Mad Mel is back with a long-overdue follow-up to his greatest directing accomplishment, Apocalypto. His flirtations with fascinating, exotic period pieces told in extinct languages sadly seem behind him, however, as he’s delivered a highly simplistic Hollywood heartstring-tugger.
The true story of Desmond Doss is an undeniably inspiring one; a testament to the resilience and kindness of the human spirit set against mankind’s greatest evils. It’s just a shame it’s not told in a more interesting way.
Nailing the gravitas and pathos Gibson clearly intends is made difficult by the casting choices – Sam Worthington and Vince Vaughn in particular. Many of the fake accents are hammered home just as hard as the score, too, which is distractingly on-the-nose with its blatant emotiveness.
Betraying the almost childish naivety of Gibson’s storytelling is the intensity of the graphic violence. Gibson wants to show us that war is hell, even in his fairytale-like version of a true story, in which faith is the true hero. Faith, here, means the Christian faith of Doss, which is defiantly expressed as truth in a way that will spurn any viewer with a disdain for explicit religiousness.
The action direction is a mixed bag, but it mostly delivers handsomely. It does seem like your nose is being rubbed in the gore a bit excessively and there’s a bit too much slow-mo – however, some sequences depicting the Battle of Okinawa are visceral and thrilling. But should they be?
It ends up with a fairly confused message something like… pacifism is awesome, but violence is also awesome, but God is the most awesome.
Despite its lofty goals as award bait, this is only a mildly satisfying war film and just a somewhat captivating character study. It could’ve been so much more powerful if it were made with more restraint.
