Gibson's robust directorial technique brings an undeniable punch to the combat scenes ... Elsewhere in the film, however, there's a sledgehammer lack of subtlety that is only partially mitigated by Andrew Garfield's impressive performance.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 29, 2017

If they gave out awards for "most movie in a movie", then no other movie need turn up.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 27, 2017

A rousing tale of Pacific War heroism that has more in common with jingoistic Wayne staples such as Sands of Iwo Jima or The Green Berets than anything in the 21st century, this is wearily formulaic film-making.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 26, 2017

Vintage Mel-odrama.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 26, 2017

Hacksaw Ridge is an old-fashioned war film, melded with a kind of new-fashioned explicitly violent drama.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 26, 2017

Mel Gibson's Hacksaw Ridge is one of the best Second World War movies since Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line. It is also a wildly contradictory affair, combining folksiness with a pathological quality.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 25, 2017

A sterling modern war picture with an intriguing moral twist.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 24, 2017

Occasionally soapy on the homefront but cataclysmic in combat, this is a worthy addition to the WWII canon.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 23, 2017

Hacksaw Ridge, the first movie Mel Gibson has directed in a decade, is about as Mel Gibson as you can get: grisly, devout, and patriotic, with a deeply complicated core.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 8, 2016

A fantastically moving and bruising war film that hits you like a raw topside of beef in the face - a kind of primary-coloured Guernica that flourishes on a big screen with a crowd.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 7, 2016

Gibson has made a movie that's nearly pathological in its love of violence-but he nonetheless counterbalances its amoral pleasures with an understanding of the psychological devastation that war wreaks.

| Nov 7, 2016

Hacksaw Ridge is a fine motion picture, one whose themes and ideas obviously speak to the filmmaker, and if Doss' story has helped change him as far as being a decent human being is concerned, that makes it all even better.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 4, 2016

As director, Gibson's approach is bold and fearless; this represents his best work to date behind the camera.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 4, 2016

For the sheer spectacle of the battle scenes, Hacksaw Ridge will go down as one of Gibson's finest contributions to cinema.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Nov 4, 2016

By the time Hacksaw Ridge reaches its necessary messianic finish, it's hard to not be moved by the boggling heroism of this dutiful man.

| Nov 4, 2016

War is hell, but Hacksaw Ridge sacrifices that truth in favour of something far more insincere.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Nov 4, 2016

The battle scenes in "Hacksaw Ridge" are among the most violent captured on film - and also the most urgent.

| Original Score: B+ | Nov 4, 2016

The scenes in battle are as harrowing as any ever put on screen. We are in the midst of utter carnage and chaos.

| Original Score: B | Nov 3, 2016

Hacksaw Ridge is being touted as Gibson's comeback. Is it also an atonement? 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.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Nov 3, 2016

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.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 3, 2016