Hacksaw Ridge

[CBStew]

Mel Gibson has given me another reason to dislike him.  This is the goriest thing that I have ever seen on film.  During World War ll Hollywood had our soldiers die bloodless deaths.  Very neat.  No suffering.  No one died without an opportunity to make a last speech telling the hero to whom to send his love.  Gibson wasn't having any of that.  How can a soldier whose head was just blown off his neck tell someone to tell mom that he loved her?  No one gets shot in the leg in this movie without both legs being taken off above the knee.  My wife spent the entire second half of this movie with her hand over her eyes.  As for the Japanese, of whom there appeared to be an inexhaustible supply,  they appeared to favor being immolated, (spoiler alert)  except for the commanding officer, who gratuitously commits hara-kiri, and then, for good measure his head is lopped off with a Samurai sword. 

MORE SPOILERS.  There is a plot to the movie.  Andrew Garfield plays a conscientious objector who could have claimed a deferment, but elected to be a medic who refused to touch a weapon.  He did something that earned him the Congressional Medal of Honor.  It is a true story, which I found hard to believe, and you will too.  At the end Gibson shows film of the person on whose life the movie was based, so you have to believe it is mostly true.  Garfield's performance is outstanding.  You may almost forget his performance as Spider-Man.  The movie will win Oscars.  Possibly for Garfield, but definitely for special effects.  Hopefully not for Gibson's directing.  But Gibson is probably too hated in Hollywood for that to happen, Sugartits!

[Bort]

Mel Gibson has given me another reason to dislike him.  This is the goriest thing that I have ever seen on film.  During World War ll Hollywood had our soldiers die bloodless deaths.  Very neat.  No suffering.  No one died without an opportunity to make a last speech telling the hero to whom to send his love.  Gibson wasn't having any of that.  How can a soldier whose head was just blown off his neck tell someone to tell mom that he loved her?  No one gets shot in the leg in this movie without both legs being taken off above the knee.  My wife spent the entire second half of this movie with her hand over her eyes.  As for the Japanese, of whom there appeared to be an inexhaustible supply,  they appeared to favor being immolated, (spoiler alert)  except for the commanding officer, who gratuitously commits hara-kiri, and then, for good measure his head is lopped off with a Samurai sword. 

MORE SPOILERS.  There is a plot to the movie.  Andrew Garfield plays a conscientious objector who could have claimed a deferment, but elected to be a medic who refused to touch a weapon.  He did something that earned him the Congressional Medal of Honor.  It is a true story, which I found hard to believe, and you will too.  At the end Gibson shows film of the person on whose life the movie was based, so you have to believe it is mostly true.  Garfield's performance is outstanding.  You may almost forget his performance as Spider-Man.  The movie will win Oscars.  Possibly for Garfield, but definitely for special effects.  Hopefully not for Gibson's directing.  But Gibson is probably too hated in Hollywood for that to happen, Sugartits!

To be fair, the lopping off of the head is actually the proper end of seppaku.

But I probably won't be seeing this any time soon, as that's all the fairness I have left for Gibson.

[Saul Goodman]

A war depicted as violent? Well now I've heard everything.

[JD]

Good movie.

[Quality Start Machine]

Damn, at first glance I was hoping this was going to be a discussion of Heartbreak Ridge, easily the greatest movie ever made about the US going into Granada.

[JD]

Damn, at first glance I was hoping this was going to be a discussion of Heartbreak Ridge, easily the greatest movie ever made about the US going into Granada.

Good movie, too.