An unconventional american hero

This is a story about an American hero. For decades, Hollywood has been reproducing the formula that "One hero that saves the world". The amplitude of Marvel movies and franchised hero products feeds the country's hunger for individual heros. Individualism, at its core, is what the nation always strives or claims to strive for. Thus, I admire Hacksaw Ridge for it is able to tell a story about a true American hero without completely following the conventional traps or cliches of the heroic story. Though some might argue that this is still a Hollywood movie, I think it has its own unique ways of retelling and rebranding the story so that the audience would find it new and illuminating.
 
As taught in my screenwriting class, a great film always outlines a hero's journey. They have something that they're passionate about, and one day, when it has been taken away by unforeseeable forces, the hero embarks on the journey to reclaim his love. While on the road, he always make unhealthy choices and thus we have the movie been made. After reexamining this formula, I think I'm secretly laughing at my own naivety, for Hacksaw Ridge almost matches all the key elements of the hero's journey. Thus, I think it is important to examine the hero of the story, and what makes him different. The first is of course, he is real. This kind of remind me of the movie "sully". While Sully is an American hero that saves the lives of 200 passengers, Desmond saves the lives of 75 fellow soldiers. Except for Desmond, the battlefield is much more fierce and complicated. While Sully fights against weather, the committee and his conscientious, Desmond fights against the enemy, human's physical limitation, other's disbelief in his faith and his belief in his faith.
 
It almost seems as if the whole world is against him and one man has to fight against the world for his true belief. In fact, it is Desmond's faith that sets him as the outlier and as the unwelcome, despite his willingness to contribute to the welfare of his country, let alone to die for his country. Thus, despite the harsh treatment by his fellow soldiers, he insists on doing what he believes and what he thinks is right. And he survives in the unimaginary situations and become everyone else's savior. Ironically, he becomes the savior to those who has bitterly belittled him in the first place. But when it comes to the matter of life and death, difference in faith has to be set aside.

 If I continue to write following the previous observations, I think my review would fall into the trap of merely recounting the story without analyzing the complexity of the characters. And I think the film did an amazing job of explaining Desmond's upbringing and how he end up being the man that he is on the battlefield. Many people think his belief in not holding the gun stems from fear, instead, it stems from the deep love the man have for life. Growing up, he learnt two bitter lessons about what rage can do to a person. One from his childhood pastime activities with his brother. The other from the violent exchange between him and his father. At the same time, the film also did a great job of making his father human, so that we understand what he has been through and would not blame him for what he has done to his son.

As audiences, we would be easily guide by our own prejudices and blame Desmond for his stubbornness. And later on, only to realize how wrong we're in making simple assumptions about Desmond just as the rest of his teammates. However, we're all human and it is nature to label the other as the "weird" outsider and ourselves as the mainstream. Only when we need the help from the other would we try to communicate and offer forgiveness to the other. And the director did an amazing job of revealing this great irony - the man that no one likes ends up saving everyone. It took us so long and it cost us so much only to realize how wrong we were in the first place. (Here, I'm simply trying to rephrase and repeating my lines. But I like a little wordplay to reemphasize what I think is crucial.)

I guess another shocking part of the film is that it provides such a visceral experience to the audience about the war and what happens on the battle ground. Maybe it is sending an anti-war and pro-peace message. I'm no expert and I'm not going to comment on this. The blood, the lost arms, the severed intestines, to name a few, are vivid details that displays the cruelty of the war on human race. We kill each other and we all will die. I'm no fan of war movies, for I'm scared of the bloody images when I'm younger. Growing up, I'm fed with movies about the Japanese conquering China and how the locals fight back against them. I can only remembers the strong hatred that I felt when I'm watching those films. And all the heros are surprisingly, without flaws.

Thus just to reiterate what I already said in the previous part of the piece. What makes Desmond special is that he is well below perfection and he is a hero with many flaws. He is shaped by maybe unfortunate circumstances to become the man he is today. Yet his belief in humanity and in his own religion makes him a hero in his own way.

While I've never watched other films by Mel Gibson, I do now have to do more homework and maybe revisit his work. As for the film's display in China, I think there're still certain elements of the film that are distinctively American and can be easily lost in translation. Because deeply within our cultural tradition, maybe we will never place religious faith at such a high grounds and would never have tolerated Desmond of being so different? However, we can of course emphasize with the anger, the rage, and the dismay during the wartime. And maybe the great visual storytelling can make up for some of that.

Thus, I do highly recommend this movie for its craftsmanship and its authenticity. This is about a cruel war between ordinary humans, but this is also about an extraordinary human becomes the saviors of his own kind.


- I watched this before the election night and after I got some terrible news that struck me by surprise. I feel so much better after watching this movie, for at least we do not have to deal with war and can bravely pursue what we think is worth fighting for.