Hacksaw Ridge

Mel Gibson made a huge comeback in 2016 with an unbelievable true story about the bloodiest battles of World War II. You watch Andrew Garfield give the performance of a lifetime as Desmond Doss, a combat medic who refused to touch a single weapon. We also get Vince Vaughn as a tough drill sergeant and Hugo Weaving playing a traumatized veteran father. I always recommend this war movie to my friends because it completely flips the typical action hero trope upside down. The story drops you right into the brutal meat grinder of the Pacific theater where one man decides to save lives instead of taking them. A closer look beneath the massive explosions and muddy trenches reveals a very personal story about standing by your beliefs. A structural analysis shows that every violent attack on the battlefield directly mirrors the quiet emotional abuse Desmond faced back at home.

Cinematographer Simon Duggan splits the movie into two completely different visual worlds. You immediately notice how the early scenes in rural Virginia look incredibly warm and peaceful with bright summer sunlight. I do get a little annoyed when the camera uses overly romantic soft focus during the early dating scenes. The blurry edges make those sweet moments feel a bit too much like a cheap television romance instead of a serious historical drama. A quick jump over to the gray and ash covered battlefield of Okinawa thankfully restores a much better visual tension. The costume department makes sure the crisp green military uniforms quickly turn into muddy rags to show the absolute hell of close quarters combat.

Pay attention to the set design and you will see how the physical terrain becomes the ultimate enemy. The messy interior of the army barracks feels very authentic because the tight bunk beds and plain footlockers match a military trying to build identical soldiers. A trip up the massive rope net to the actual ridge offers a totally different vibe entirely. The destroyed landscape and endless craters look like a literal nightmare on earth. My main complaint involves the fake blood used during some of the massive explosions. The bright red liquid looks a bit too much like generic corn syrup in certain close up shots instead of realistic combat injuries. The choice to trap these soldiers in a tiny muddy plateau forces a natural claustrophobia that jumps right off the screen.

You really have to listen to the chaos of the battlefield to understand the pure terror of this movie. My ears constantly catch the terrifying whistle of falling artillery shells right before the ground completely erupts. The editing moves at a very slow and peaceful pace during the first hour before suddenly shifting into absolute high gear during the invasion. We hear a deeply emotional orchestral score composed by Rupert Gregson Williams, and that choice makes the quiet moments of rescue feel incredibly heroic. The sudden silence when the guns finally stop firing at night actually makes the dark battlefield feel terrifyingly empty.

Let us clear up some common mysteries about this incredible true war story.

- Is the story of Desmond Doss actually true? Yes, the core story is completely factual, and he actually became the very first conscientious objector to win the Medal of Honor without firing a single shot.

- Did the real medic actually kick a grenade? The director actually left out several true heroic acts because he thought audiences would find the real events too unbelievable for a movie.

- Where did they film those massive battle scenes? The production crew shot almost the entire movie in Australia, converting a dairy farm near Sydney into the muddy and destroyed Japanese battlefield.

The incredible battle sequences and the deeply moving lead performance keep me coming back, but I cannot deny that the first act drags just a bit. Certain family drama scenes feel so slow that you almost lose your patience waiting for the actual military deployment to begin.

Fans of historical war films will definitely love finding the hidden uniform details in these dirty trenches. If you think you have the eye to spot the medic helmet in our daily framed game or just want a fun movie guesser to challenge your friends, test your skills at Flickle.