During the Battle of Okinawa, WWII American Army medic Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield) becomes the first man in history to receive the Medal of Honor without firing a single shot.
Directed by Oscar-winner Mel Gibson, “Hacksaw Ridge” is a biographical war drama film about the World War II experiences of Doss, an American pacificist combat medic who was a Seventh-day Adventist Christian.
The film stars Sam Worthington, Luke Bracey, Teresa Palmer and Hugo Weaving. It has been nominated for six Oscar awards, including Best Picture.
As the war in the Pacific entered its final, most deadly days in 1945, the US forces in Okinawa encountered some of the most ferocious fighters ever witnessed. Desmond Doss, who despite vowing to never kill, served boldly as an unarmed medic in the infantry. He went on to single-handedly save the lives of dozens of his fallen fellow soldiers under lethal fire without firing a single bullet.
An unwavering Seventh-day Adventist, Doss was living in Virginia when he voluntarily enlisted in the US Army. Skinny, vegetarian and unwilling to train on Saturdays, let alone carry a gun, Doss was initially ridiculed and abused by his compatriots. But Doss persisted all the way to Okinawa, where his unit was ordered to take part in the near-impossible capture of the massive Maeda Escarpment—the Hacksaw Ridge. Atop this steep, looming 400-foot cliff lay heavily fortified machine-gun nests, booby traps and Japanese soldiers in caves who vowed to fight to the end.
Doss would go on to receive the Medal of Honor from President Harry Truman in 1945, with a citation that drew attention to “outstanding bravery and unflinching determination in the face of desperately dangerous conditions.”
“Here was a man who, in the most pure, selfless, and almost unconscious way, repeatedly risked his own life to save the lives of his brothers,” Gibson said. “Desmond was a completely ordinary man who did extraordinary things. Desmond underwent intense persecution for his refusal to waver in his conviction, then went on to enter the hell of war armed with nothing more than his faith, and emerge one of the greatest war heroes of all time.”—CONTRIBUTED
“Hacksaw Ridge” opens on Feb. 22.