Hacksaw Ridge, featuring Andrew Garfield as the main character Doss, was an above average realistic war movie about the horrors of war, and one man who did his best to save his fellow soldiers. The acting was well done, the cinematography was good and the only real problem with the movie was the abrupt tonal shifts.

Let us start with one of the most important parts of the movie: the actors. Andrew Garfield was well cast in his role as the skinny conscientious objector who wanted to save people without having to take a single man’s life. He was very believable and acted out his role flawlessly. The supporting cast was also well picked and did great in their roles. Overall, the acting was great, without any major problems.

Now onto the cinematography. There was not much that can not be found in other more realistic war movies like Fury and Saving Private Ryan. However, there were some standout scenes in the movie. One dream sequence was bathed in a sickly green glow that let the audience know that it was a dream, and added to the sense of apprehension and tension. At night, the colors were more washed out and had a blue tinge to them, which added a lot to the lighting. While it was a little above average for most of the movie, the cinematography was sometimes stellar.

With all of the positives covered, it is time to move onto the negatives. The biggest complaint that I had was that the tonal shifts were sometimes very abrupt and confusing. This was especially true at the beginning of the movie. For example, there was a scene at the beginning of the movie where Doss helped pull a kid out from under a truck, and then rushed him over to the hospital. When he was in the hospital, he saw a particularly beautiful nurse and fell in love with her. Maybe half a minute after saving the kid.

Later in the movie, as the Americans attacked Hacksaw Ridge, there were many minutes of watching people shoot each other, blow each other up, burn each other, and generally kill each other. After watching this for awhile, it felt like the movie lost its focus and didn’t stay with the main character as it should have.

Those two gripes are not to say that Hacksaw Ridge was a bad movie. Although they could have come up with a more creative name, the movie itself was well thought out and executed. The good acting and cinematography more than compensated for the fudged tonal shifts throughout the movie.

My score: 87.