Mel Gibson's 'comeback' Hacksaw Ridge hailed by critics

The reviews for what’s being called Mel Gibson’s ‘comeback’ movie ‘Hacksaw Ridge’ are in… and as predicted, they’re glowingly positive.

Some critics reported back on the movie following its premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September, where it received a 10-minute standing ovation, but now the bulk of the critical community has weighed in.

Thus far it holds a hugely respectable 88% ‘fresh’ rating on reviews aggregator website ‘Rotten Tomatoes‘, meaning the vast majority of reviews are positive.

Gibson and his cast, including Andrew Garfield and Vince Vaughn, have even scored a few five-star notices too.

“Hacksaw Ridge is being touted as Gibson’s comeback. Is it also an atonement?,” asks Rolling Stone‘s veteran reviewer Peter Travers.

“What’s clear is that Gibson has made a film about family, faith, love and forgiveness all put to the test in an arena of violent conflict – a movie you don’t want to miss.”

Peter Keough in the Boston Globe adds: “Mel Gibson is a filmmaker with strong beliefs, one of which is the redeeming power of spectacular, voyeuristic pain and violence.”

Kyle Smith in the New York Post adds: “If the film’s director were anyone but Gibson, a fixture on or even atop Hollywood’s enemies list, it would be expecting several Oscar nominations.”

In the Washington Post, Ann Hornaday writes: “Hacksaw Ridge winds up being a rousing piece of entertainment that also happens to be an affecting portrait of spiritual faith and simple human decency.”

Others were aware of its shortcomings, but praised it nonetheless.

Matt Zoller Seitz for RogerEbert.com writes: “This film is inept and beautiful, stupid and amazing. It doesn’t have the words or images to express how deep it is.”

Just a handful weren’t taken in at all, notably Michael Phillips in the Chicago Tribune, who says Gibson portrays Desmond Doss, the medic and conscientious objector who won a Medal of Honor in WWII but refused to bear arms, as ‘a messiah not a man’.

“I respectfully, conscientiously object to the way Desmond Doss has been simplified and sanctified in the movie. But Gibson has talent to go with his demons, and someday he may realize it in full,” he writes.

Tim Grierson in the New Republic adds: “There’s power in Gibson’s simplicity and hardheaded certainty, and there are moments so utterly absorbing that quibbles about the lack of character nuance feel beside the point. And yet, his brand of heroism ultimately feels too one-dimensional.”

The movie is due out in the UK on January 27.

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