“Corporal Desmond Doss, I hereby state that I have received an application for allowing you to go in War in Okinawa without the use of any weapon. Are you sure you want to do this?” These were the final words from the Commanding Officer of Desmond Doss. But who knew, that one day the same guy would be honored by the Hollywood in such a way.
“Hacksaw Ridge” is based on the life of conscientious objector Corporal Desmond Doss who saved the lifes of hundreds in Okinawa during World War 2. He was also the first conscientious objector in the world to be honoured with the Guard of Honour for his honorary services to his nation.
The movie is directed by Mel Gibson with the screenplay of Arthur Knight, Robert Schenkkan and Randall Wallace. Andrew Garfield is seen in the lead role as Desmond Doss. Teresa Palmer,Vince Vaughn,Sam Worthington, Luke Bracey and Hugo Weaving will be seen in the side roles. The project is under the banner of Cross Creek Pictures who are counting heavily on this as this is the only project they may have this year.
The overall budget for the project was 55 million. The movie was shot in New York and other parts of Japan for the war scenes. Well, the timing of the movie is under question when both US and Japan are trying to sort their age old differences and such a war based movie may give Donald Trump a new reason to debate for ongoing election campaign.( Pun Intended)
And it’s not just the story or the hero that people wanna know about. What’s surprising is Andrew Garfield stood up for such a role. We have seen him in other films playing romantic,childlike,funny roles, the best being the role of Peter Parker in “The Amazing Spiderman” series. When asked about this, he said” Yeah it was difficult,obviously. I am not used to such roles. But then, you are an actor and you have to stand up, adapt as per the demands of the role. Gibson asked me to be patient, talk less and work more on generating emotions rather than humour. So it is on the flip side of the roles I have done till now. I will miss that humour part for sure.” But, we can see from the trailer that he did worked on his looks for the role. The transition from the young high school boy charms to a weather beaten soldier face is truly commendable.
Even during the promotions, director Mel Gibson never stopped complimenting Garfield for his dedication. He said,” Well, he was definitely dedicated. I heard he can do only “funny” roles. I even asked him if he is sure he can do this. He asked for a week’s time and when he presented me the part, it was no less than perfect for me.”
Talk about heroes and we think of firing bullets, swords, superpowers etc. But Desmond Doss was different as he promoted the idea of saving lives for his nation rather than taking them. And thus , Hacksaw Ridge is a must watch for this guy,gave a new definition as to what our heroes would be like.