Review of Hacksaw Ridge (2016)
Seen in 2025.
A Christian fundamentalist in the USA refuses to carry a lethal weapon but still enlists after Pearl Harbor. He gets to be a medic on Iwo Jima, but not easily.
This film is very similar to American Sniper (2014), including its being based on a true story, tendentiously told as a story about the love and humility of the salt of the Earth. The main thrust of this movie is to celebrate blind faith and personal courage through a court drama in a stereotypical boot-camp setting. The fighting comes later, in the last act of the film, and for the most part, it doesn’t look credible. Come for the campy stigmata of farm-boy Jesus, stay for Hugo Weaving’s over-the-top performance as an alcoholic WW1 veteran.