Hacksaw Ridge (2016)
How you judge a movie often depends on how critical you want to be of it's flaws. I always try to look at the positives in order to get the best viewing experience possible. This morning, looking back at watching this movie last night, the flaws stand out much more. That doesn't change the fact that I had a total blast while watching it.
What's strange is that I felt like I had seen a lot of this before. I think that's unusual for a movie based on a true story, but the superior Sergeant York with Gary Cooper, also a true story, is very similar. Also, the filmmakers had to know that R. Lee Ermey is going to pop into peoples minds when Vince Vaughn comes in to tear some ass apart. Nobody is going to top Ermey, so even going there is a calculated risk. In this scene, Garfield's character even channels Modine's "The Joker". I thought Vaughn was a strange casting choice, but I thought he did pretty well actually. Anyway, not much originality to the movie, even down to falling in love with the right girl before enlisting. Another big problem with the movie is that it just became unbelievable. Obviously I've never been on a battlefield so this is all a guess. It's amazing to me that any of these men could even have the wherewithal just to try to save someone else while trying to save their own skin. That seems like an impossible task as it is, so what we end up getting is what appears to be an action film rather than something that looks authentic like Oliver Stone's great Platoon.
Fortunately, as an entertainment piece, I thought the movie was superb. There's a certain level of corny to it all, but it's the type of corny I can enjoy. I loved the movie as an underdog story. I think Andrew Garfield was a good fit for the role. He has a nice aura about him. My wife spent the first 20 minutes of the movie making fun of him before tuning out, but I like him, and I rooted for his character. The rest of the cast was pretty good, the action scenes were exciting, and I felt very satisfied when the movie was over. I think if you're looking for a certain type of film, you will be sorely disappointed. If you just want a crowd pleaser, it's friggin awesome.