Mel Gibson's first directorial effort in ten years has finally received a trailer and I couldn't be more excited to see what this feature has in store for us. Set to have its premiere at the Venice Film Festival next month and then be released in early November of this year it seems as if Lionsgate will be putting a lot of stock into this potential Oscar contender while at the same time doing their best to skirt the fact this is indeed a Mel Gibson movie. Though the trailer proclaims that Hacksaw Ridge comes from the Academy Award-winning director of Braveheart there is no mention of Gibson's name at all. Instead, what we are treated to is a nice summation of the true story concerning Desmond Doss, a conscientious collaborator and Army medic who refused to bear arms during World War II, but ended up saving 75 men during the bloodiest battle of the war without firing a single bullet. To go along with this inspiring tale is the pairing of some pretty spectacular visuals as Gibson has teamed with cinematographer Simon Duggan who has worked on films such as I, Robot and The Great Gatsby. The real highlight of the trailer though is the focus on Andrew Garfield's performance and given he has this as well as Martin Scorsese's Silence coming out this year it could be a huge awards season for the guy. Though the British actor puts on something of an exaggerated southern accent here it doesn't sound terrible, but rather is made to be endearing by the end of the clip which I assume is what the actor was going for given his plight could certainly be seen one of two ways depending on the audience member. The story is ripe for the feature film treatment and Gibson along with co-screenwriter Andrew Knight have hopefully tapped into the complexities such a story can provide rather than delivering more of a generic war film. Based on the trailer it seems Gibson intends to become known more for his art rather than his antics again, but of course only time will tell. Hacksaw Ridge also stars Sam Worthington, Luke Bracey, Teresa Palmer, Hugo Weaving, Rachel Griffiths, Vince Vaughn, and opens on November 4th, 2016.
Synopsis: HACKSAW RIDGE is the extraordinary true story of conscientious collaborator Desmond Doss [Andrew Garfield] who, in Okinawa during the bloodiest battle of WWII, saved 75 men without firing or carrying a gun. He believed the war was just, but killing was nevertheless wrong; he was the only American soldier in WWII to fight on the front lines without a weapon. As an army medic, Doss single-handedly evacuated the wounded from behind enemy lines, braved fire while tending to soldiers and was wounded by a grenade and hit by snipers. He was the first conscientious objector to ever earn the Congressional Medal of Honor.
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