I went to watch Hacksaw Ridge. It was an experience and a half let me tell you. Oh my goodness, it's such a shocking watch and still absolutely stunning. Some of the shots are unbelievable, the effects, mise en scene, cinematography, just everything.

If you haven't heard of Hacksaw Ridge, where have you been?! Directed by Mel Gibson and based on a true events, Hacksaw Ridge is the story of Desmond T. Doss. Doss was a conscientious objector who, at the Battle of Okinawa won the medal of honour for saving a number of his fellow soldiers. We see his home life, how he was raised and this lets us understand his views. Doss has a strong religious view and has an anti-killing stance, this causes problems in his career and effects his personal life. We see his trials and tribulations after enlisting in the army and the horror of Hacksaw Ridge.

Before watching this, I totally thought that Lalaland (click on the link to read my review) would sweep the Oscars like it swept The Golden Globes, but now I'm completely swayed. Sure I think that Lalaland will win a few, it has to because it's amazing; best song for City of Stars, quite possibly. Hacksaw deserves an Oscar and the panel do love a good war film!

I'll admit that I wasn't keen on watching this film because I knew it was directed by Mel Gibson, I know it sounds silly but I just don't want to support a man who has some very negative views. However, the narrative intrigued me and if anything I was curious to see Doss's story being portrayed and how Gibson would do it. When I talk about the film now, I go on about how I just can't quite believe that Hacksaw is a Mel Gibson picture, I mean personally I just didn't expect such finesse.

Desmond Doss is played by Andrew Garfield in Hacksaw, most people know Garfield for being Spiderman in the Amazing Spiderman films where he starred alongside Emma Stone, who became his long term girlfriend. His performance in Hacksaw was stunning, Doss was put in a lot of situations that required many different emotions. Garfield made audiences experience a rollercoaster of emotions, the film in general was a rollercoaster and, in my mind, I felt that this was meant to be; WWII was a period when the world was in disarray, civilians didn't know what was going to happen from one day to the next- a confusion of feelings.

There were two performances in particular that pleasantly surprised me, Sam Worthington and Vince Vaughn. Worthington played Jake Sully in James Cameron's game changing epic Avatar and has completed upcoming film The Shack- a bestselling novel focusing on the trinity. Funny man Vaughn had a serious role in Hacksaw, this was the performance that stands out the most out of the two; I'm not a massive fan of Vaughn or comedy films in general and as soon as I saw him I thought 'Oh no'. Despite this, Vaughn actually provided a great performance that was both moving and funny. Worthington is the man that everyone hates in Hacksaw, playing Captain Glover, who wants Doss out of the programme.

Throughout Hacksaw I began crying in what would seem like random points, in the battle scenes, where there was no real dialogue, I cried because it was just so sad. Sad to think that the brutality that we saw on screen was real, a lot of men didn't get to go home and see their family, instead they died out there. I wouldn't say that it was majorly gory but it did have hardcore gore, you know major injuries to the limbs, gun shots etc etc. I sat with one thing running over my mind, this really happened! It's so horrific to think about, people viciously killing others for revenge and land; in Hacksaw, of course you're meant to be on the side of the Americans. Good vs bad, American vs Japanese- I was on side but I also considered that in reality the Japanese soldiers weren't evil. Yes, they killed a number of American soldiers but American's killed their comrades; both fighting for their country and doing whatever it takes.

Normally, I don't really go into costumes or setting because I'm not very good at it. Alas, I couldn't do this without mentioning all these features, the make-up/prosthetics were INSANE- genuinely could of believed that men had actually had their legs blown up. The costumes were simple but effective, the explosions scared the crap out of me and although I thought that you could tell in some sections about the special effects, it doesn't take away!

Oh and here's some extra little trivia. Lionsgate's profits are going to boom, the studio not only has ownership over Hacksaw Ridge but Lalaland. Lalaland when I last checked in Jan, had not even been out for a month yet it had 209 nominations and something like 148 wins! As well as having had a budget of between $20-30 million dollars and making almost $130 million in less than a month!

Finally, Hacksaw made me want to strive to achieve more. The story of Doss is just inspirational and after watching I kind of felt like I'm doing nothing with my life. This makes me want to work harder, to not take no for an answer and just GO GO GO!