Scheduled for release in October, 2024’s Flight Risk will become Mel Gibson’s first feature as a director in eight years. For his last release in that regard, we go to 2016’s Hacksaw Ridge.

Due to childhood experiences and a deep religious faith, Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield) firmly believes in the Sixth Commandment: thou shalt not kill. Despite this, Desmond enlists in the Army when the US enters World War II.

Desmond’s pacifism makes him an outcast among his fellow soldiers. However, he sticks to his guns and serves as a medic, a choice that leads to immense danger.

After a mix of bigoted comments in both 2006 and 2010, Gibson’s career took a major hit. Outside of his directorial work for 2006’s Apocalypto, Gibson essentially went AWOL over this period, as he didn’t act in any movies between 2003’s Singing Detective and 2010’s Edge of Darkness.

While not back to his prior A-list status, Gibson has acted pretty consistently since then, whereas his efforts behind the camera prove less frequent. That surprises me since one might expect Gibson’s time in exile would impact him less without him on screen.

In any case, Gibson’s directorial return with Ridge proved fairly successful. Though not a box office smash, it made $180 million worldwide on a $40 million budget, so it turned a profit.

Ridge also received good critical notices. It enjoyed six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director for Gibson.

All of this helped rehabilitate Gibson in the public eye, which is why it surprises me he didn’t direct another movie for eight years. Perhaps he just preferred the lower pressure and bigger paychecks involved with acting.

Ridge became Gibson’s fifth effort as director and comes as part of a fairly good filmography. Actually, I don’t know if I ever saw 1993’s Man Without a Face, but I thought his breakout 1995 flick Braveheart worked pretty well, even if I never thought it deserved the Best Picture Oscar.

2003’s Passion of the Christ turned into a massive box office hit, but I thought it suffered from too many flaws. Though it didn’t find a major audience, 2006’s Apocalypto delivered an unusual and satisfying effort.

Where does Ridge fall in this range? I’d place it along Braveheart, as both can seem superficial but they offer entertaining takes on their topics.

Really, the biggest problem with Ridge stems from its inability to make Desmond a particularly three-dimensional role. This turned into an issue with Passion as well, and both share similarities in that domain.

In particular, both films follow their leads through suffering related to their devotion to their beliefs. However, neither digs into their main characters in a particularly deep manner.

With Desmond, we get a borderline gratuitous nod to the source of his pacifism and not much more. We follow the struggles he suffers as he stays with his convictions but the movie fails to flesh out much of his inner life.

Actually, some of this criticism is probably a bit unfair, as Ridge does give us some illustrations related to Desmond’s mindset. Still, I don’t think it makes him feel like a full-fledged person, as he tends to exist more as a symbol than a human.

Garfield does fine in the part, though he was a good decade too old for the role – and looked it. The real Desmond was barely 23 when he enlisted, whereas Garfield was 32 during the film’s shoot and doesn’t remotely pass for a guy in his early 20s.

Still, Garfield manages to add depth to his performance. Although the script doesn’t give him much with which to work, he nonetheless ensures that Desmond feels reasonably real.

Ridge comes with an enticing hook. The real Desmond earned a Congressional Medal of Honor for war heroics though he never engaged in actual combat.

When Ridge gets to that part of the movie in its second half, it does well. As we saw in Braveheart, Gibson knows how to stage compelling battle sequences, and he paints the brutality of WWII in a dynamic and terrifying manner.

The issue comes from the fact we find ourselves stuck with fairly trite material until we get to that part of the film. As noted, the movie doesn’t make Desmond a particularly interesting role, and the dramatic domains tend to feel a bit trite.

Still, that second half does provide a pretty solid view of warfare. Painted in graphic detail, Ridge gives us a strong partrayal of Desmond’s efforts during battle.

That seems like enough to make Ridge a largely compelling film. While its more character-based moments tend to lean cliché, the combat elements pack enough of a punch to compensate.

Hacksaw Ridge appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.40:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. This became a fine image.

Across the board, the movie presented nice clarity. Little to no softness materialized, so the film boasted an accurate presentation.

No signs of moiré effects or jaggies occurred. The movie also lacked edge haloes or print flaws.

In terms of palette, Ridge favored a combination of teal and amber, with an emphasis on the latter. Those choices came as no surprise, and the 4K UHD reproduced them in a satisfactory manner, with an extra boost from HDR.

Blacks showed strong depth, while shadows were good, with nice opacity and clarity. HDR added punch to whites and contrast. All of this was enough for a “A-”.

I felt consistently pleased with the excellent Dolby Atmos soundtrack of Ridge. Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, the soundscape offered frequent room for information to emanate from the various speakers.

The mix used those chances well. The soundtrack delivered involving auditory material that spread out across the speakers in a satisfying manner and that blended together nicely.

This meant an active track in which the surrounds kept the mix humming. Plenty of action moments made this an impressive soundfield.

Audio quality also satisfied, as speech was natural and concise, while music sounded peppy and full. Effects turned into the primary factor, and those elements appeared accurate and vivid.

Bass response added real depth and rocked my subwoofer. Expect a top-notch sonic experience here.

How did the 4K UHD compare to the Blu-ray version? Both came with identical Atmos audio.

Though finished 2K, the 4K disc offered slightly superior delineation as well as better colors and blacks. As good as the BD looked, the 4K topped it.

As we head to extras, a documentary called The Soul of War goes for one hour, nine minutes, 45 seconds. It provides notes from director Mel Gibson, producer Bill Mechanic, writers Robert Schenkkan and Andrew Knight, son Desmond Doss Jr., visual effects supervisor Chris Godfrey, 2nd unit director Mic Rogers, assistant special effects supervisor Lloyd Finnemore, composer Rupert Gregson-Williams, re-recording mixer Kevin O’Connell, and actors Andrew Garfield, Sam Worthington, Luke Bracey, Hugo Weaving, Rachel Griffiths, Teresa Palmer, and Vince Vaughn.

“Soul” covers Desmond Doss’s tale and its path to the screen, story/characters, Gibson’s approach to the material, cast and performances, sets and locations, various effects, stunts and action, music and audio.

With more than an hour at its disposal, “Soul” enjoys the space to develop a good look at the production. At times, it succeeds.

However, “Soul” comes with an awful lot of happy talk, and that bogs down the program. While still fairly informative, the show seems too erratic to work as well as I hoped it would.

A Veterans Day Greeting from Mel Gibson lasts one minute, two seconds. Gibson thanks vets but also sells the movie, so don’t expect completely altruistic motives.

Six Deleted Scenes occupy a total of four minutes, 32 seconds. As one can infer from that running time, none of them last very long.

We get some minor character beats most of the time, though we also see a bit more related to Desmond’s court-martial. None of them seem especially compelling.

We also find the trailer for Ridge.

A second disc provides a Blu-ray copy of the film. It includes the same extras as the 4K.

The Blu-ray opens with ads for Patriots Day, Deepwater Horizon, Hell or High Water and Blood Father.

As a war movie with an unusual lead character, Hacksaw Ridge takes a while to get into a groove. However, once it enters combat, the film prospers. The 4K UHD comes with strong picture and audio as well as a decent set of bonus materials. This winds up as a fairly effective drama.

To rate this film visit the prior review of HACKSAW RIDGE