If there’s one thing Oscar loves, it’s a gritty and inspiring WWII drama. For your consideration in the 2016 awards season: “Hacksaw Ridge,” a big-screen retelling of the Battle of Okinawa and the heroism of U.S. Army medic Desmond T. Doss.
Directed by Mel Gibson and written by Andrew Knight and Robert Schenkkan, from a story by Gregory Crosby, “Hacksaw Ridge” stars Andrew Garfield as Doss, a Seventh-day Adventist who enlisted to fight in the islands off Japan—and refused to carry a weapon because of his religious beliefs. Despite ridicule and disbelief from his superiors, he single-handedly saved 75 lives in battle without ever firing a gun, eventually becoming the first conscientious objector in American history to earn the Medal of Honor.
In the trailer below, we see glimpses of the immeasurable odds Doss faced under enemy fire as he continued to rescue his comrades. “With the world so set on tearing itself apart,” he states, “doesn’t seem like such a bad thing to me to want to put a little bit of it back together.”
“Hacksaw Ridge” co-stars Vince Vaughn, Sam Worthington, Teresa Palmer, and Hugo Weaving. The buzzy film charges into movie theaters—and into the Oscar race—Nov. 4. Don’t miss it!
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