The worse? The telltale stylistic beats 'borrowed' from these films can't be missed. proud (Vince Vaughn, in a surprising but rewarding casting choice, believably doles out the vitriol) and setting the second half in an embattled Pacific warzone (amphibious landing, body count, jettisoned limbs, and all) that sometimes looks like Ryan Normandy Beach scenes picked up from the cutting room floor. The better? Hacksaw Ridge comes way closer than most to equaling the gut punch realism of these modern war classics, serving up a demoralizing boot camp segment that would make Jacket's R. For better and worse, Gibson zeroes in on two flicks for inspiration: Full Metal Jacket and Saving Private Ryan (All Quiet on the Western Front doubtlessly is another but many will miss the connection given that, at 87 years old, that film as a cultural touchstone has timed out for anybody but film historians). Due to the extreme but strategic use of violence, he film proves both a thoughtful rumination on the duality of man that's as much a statement by Gibson as Doss. To this end, there's two reasons why it wasn't titled The Desmond Doss Story. The unsurprising part stems from the fact that it comes courtesy of a man made iconic by ultra-violent actioner Lethal Weapon, an artist who (kinda, sorta) also made 'historic' filmic violence iconic with Braveheart. The ironic part arises from the fact that it's a story about pacifist convictions. Ironically and unsurprisingly skewing more toward the War is Hell mantra (made famous as the memoir title of another unlikely WWII underdog hero, Audie Murphy) than, say, one that proselytizes Peace is Heaven, this film's title says everything about its tone: Hacksaw Ridge. Sporting a hard R rating, the film unapologetically pains a very bloody picture. Doss (Andrew Garfield) refuses to kill people during the Battle of Okinawa and becomes the first man in American history to receive the Medal of Honor without firing a shot. In this R-rated war movie, pacifist WWII American Army Medic Desmond T. Charging forth with a pacifist war story that's anything but passive, director Mel Gibson channels the vicious punch and visceral panache of some vaulted war films from H'Wood's past in telling the story of one very Brave Heart who's Passion for the Christ found him sticking to his religious, er, guns during one of World War II's deadliest skirmishes.
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