Originally I had planned to make a political post today but last night a couple of friend and me managed to catch a late showing of the WWII film Hacksaw Ridge.

Mel Gibson has wandered into wilderness for far less than forty years after his drunken racist rant and now returns to feature film direction with the story of Desmond Doss, a pacifist, conscientious objector, Army volunteer, and recipient of the Medal of Honor for valor and courage under fires.

This movie works very well. It takes it time introducing us the Desmond, his family, and the woman he loves and eventually marries. As we journey with him through basic training and the hostile reactions his devout pacifism provokes in his fellow soldiers we come to understand just who he is and his commitment to his convictions. The film deals fairly with those who understand and those who do not presenting us with a character who truly believes in something.

The final act of the film is where it earns its title; Hacksaw Ridge. The invasion of Okinawa was considered by many to be a preview for the upcoming invasion of the Japanese home islands and the carnage, horror, and loss of life shocked the most experiences military planners. Bisecting the island a range nickname Hacksaw Ridge presented a final and terrible obstacle to the allied forces securing the island and into the maelstrom of blood, bullets, and fire Desmond goes refusing to ever touch a weapon. Serving as medic he is credited with pulling more than 70 wounded men from the battle field under utterly horrific conditions and often without any support. The battle scenes of fast, intense, and terribly graphic, but this is a case where explicit violence and its terrible aftermath is justified. Only by seeing that horror can we truly have any hope of the slightest comprehension of Desmond’s bravery and compassion.

The cast is uniformly good, many of them are foreign nationals playing Americans, and for several playing ‘hillbillies’, people of the southern mountains. Hugo Weaving, an actor who also captivates me, is fantastic as Desmond’s father, a man broken by the horror of the Great War.

This is not a movie for everyone. It is loud, it is bloody, it is gory in a way zombies film never manage, but it also speaks to the power of convictions, celebrating the courage of a man who saved lives without taking any by his hand.