot going against this film. Why, then, the positive review? Because Doss' story is amazing, astounding, and apparently 100% true. And it retains a power that no amount of cinematic cliches can lessen. It's a story that deserves to be told, and thanks to Andrew Garfield's tenacious commitment to the role, the core of that story is well represented here. It's worth it for that alone.