When the huge demonstration was held on 4 November in Jakarta and did not have the peaceful ending as what was promised, the following day made majority of the people avoid going out. My wife and I were among those who decided to stay home on Saturday morning. However, after seeing that finally the demonstrators from out of town were transported back to their home town, and the situation was much more better, we felt that we can still go out in a nearby place to have some dinner and a movie. The movie that we chose just premiered on Friday only in the Cinema 21 chain and it was the only movie that interest us in Setiabudi XXI. So let's get on with the movie.
Brief Story Line
Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield - The Amazing Spiderman 1 & 2, etc) grew up in a family of religious 7th Day Adventist church with his father, a veteran from World War 1 named Thomas Doss (Hugo Weaving - The Matrix trilogy, The Lord of The Rings trilogy etc) and his mother Bertha (Rachel Griffiths - Six Feet Under tv series, etc) and also his older brother Harold "Hal" Doss (Nathaniel Buzolic). During the World War 2, the US citizens were mostly drafted to join the army and go to war. However, due to his religion, Desmond was considered as a conscientious objector (more on this below) and was not drafted to the army.
Things started to change for Desmond when he met and fall in love to a nurse named Dorothy (Teresa Palmer - Lights Out, Warm Bodies, etc). He felt that he could make a difference in the war by becoming a paramedic. This idea was opposed by his father who could not stand losing his son especially when Hal already drafted to the army as well. But Desmond was very adamant that he should be allowed to volunteer and give his support without having to kill.
Desmond finally registered and went to the camp for training before going to war. He joined several other new members of the infantry including the tough guy Smitty (Luke Bracey - The November Man, Point Break 2015 version, etc), Milt "Hollywood" Zane, Randal "Teach" Fuller, Vito Rinneli, James Pinnick, Andy "Ghoul" Walker. Their nicknames were mostly given by the tough drill sergeant Howell (Vince Vaughn - Fred Clause, The Internship etc). During this training was found out that Desmond did not want to bring a gun or weapon at all. And this matter was brought to Captain Glover (Sam Worthington - Terminator Salvation, Clash of the Titans etc) who tried whatever it takes to make Desmond leave the infantry as he believed it would endanger the unit during the war.
Through so many obstacles, including being court-martialed, finally Desmond was allowed to be the paramedic and can join the war in Japan. The war itself was in Okinawa during the month of May 1945. So how did Desmond manage to be able to go to war? How could he help in the war when he did not even bring any weapon due to his beliefs? Find them all in this amazing movie.
End of Brief Story Line
Wow, this movie was very very good. At first I had my doubts about watching it, as when I saw the trailer, it seemed to be a too heavy movie for me. But as I said above, since there was not a lot of new interesting movie during this weekend (the other one was a horror movie which most likely I would be watching by myself sometime later), I really did not regret watching this one. It has everything from touching scenes, powerful moments, cool special effects, good make up effects, nice sound effects & music, and wonderful performances from the main characters.
My wife and I really enjoyed the movie and I think unanimously the audience (which was almost full house by the way), were amazed at this one and some of them even clapped their hands after it was finished. Despite around half of the movie was a little bit dramatic, with some romance and the other half was about the war, we really did not feel the movie too long even though its running time was 2 hrs 11 minutes. And surprisingly, the movie that I saw was fully without cut scenes.
Please be reminded though that the war scenes here were very brutal. Mel Gibson as the director did not make the war to be with elegant action scenes. They were totally what I believe a war would have been like. The scenes were gruesome and I really think that this is not a suitable movie for kids. So I would be surprised if parents would bring their children to watch this (which did not happen when I watched this one). The romantic scenes between Desmond and Dorothy was brief but nice and they seemed to have a believable chemistry.
The movie also has so many morale messages and I think each one of us would have our own impression. My wife was truly inspired with the scene of Desmond's confusion of what he was supposed to do in the war when the answer came to him in such a manner. While I myself was amazed of how strong Desmond can stand for his beliefs even with so many challenges were thrown at him. Even though this was a war drama movie, it also has some few funny moments. My most memorable scene was during the first training of Desmond and his fellow infantry unit led by Sergeant Howell. Those were priceless scenes.
Anyway, I think I am running out of praises to this movie. I understand that the movie got a 10 minute standing ovation after it was screened in the 73rd Venice Film Festival and it was widely considered as an Oscar worthy movie. I think that you can just simply go to the cinema and watch it. Remember that it's only playing in 1 cinema chain and not all major cinemas playing since most of them are still playing Doctor Strange and Trolls. I am not sure how strong the performance of this movie would be in Indonesia, so it maybe a good idea if you watch it earlier before it no longer plays in the cinema.
Happy watching!
Mike's movie moments rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Note:
According to Wikipedia, a conscientious objector means individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, disability or religion. This means Desmond has the right not to go for military service due to his religion, however he opted to volunteer for it to become paramedic. Desmond Doss got a lot of medals for his bravery and heroic actions during the war. And after seeing this movie, I think he really really deserved those medals. A true hero!
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