Hacksaw Ridge(2016)

Ratings

IMDb- 8.7/10

Rotten tomatoes- 86%

Mr. Man- 4.6/5

Hacksaw Ridge is a 2016 biographical war film directed by Mel Gibson, written by Andrew Knight and Robert Schenkkan, and stars Andrew Garfield, Vince Vaughn, Sam Worthington, Luke Bracey, Hugo Weaving, Ryan Corr, Teresa Palmer, Richard Pyros and Rachel Griffiths. The film is about Desmond Doss, an American pacificist combat medic who became the only conscientious objectorto win the Medal of Honor in World War II. Principal photography began on September 29, 2015 in various locations around New South Wales including Sydney Olympic Park and lasted for 105 days, ending in December 2015.

It had its world premiere on September 4, 2016 at the 73rd Venice Film Festival, where it received a 10-minute standing ovation. The film was released in Australia on November 3, 2016 by Icon Film Distribution, and in the United States on November 4, 2016, by Summit Entertainment. The film received positive reviews and has grossed $20 million.

Plot

Desmond and Harold "Hal" Doss live up in the hills of Lynchburg, Virginia with their religious mother Bertha and father Tom, who is an abrasive hard-drinking man haunted by his World War I service and the subsequent loss of his childhood friends. One day, Desmond and Hal are play-fighting in the yard when Desmond picks up a nearby brick and strikes Hal in the head, rendering him unconscious. This traumatizing experience, along with a talk from his mother, firmly reinforces his belief in the Sixth Commandmentof the Old Testament. Years later, Desmond continues living with his family, and while at a hospital after dropping off a young man whose leg was lacerated under a car, he is instantly smitten with a nurse, Dorothy Schutte, and donates blood in order to strike a conversation with her. They soon begin dating and fall in love.

One night, Hal reveals that he has enlisted in the Army to fight in World War II, which greatly upsets his parents, especially his father. Hal's enlistment motivates Desmond to enlist as well. Because of his beliefs as a conscientious objector, he intends to serve as a medic. Before he leaves for training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, he asks for Dorothy's hand in marriage, and she accepts. Doss is placed under the command of Sergeant Howell, and while he excels physically, he immediately becomes an outcast among his fellow soldiers when he refuses to handle his rifle nor train on Saturdays, as he is a Seventh-day Adventist. After Howell and the Captain, Jack Glover, fail to get Doss discharged for psychiatric reasons, Howell worsens Doss' conditions by putting him through grueling labor and turning his fellow soldiers against him by mistaking his beliefs for cowardice, intending to get Doss to leave of his own accord. Despite being beaten one night by his fellow soldiers, he refuses to disclose his attackers and continues training.

Doss' squad is temporarily released from training, and Doss intends to marry Dorothy, but he is arrested for insubordination for his refusal to carry a firearm. Dorothy visits Doss in jail, and tries to convince him to declare a guilty plea in his upcoming trial so that he can be released without charges, but Doss is still unsure, not wanting to compromise his beliefs. At his trial, Doss pleas not guilty, and before he is to be sentenced, his father barges into the courtroom with a letter from his former commanding officer stating that his son's refusal to carry a firearm is protected by the US Constitution. The charges against Doss are dropped, and he and Dorothy are promptly married.

Doss is sent to the Pacific theatre to participate in the Battle of Okinawa, where the Americans must climb the cliff face of the Maeda Escarpment, nicknamed "Hacksaw Ridge," to take on the Japanese forces stationed there. Doss meets with two other medics, who offer him advice for survival. After an artillery barrage, the soldiers engage in battle. Losses are heavy on both sides, and Doss is successful in saving several soldiers, including ones whose injuries appear too severe for them to survive. That night, Doss and a fellow soldier, Smitty, head out to find more wounded. While resting in a foxhole, Doss tells Smitty that he nearly shot his father after he held his pistol at his mother, revealing his aversion to holding a firearm. Smitty, in exchange, tells Doss about growing up in an orphanage after his mother abandoned him. He then tells Doss to get some sleep. During his brief dormant period, Doss immediately experiences a nightmare where he and Smitty are killed by surrounding Japanese soldiers. The next morning, the Americans are once again attacked by Japanese forces, which results in Smitty's death, forcing them to retreat while they launch another artillery attack. Doss refuses to leave, spending the entire day and night carrying wounded soldiers (both American and Japanese) to the cliff's edge and rappelling them down on rope, much to the shock and surprise of several men stationed below. The next morning, Doss barely manages to rescue a wounded Howell and himself from encroaching Japanese forces, and the two of them return to base, where he is hailed as a hero.

Despite the next day being Doss' Sabbath day, he joins his soldiers along with extra reinforcements, and with their help, they begin to win the battle. After a group of Japanese soldiers attempt a false surrender and ambush with grenades, Doss manages to repel two of them, the blast of the second one injuring his leg. The army defeats the Japanese forces while Doss is safely lowered down the cliff, clutching the Bible Dorothy left for him.

Pre-credit text reveals that Doss ended up rescuing over 75 soldiers at Hacksaw Ridge, and was awarded the Medal of Honor, the first time in history it was given to a conscientious objector. Doss stayed married to Dorothy until her death in 1991, and Desmond Doss died on March 23, 2006 at the age of 87.