Hacksaw Ridge Is The Best Anti-War Film Ever

Hacksaw Ridge

Starring: Andrew Garfield, Vince Vaughn

Directed by: Mel Gibson

Rating: *****(5 Stars)

Once in a while there comes a film that transcends  its cinematic obligations  to become a comment  on the quality of  human existence.  Hacksaw Ridge is one such rarity. It communicates the power to change human perceptions on living,to change  the way we look at human lives.

This  is the true-life story of  an incredibly brave and inspiring young American soldier  Desmond Doss who refused to  pick up a gun during the World War 2. No matter how much he was cajoled, bullied, threatened, heckled and taunted for what was initially seen as  cowardice,Desmond wouldn’t  shoot an enemy during battle.It was against his creed and religion to shoot another human being.

No violence. No gun.As simple as that.

Director Mel Gibson shoots this amazing inspirational tale with minimalist flourish and drama. Desmond Doss could easily have ended up looking like a  sanctimonious fool.In the capable strong yet sensitive  hands  of  Gibson and the film’s writers Doss becomes a sublime symbol of ahimsa , modern-day Gandhi  who can stand up for what he feels to be right without the fear of  being shamed .

Early scenes showing Doss’s ragging in the army camp are done with a mix of wistful malice and regretful  humour regarding the false sense of machismo associated with guns.The  soldierly life is visualized with a keen sense of heroic pride. This soon dissolves into prolonged unbearably graphic sequences of men at war.

It is here that we see the sheer futility horror and barbarism on the battle ground played out at an octave of shrill protest without for a minute precluding our guilt  or distancing us from the violence. Gibson’s cinematographer Simon Duggan, a magician of mayhem, shoots the war scenes with agonizing intimacy , as though  the audiences’ rapidly receding sense of decency is fastened to the bayonets.Every bullet fired hits us where it hurts the most.

As the bullets fly and Rupert Gregson-Williams’ mystifying apocalyptic music  surges forward  in waves of protest, the film acquires all the greatness of a David Lean war epic without the  mood of heroism that is attached to Lean’s cinema, or for that matter, in Mel Gibson’s Braveheart.

The soldiers’ suffering is  intense and relentless while the battle scenes last.They effectively create a stark contrast with the life of peace and non-violence that Doss embraces .

I hear Mel Gibson was reluctant to direct this true-life saga of a young man who battled societal definitions of heroism to conquer the acrimony on the battleground. In hindsight Gibson seems the  only director who could denude soldierly valour of all romance and glory so effortlessly.

Of course casting Andrew Garfield(better known as Spiderman) is  a stroke  of providence and genius.  Garfield brings to Doss’ part both righteousness and heart .  He is angelic without being sugary, stubborn without seeming selfrighteous. It’s a miraculously innocent but intense performance shorn of vanity and flamboyance.

The supporting cast specially Vince Vaugn as Doss’ superior in the army is first-rate.

Come to think of it, every player  bit or big, seems to instinctively know he or she is partaking of a  project far larger than the immediate on-camera moment. Hacksaw Ridge is a film whose statement on non-violence will be quoted in textbooks and on talk-shows years from now when nukes have probably destroyed half of mankind.

For every war-monger who wants to battle it out in India and Pakistan a sincere request.Go watch this film.And stay till the end credits when we meet the real Desmond Doss who tells us show he washed the muck and blood off a wounded fellow-soldier’s blinded eyes.

“The smile on his face when he could see was all the gratitude I  needed,” says Doss.

Thank you for reminding us of that smile of appreciation when something miraculous is given. Something  like this film.