Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Please, lord, let me get one more.

Hacksaw Ridge - 2.5/5
First half sucks, straight cornpone, Andrew Garfield with an accent stupider than his actual speaking voice; but that battlefield's a rager. Mel Gibson's directorial proclivities tend to be less about courage, in particular, but the endurance of courage over time. The difficulty of sustaining faith. Moral torture porn. Spiritual masochism. But he doesn't really talk about belief, to dive in deep; he just wants to show it, and for us to accept it. "Belief'd be a lot easier if, um, nobody'd question it," almost as if to say. There's almost an interesting parallel with the Japanese man's seppuku at the end – a strange belief that we don't relate to, but is true to them – but that just seems odd, other, while Desmond's belief is acceptable, no need to question. Test, yes, but not question. I have a great admiration for the morality at the center of this movie and I think Desmond Doss is an unbelievably heroic human being whom I greatly admire, but I just have this personal thing where I wish a sense of right and wrong didn't come from above.

No comments: