Venice Film Review: Mel Gibson’s ‘Hacksaw Ridge’

Variety ^ | 4 Sep 2016 | Owen Gleiberman

[amorphous]

Mel Gibson has made a move about a pacifist who served nobly during WWII. It's a testament to his filmmaking chops, and also an act of atonement that may succeed in bringing Gibson back.

Mel Gibson’s “Hacksaw Ridge,” which premiered today at the 73rd International Venice Film Festival, is a brutally effective, bristlingly idiosyncratic combat saga — the true story of a man of peace caught up in the inferno of World War II. It’s the first movie Gibson has directed since “Apocalypto,” 10 years ago (a film he’d already shot before the scandals that engulfed him), and this November, when it opens with a good chance of becoming a player during awards season, it will likely prove to be the first film in a decade that can mark his re-entry into the heart of the industry. Yet to say that “Hacksaw Ridge” finally leaves the Gibson scandals behind isn’t quite right; it has been made in their shadow. On some not-so-hard-to-read level, the film is conceived and presented as an act of atonement.

[TheNext]

We Were Soldiers showed the human side of war, not just the violence. Mel has vision, a subjective thing, but critical.

Private Ryan is a great movie, depicting the hell of that war landing. But then Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, in a war movie seemed more Appeal to popular actors.

Mel leaves the viewer in tears. But after the war landing scene, Ryan is just well, all action. It’s a bit subjective.

[Castlebar]

I beg your pardon for not replying for three days.

I thought We Were Soldiers was brilliant.

But I judge work upon the work itself, and Tom Hanks's performance in SPR was nothing less than perfect (I agree that Matt Damon's performance was "okay".)

One of the best lines ever delivered in film:

"We're not HERE to do the decent thing; we're here to FOLLOW F&CK!&g ORDERS!!")