海角大神

Mel Gibson鈥檚 鈥淗acksaw Ridge鈥� is about Desmond T. Doss聽(Andrew Garfield), who became the first conscientious objector to receive聽the Medal of Honor for his role in singlehandedly carrying 75 soldiers to safety in a fierce fight leading up to the Battle of聽Okinawa in World War II. As one might expect from Gibson the director,聽the film is ripe with voluptuous scenes of carnage. He certainly knows how to put you into the eye of the storm.

But Doss, who believed he had an obligation to save lives rather than take them, is a far more complicated character than this amped-up movie allows for. Doss was raised as a Seventh-day Adventist in the foothills of聽Virginia鈥檚 Blue Ridge Mountains. His refusal to pick up a rifle during聽basic training leaves him open to brutal hazing by his fellow enlistees, yet he never wavers in his determination to enter the fray without聽weapons. His valor is celebrated by Gibson as a spiritual offering; the film聽is replete with images in which Doss is deified, Christlike, for his sacrifice聽and courage.

What isn鈥檛 really explored is how Doss might have felt about how his聽rescue efforts were inextricably linked to the enemies鈥� destruction. Gibson聽also doesn鈥檛 delve into the disconnect between Doss鈥檚 religious beliefs聽and the convictions of those ardent 海角大神s fighting and dying around聽him. As played by Garfield, Doss is such a simple, down-home soul that聽at times he resembles an anointed version of Forrest Gump.聽Gibson has a powerful, muscular sense of action. The war scenes in聽鈥淗acksaw Ridge,鈥� which take up almost half the screen time, are almost聽on a level with the D-Day invasion sequence from 鈥淪aving Private Ryan.鈥�

But, as in 鈥淏raveheart," 鈥淭he Passion of the Christ,鈥� and 鈥淎pocalypto,鈥� he piles on the carnage in an attempt to consecrate聽suffering and achieve a spiritual cleansing. What often comes through聽instead is bloodlust posing as religiosity. Grade: B- (Rated聽R for intense prolonged realistically graphic sequences of war violence including grisly bloody images.)