Mel Gibson again turns to war theme with ‘Hacksaw Ridge’

LOS ANGELES — In “Hacksaw Ridge,” Andrew Garfield portrays Desmond Doss, the first conscientious objector to earn the Congressional Medal of Honor. Doss, who enlisted in the army after the United States entered World War II, was a pacifist who refused to carry a weapon.

However, Doss believed in serving his country and worked as an army medic. In that role, he was the only American soldier in World War II to fight on the front lines without carrying or firing a gun. He believed the war was justified, but still stuck to his feelings about killing being wrong.

During the battle for control of Okinawa in the waning days of the war, he was credited with personally saving 75 men single-handedly — braving enemy fire and tending to soldiers. In that fight Doss himself was wounded by a grenade and was shot by Japanese snipers.

With “Hacksaw Ridge,” his first directorial work since his anti-Semitic comments during a DUI arrest made him a Hollywood outcast, director Mel Gibson shows the brutality of warfare in all its bloody reality. “It needed to be hellish and [for audiences] to see the battle in its full ferocity,” said the star of “Braveheart,” “The Patriot” and “We Are Soldiers.” “My goal was not only to pay tribute to the guys who had to suffer through it, and to give people an idea of what those men had to endure, but also to highlight the conditions of how a man without a weapon goes into incredibly difficult situations to lay his life on the line fearlessly.”

Doss’ faith as a member of the Seventh Day Adventist church was at the core of his conviction not to carry a weapon.

“They say there’s no atheists in foxholes,” Gibson said, only partially in jest. “That’s because when you’re in peril, I believe you’re looking to override the monstrosity of this horrendous earth-bound situation that you’re in. … Clearly in Desmond’s case, his conviction never wavered, and his faith was a strong part of that. That’s what inspired me to make this film.”

Sitting next to Gibson, Garfield paused when asked what he would have liked to discuss with Doss if he could have met him. Doss died at age 87 in March 2006, and it is well-documented that he long refused to allow a film to be made about his life and heroism in World War II. It was near the end of his life that he was convinced his story should be told to the public in the 21st Century.

“If I could have met Desmond, I would have been so intimidated, in a way,” said the actor. “But if that could have happened, I would have hoped to spend time with him and been quiet with him, more than talk. I think he was so truly humble towards the actions that he did on that battlefield. I don’t think he liked talking about it all that much. I think he would talk about the men that lost their lives over there, and his devotion to his God.

“I believe he was a very private person, and I would have respected that. But it would have been a dream to have spent time with him.”

The Doss story and “Hacksaw Ridge” clearly resonated with Vince Vaughn, who plays Doss’ drill sergeant in the film. “I have a lot of military in my family and have done a lot with the USO over the years. So it was nice when this came to me — plus Mel Gibson is one of my favorite directors out there. He’s done so well with these types of stories, about people with personal convictions in the face of a lot of adversity.

“Watching this film, I’m reminded about people who do stay true to their convictions and their faith despite peer pressure and adversity. We don’t make movies like this much anymore.”

In the film, Australian actress Teresa Palmer portrays Doss’ wife, Dorothy. If she could have met Desmond’s wife, who died in the early 1990s, Palmer said she principally would have wanted to know about the nature of the couple’s relationship and enduring, long marriage.

“Desmond Doss was such a humble and modest man. He didn’t share much about himself, because he didn’t want the attention. I would have wanted to know about their love and what it was like to be alive during the war. I also would have liked to know how it felt to know that her husband was going out into the brutality of war without a weapon to defend himself.

“It must have been so challenging to stand by him in that way and not convince him to come home, where he’d be safe.”

As for Gibson, Palmer laughed as she described the way he directed the film. “Mel was so passionate about this story and telling it right. He knew everything about this film — inside and out. … I was so surprised how well he knew Dorothy. He understood what made her tick. He got how emotional she could be. It was great getting these nuggets of wisdom from him about a woman falling in love in America in the 1940s. It was just another example of the intense research Mel did to prepare for this film.”