"Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."  –  Isaiah 40:30-31

Over a montage of carnage and mayhem, those are the words spoken by Desmond T. Doss, the hero of director Mel Gibson's emotionally exhausting and spiritually humbling Hacksaw Ridge, a movie that starkly reminds us of the fragility of life and the ease with which it can slip away.  

Just a decade following his last turn in the director's chair with Apocalypto, Gibson returns full-throttle and all systems go to give us an unflinching account of the first conscientious objector to win the Congressional Medal of Honor, during the Battle of Okinawa in World War II. This is textbook Gibson, replete with all his trademarks: rural boy thrust into combat, persistent faith through persecution, romance preceding violence, and triumph amid brutality. Though he doesn't pass the bar he set with Braveheart, some moments edge that standard, held back by a somewhat uninspired first half.

The story begins with Doss – a devout Seventh Day Adventist – as a boy learning the painful consequences of violence when he smashes a brick over his brother's head during a fight, nearly killing him. As his brother lays unconscious, Doss remorsefully gazes upon a wall where the sixth commandment, "Thou Shall Not Kill," instills in him the conviction never to take a human life. He later gives up even holding a gun as an adult (played by Andrew Garfield) when he nearly kills his abusive father (Hugo Weaving) in an effort to protect his mother (Rachel Griffiths) from being beaten.

However, as war looms on the horizon, Doss feels it his duty to serve his country and enlists as a medic, but not before striking a romance with a local nurse (Teresa Palmer). The best scenes in these early stages are between Weaving and Garfield, with the former suffering from the grief and trauma he endured in World War I. Weaving arguably gives the best and perhaps most poignant performance of his career, portraying a deeply haunted man incapable of finding grace in his own survival. 

The scenes in basic training represent some of the film's weakest, with standard training montages and a Full Metal Jacket-style Drill Sergeant (Vince Vaughn). Eventually, Doss's religious refusal to carry a weapon comes into conflict with the military powers that be, leading to a court-martial where it is decided that he can march into battle as a medic without a single weapon to protect himself. Once the battle of Hacksaw Ridge gets underway, the movie really finds its stride and Doss demonstrates that heroism doesn't necessarily always come out of the barrel of a gun. 

Make no mistake, the battle scenes here are some of the most harrowing since Saving Private Ryan, although not as relentless. Despite the strong (sometimes overt) references to faith, Hacksaw Ridge earns a hard R-rating and is not a film for the whole family, so take caution about whom you bring. 

Garfield perfectly captures the character of Doss, steadily walking a tightrope to give us a humble man of unwavering faith that never crosses the line into blind dogmatism: innocent, but not naive; fragile, but not weak; convicted, but not fanatical. Vaughn gives a nice, and rather unexpected, turn as the hardened Sergeant Howell and Palmer radiates as Doss's love interest.

In Braveheart, Gibson tactfully rendered the sentimentality between himself and Catherine McCormack, and he repeats that rather uncannily here, complete with a kiss over a scenic backdrop. You really care about these two and the romance feels genuine. The film also makes a point that even if spouses sometimes don't share each other's convictions, holding steadfast to them is crucial for the sake of maintaining mutual respect.  

The power of conviction and its ability to sway people toward specific ends lives at the heart of Hacksaw Ridge​, primarily Christian versus pagan belief, artfully demonstrated by Gibson when he juxtaposes Japanese soldiers committing suicide by harakiri with Doss clinging to his Bible. Social Justice Warriors won't be watching Hacksaw Ridge in their safe spaces.  

Some on both the right and left have gone so far as to say the movie endorses pacifism. That's not a fair summation. Doss sees no moral equivalency between the Americans and Japanese imperialists, and unlike Muhammad Ali and the draft dodgers of Vietnam, he volunteers to serve and is willing to lay down his life, placing faith in God. Nothing bolder and more courageous than that.