Review:

The first third is really slow and sets up for a very melodramatic cheese-fest, but then we watch a bullet go straight through a dude's head, blood flies everywhere, and all of a sudden we are in a much different movie. I'm not entirely sure what message this movie was aiming for, because it takes wild shots in multiple directions. It never really felt preachy to me, but it certainly felt manipulative for most of the first half. I get that this is based on a true story, but the pacing is pretty bad with the first half being 75% corny drama and the last half being nonstop action and an unexpected level of gore. One of my things is that I really hate when war movies are trying to show how awful war is, but then all of the violence is implied, off-screen, or PG-13. Hacksaw Ridge has a crazy amount of fun gore, which sounds really bad when we are talking about a true story and real people were actually shot and blown apart in WWII, but it's hard not to detach the cinematic experience from its real life source material and not get a little excited when you see someone's leg fly off. The gore and effects were actually pretty great and the acting was pretty great too, although I'll never really not be surprised when Vince Vaughn is playing a serious role. There is an odd amount of humor, but it's never forced nor does it deflate the tension. For a WWII movie, Hacksaw Ridge does have a different spin and it feels a little more authentic than the average one.