Hacksaw Ridge

A film set in the Second World War and adapted from a real life. Desmond grows up in Virginia. His father came back from the First World War and drinks; there is violence at home. As a child he nearly kills his brother and decides never to hold a weapon again. When the war comes he volunteers anyway. He wants to be a medic and refuses weapons training. The army will not accept it. At the training camp he becomes a target, is beaten, and is taken to a court martial. From there the film moves to the front. There is an escarpment at Okinawa; it is climbed by rope ladder and there is no cover at the top. The first assault is thrown back. The unit withdraws and Desmond stays up there. Over one night he finds the wounded one by one and lowers them by rope. The number entered the records as more than seventy. What the narrative is interested in is not heroism but stubbornness: the film does not argue about the man's faith, it only shows that nobody would let him and that he did it anyway. The battle scenes are open and hard. The director does not shorten the violence, and that is the film's most argued-over feature. It was shot in Australia. The director returned to directing with this film after a break of more than a decade. The film won Academy Awards for editing and sound mixing. Andrew Garfield, Hugo Weaving, Sam Worthington, Vince Vaughn and Teresa Palmer are in the cast. Mel Gibson directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes war films based on real events. Who it is not for: anyone sensitive to blood and injury; the second half is continuous and detailed.