Posted on 11/14/2016 4:52:35 AM PST by Brad from Tennessee
Like the voters who plan to stay home on Election Day because they don’t like the candidates, potential filmgoers who avoid Hacksaw Ridge because they object to Mel Gibson will be the losers. Hacksaw Ridge, the true story of a conscientious objector who played a big role in winning World War II by enduring relentless punishment on and off the battlefield, saved countless lives on the front lines in the bloody Battle of Okinawa without ever carrying an assault weapon and became one of the most decorated heroes in military history without firing a single shot, is the best war film since Saving Private Ryan. It is violent, harrowing, heartbreaking and unforgettable. And yes, it was directed by Mel Gibson. He deserves a medal, too.
Shot entirely in Australia, though set in Virginia and Japan, this is the passionate, heartfelt saga of Desmond Doss, a naive, uneducated and unsophisticated hick from the Blue Ridge Mountains who turned pacifist after a near-tragic childhood accident incurred in a childhood scuffle with his older brother. So convinced that taking another man’s life was the most egregious sin in the Ten Commandments, Doss hated aggression so much that when he went to the movies on a date he could hardly sit through newsreels.
This was doubly hard to reconcile with incidents in early sections of the film showing Desmond’s challenging family life with a loving, overly religious mother who was often savagely beaten by his drunken, abusive father (Rachel Griffiths and Hugo Weaving, two of Australia’s best actors, playing with perfect backwoods American accents); his strong faith in the church of Seventh Day Adventists that guided his way and lit his path to manhood and beyond; his head-over-heels love for a pretty nurse (Teresa Palmer) who became his wife and partner forever. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at observer.com ...
but tailed off dramaticallly later...
and there are only two ‘ls’ in dramatically...
I generally avoid watching movies with either Matt Damon and Tom Hanks
Hanks was good as ‘Sully’...
Rex Reed? Is that nasty old angry queen still around?
My Dad flew combat in WW2, Korea and Vietnam.
He never talked about war. Before he left for Vietnam, I asked him what it was like.
“You’re always dirty, always tired, but you’ve got a job to do and you do it.”
I asked him if he had killed anyone. He stared at his 13 year old son like I was a Martian, replied “Yes”, then walked out of the room. He died in a helicopter crash south of Saigon about 9 months later.
He hated war. But he never gave any indication that he felt bad about having fought in them, either.
All of my uncles were the same. The only one who wasn’t in the military was in the Merchant Marine, and had two ships sunk while he was on them. An explosion blew him off a third, and they recovered him alive from the north Atlantic nearly a day later. No one knew how he survived, and he had no memory of the explosion or of his time in the water.
All of them hated war, but none of them doubted they did the right thing.
That is the part of modern movies that doesn’t fit. All the self-doubts, the whining, all the “Why did we do it” - NONE of my uncles felt that way.
Theeree isne’te?
I had to look up “Sully.” Is that movie any good?
I like Hanks in Turner and Hooch.
My personal favorite war movie is We Were Soldiers, coincidentally another Mel Gibson film.
I was eagerly anticipating Hacksaw Ridge, and saw it the night after it opened. GREAT movie, on so many levels. Unlike Private Ryan, it didn't showcase a "peacenik". Rather, it treated Doss' deep-held convictions with great respect, and did an incredible job of showing just how unbelievably brave this man was.
I had read his CMOH citation (Click here) and noticed that something Doss did, in addition to the almost superhuman feats he accomplished, was left out of the movie. I told my wife afterwards that I wondered if it was because audiences might not believe it. I did a bit of Googling, and it turns out that was indeed the case! Gibson omitted a couple of Doss' acts after being wounded, as he feared people would think he just made it up!
By all means, go see this movie.
BTW, as I was researching Private Doss, I came across the 1959 episode of "This Is Your Life" which is about him: Link
I thought the ending of SPR was great. I'm sure Ryan is not the only guy who survived a war and wondered if his life was worth the sacrifice of the men who died so that he might live.
Is it anti war?
I’m suspicious
Hollywood loves it and treats it as his penance as a Drunken Jew Hater born to a Jew Hater in the past
Gibson that is
Everyone of any decency is anti war in theory
But the left is anti war today if that war preserves traditional America the west or What’s left of Christendom
Some wars the left adores
Gibson is great at war movies
Apocalypto is incredible and gory as hell
Braveheart of course
It’s a war movie about a man who refuses to kill for his country but saves the wounded
And it inspires folks
So where am I wrong?
I prefer my heroes more like Basilone or Murphy or Nathaniel Poe
Course York started out CO in principle but boy did he ever change course
Back in 1968, Rex Reed edited a book reviewing many of the movies on late night TV.
Since ZULU had just been shown on TV I opened to see what he said about it.
His review was something like this...(Not an actual quote but the meaning was the same)
“Why would ANYONE put such a movie on TV in these (1968) racially charged times!”
I did not buy his book.
I will not subsidize anything that tries to justify conscientious objectors. Never.
CO’s are hailed as sage heroes, only because those less nuanced are willing to die to protect their noble asses.
Hang them all.
This is how we spent election night... the early part. Great movie.
If Rex reed liked the movie there must be lots of transgenders, homosex, and female super-soldiers beating the cr@p out of men in it.
I saw it, thought it was a good movie ...
We are all entitled to our opinions but just as a point of clarity. Doss never refused to serve. I think in this instance conscientious objector is a bit of a misnomer. Doss had no objection to the war. He understood why we went to war and he wanted to help. Hell he enlisted. He just refused to carry a weapon. He put himself in harms way as much or more than anyone else on that battlefield and saved the lives of many soldiers. There is a reason he was awarded the Medal of Honor.
Wow, I don't see how one can find anything wrong about a CO who volunteered to serve and risked his life to save others. Had he not been there, some men would have lost their lives. I wonder how the men he saved would feel about "hanging them all".
Sully is very good. Directed by Clint Eastwood, and Sully himself was on set as a consultant. Mainly shows the aftermath of the water landing, and what the NTSB tried to do to him and his copilot.
Agreed that Saving Private Ryan wasn’t that good of a movie.
Maybe Rex Reed is trying to be snarky?
I like Clint Eastwood directed films. I will check this out when it gets to netflix.
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