Mel Gibson is coming for awards season and perhaps some career redemption with “Hacksaw Ridge” this fall. His first directorial effort since “Apocalypto” and his very public meltdown, he’s lined up an ace cast — Andrew Garfield, Vince Vaughn and Hugo Weaving — for a true-tory tale set against the backdrop of WWII. And for a director who has made his name on some particularly bloody stories, this one sees him switching things up just a little bit, with the drama focused on Desmond Doss, who refused to fight, but still served in his own way.
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“He was the first conscientious objector to be given the Medal of Honor. He never fired a gun. He was criticised by his peers, the army tried everything to kick him out, and he endured that because he wanted to serve as a combat medic in the worst place on earth,” Gibson recently said at the Sydney Film Festival (via IF). “Okinawa was a bloodbath. The highest death-toll in the Pacific. And when nobody else would go in there, he went in and saved 75 guys in one night — one at a time, under fire. And he did that again and again in places like the Philippines, and Guam.
“Most Medal of Honor winners do something insanely courageous in an instant. But he did it over and over again over the course of months. He really didn’t care about his own life,” Gibson added. “His line was that there was so much killing going on, he should do something to go the other way.”
It sounds like inspiring stuff, and apparently test screenings in Doss’ hometown of Lynchburg, Virginia have gone over well (“[the locals] wondered how we got in and shot there without them knowing”).
“Hacksaw Ridge” opens on November 4th. Check out the first poster below.