A film work can almost always be assessed within the first thirty minutes. The intuition that naturally arises after thousands of films rarely deceives an experienced viewer; poor acting and incompetent direction are immediately recognizable. ‘Hacksaw Ridge’ is indeed an endemic phenomenon. The first hour of Mel Gibson’s new film, based on a script that has been circulating in Hollywood for years, tells the true story of a World War II hero who refuses to bear arms due to his religious beliefs, yet wants to participate in a great battle as a medic at all costs; it is a pastoral melodrama of clichéd characters and plastic pathos reminiscent of Vrdoljak’s ‘Long Dark Night’.
However, in the second hour, Gibson showcases all his lavish directorial talent. The bloody assault of Americans on the Japanese fortress is a diabolical blend of horror and frenetic documentary-style war depiction. These are the best-directed action sequences of the year which, paradoxically, refute Godard’s thesis that anti-war films do not exist. Whether the first hour of the film is proof that Gibson is an author with limited dramatic capabilities, whether he struggles with other people’s authorial projects, or whether that part of the film is his compromise with the Hollywood machinery, time and his future projects will judge.
Directed by: Mel Gibson
Main roles: Andrew Garfield, Sam Worthington, Hugo Weaving
Hacksaw Ridge, USA/Australia, 2016, 131 minutes
