I always thought Mel Gibson's films were terribly self-aware and high art-like - considering he is supposedly a very funny man who doesn't take himself too seriously, he has a Christian sentimentality that is so close with Spielberg's Jewish/Scientology sentimentality. Spielberg is obviously Jewish and I do remember there being rumour a while back that he was a closeted non-practicing Scientologist - which would make sense in a way - but regardless, the point I'm making is that he takes his films a bit too seriously sometimes and the cheese is so much that it would enough to knock a fly from a turd. It just appears that he uses very different levels of sentiment and I often think that, that sentiment comes on thick in any film that centres around theology/religion. And nearly every Mel Gibson film has a slither of religious - sometimes a slither the size of an iceberg, sometimes a splinter.
And while I liked Hacksaw Ridge, I spent a portion of my viewing time wondering if I was believing what I was seeing - and I think that is what it is - it is such a fantastically unbelievable story that it doesn't need embellishment of any sort. At times, I felt like I was getting he story rammed down my gullet while the eye candy kept me from gagging.
It was all a bit too much... But while Braveheart had that too at times - it was far more palatable because whatever you think of Mel Gibson, he is a great fucking actor. Andrew Garfield isn't - he really isn't and I agree with others, he did a good job, but was terribly mis-cast for the role... But the action and story carried him through (no pun intended). He had some very good scenes but I kept on thinking "That is that kid from Boy A".
He'll have a hard time shaking off that boy next door thing - unfortunately for him, while that may have been what Gibson wanted - on this occasion, for me, he was that boy next door but one.
Vince Vaughn tried to do the underplay that worked so well for Clint Eastwood - I kind of liked it, but can see why others didn't.
