Hacksaw Ridge (2016)
- To accurately portray their role in Hacksaw Ridge, Andrew Garfield spent weeks conducting hands-on research and rehearsing directly with director Mel Gibson.
- Despite initial studio skepticism, Hacksaw Ridge went on to gross over $180,600,000 worldwide.
Hacksaw Ridge is a 2016 American biographical war film directed by Mel Gibson and starring Andrew Garfield as Desmond Doss, a Seventh-day Adventist combat medic who served during the Battle of Okinawa in World War II. Doss was the first conscientious objector to receive the Medal of Honor, having refused to carry a weapon or kill any enemy soldier due to his deeply held religious beliefs while single-handedly saving the lives of 75 wounded soldiers during one of the Pacific War's most brutal engagements. The film follows Doss from his childhood in Virginia through his contentious military training โ during which he was beaten, ostracized, and nearly court-martialed for refusing to touch a rifle โ to the horrific combat on the Maeda Escarpment, a 400-foot cliff face that American troops nicknamed Hacksaw Ridge.
Andrew Garfield's performance earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, capturing Doss's unwavering moral conviction without making the character seem self-righteous or preachy. Mel Gibson's direction of the battle sequences was viscerally intense and unflinchingly graphic, drawing comparisons to the Omaha Beach sequence in Saving Private Ryan. The contrast between the film's gentle first half, depicting Doss's courtship with his wife Dorothy and his struggles with military bureaucracy, and the apocalyptic violence of the second half was deliberately jarring.
Hacksaw Ridge earned $175 million worldwide and received six Academy Award nominations, winning two for Best Film Editing and Best Sound Mixing. The film was also notable as Mel Gibson's directorial comeback after a decade-long exile from Hollywood following a series of personal controversies.
