Hacksaw Ridge (2016)

Academy Awards, USA 2017

Won Oscar	Best Achievement in Film Editing John Gilbert
	Best Achievement in Sound Mixing Kevin O'Connell Andy Wright Robert Mackenzie Peter Grace
Nominated Oscar	Best Motion Picture of the Year Bill Mechanic David Permut
	Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role Andrew Garfield
	Best Achievement in Directing Mel Gibson
	Best Achievement in Sound Editing Robert Mackenzie Andy Wright

Summit Entertainment
Directed by Mel Gibson
My rating: 3.5 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(Blu-ray, Lionsgate)

A boy grows up in a Virginia household with a drunken, violent father, scarred by his experiences in WWI. He saves his mother from getting shot during an argument, and almost kills his brother in another, both leaving him with an intense revulsion to violence in general and guns in particular. When WWII breaks out, he feels compelled to enlist, but refuses to kill or carry a rifle. Instead, he wants to be a combat medic and conscientious objector. His commanders try to get him kicked out for psychiatric reasons, but when that fails his fellow recruits beat him up. He sticks with it and is sent to fight in the Battle of Okinawa, one of the bloodiest conflicts in WWII. After surviving the initial onslaught, he proves his bravery by retrieving wounded soldiers on the battlefield, earning the respect of everyone in his unit. Mel Gibson has created some of the most visceral battle scenes ever to appear in a film. It is unflinchingly graphic and almost hyper-realistic. It is both the film's greatest strength and greatest weakness. Andrew Garfield is perfectly cast as the reluctant hero.