'HACKSAW RIDGE' - REVIEW!

Mel Gibson’s robust directorial technique brings an undeniable punch to the combat scenes of this Oscar-nominated second world war drama. Elsewhere in the film, however, there’s a lack of subtlety that is only partially mitigated by Andrew Garfield's virtuoso performance.

Garfield plays Desmond Doss, a real-life war hero who became the first man in US history to receive the Medal of Honor without firing a shot. Desmond volunteers to serve his country with the caveat that, due to his personal and religious beliefs, he refuses to touch a gun. This doesn’t go down well with his commanding officers (Sam Worthington, Vince Vaughn) who don’t buy Desmond’s argument that he can serve as a medic without bearing arms thus causing him tremendous suffering and pain.

Along with his faith, Desmond is supported by his fiancee, Dorothy, played by Australian model and actress Teresa Palmer. With her striking colouring – tawny hair, vivid blue eyes – heightened by the saturated colours of Desmond’s prewar, small-town Virginia existence, Palmer takes on a kind of angelic dream-girl status. Gibson is perhaps overly fond of juxtaposing images that evoke heavenly hosts with those of the visceral hell of the hard-fought Okinawa battle in which Desmond, true to himself and his God, becomes a hero and that he bloody is.