FILME REVI W a rope-supported litter down father had nearly repeated the fought for freedom, he couldn’t COURAGE COMES IN DIFFERENT KINDS the face of [the] cliff to friendly crime of Cain. “stay here while all them go fight Review by Marc LiVecche hands.” for me.” And so he enlisted, with The details of both of these mo- the intention of supporting the 2016 Doss did all of this without firing ments are, for dramatic pur- war effort as an Army medic, a HACKSAW RIDGE a shot. From childhood, up to poses, altered in Hacksaw; but noncombatant, and therefore Directed by: MEL GIBSON, Written by: Robert Schenkkan and Andrew Knight | Produced by: William Mechanic, and through his military train- each retains the substantive without carrying a weapon. David Permut, Terry Benedict, Paul Currie, Bruce Davey, Tyler Thompson, William D. Johnson and Brian Oliver ing, and over the entirety of his point. Moreover, they remain Starring: Andrew Garfield, Sam Worthington, Luke Bracey, Teresa Palmer, Hugo Weaving, Rachel combat deployment to Guam, reminders that while the ex- Initially, the Army had other Griffiths, and Vince Vaughn. Leyte, and Okinawa, Pvt. Doss tent of the interpenetration of plans for his service career, and refused to handle a weapon. He personal history and the will is Doss’ stateside military training Mel Gibson’s Hacksaw Ridge, combat first hand. Those as- wasn’t even rifle qualified. mysterious, it is clear that envi- would prove that courage comes which had a solid opening over sociate with the film have been ronmental forces shape us, and in different kinds. Refusing to the November 4th weekend— very vocal about their hope that One of Hacksaw’s producers, help to set our moral compass. even train with a firearm, Doss earning box office bronze behind it serves veterans by recognizing Terry Benedict, is also the writer Doss grew up convinced that his was repeatedly accused by his blockbuster-style competition— what they’ve gone through and and director of an award-win- religious convictions required peers of cowardice. His superi- is the true story of Pvt. Desmond acknowledging the ongoing debt ning documentary about Doss. that he commit himself to a life ors feared he would be a weak T. Doss (Andrew Garfield), a that is owed them. Veterans Released a few years before of non-violence. Indeed, as the link, diluting the battalion’s mis- U.S. combat medic with the groups have responded with Doss’s death in 2006, The movie suggests and Benedict sion effectiveness. In an effort to 307th Infantry Regiment who appreciation—some saying that Conscientious Objector served explicitly affirmed, Doss’ com- get him to accept conscientious received the Medal of Honor for Hacksaw is among the most ac- as primary source material for mitment was comprehensive— objector status, and be moved to valorous action at the Hacksaw curate depictions of combat ever Gibson. Taken together, both he became a lifelong vegetarian, a work camp for the duration of escarpment during The Battle rendered. A second purpose is films bring into focus two mor- having given up meat when he his service, he was subjected to of Okinawa. The fight for the simply to emphasize the courage ally formative moments from discovered himself unable to ridicule, intimidation, varying ridgeline was a brutal, ten-day required to do what Doss did. Doss’ childhood. wring the neck of a chicken for degrees of assault, and threats brawl. Part of a line of cliffs run- dinner. of court marshal. ning across much of the south- No sooner had his battalion The first is of his fascination ern part of the island, Hacksaw finally gained a foothold on the with a framed illustration of the Importantly, however, while Now, it must be said that mili- Ten Commandments that hung noting Doss’ non-violence, tary authorities were not with- was a forbidding 400-foot high Image credit: Lionsgate. plateau, than a heavy concen- barrier impeding the completion tration of artillery, mortar, and in his Seventh-day Adventist we mustn’t too quickly con- out grounds. In pursuit of its home. It was the image of the of the allied capture of Okinawa. that the Okinawan clash would counterattacking Japanese in- clude that Doss was a pacifist. mission, the U.S. military is all sixth commandment that most Many reviewers have assumed about the application of con- Knowing that the loss of the come to be called the Typhoon fantry crashed into them. The disturbed him: Cain standing, this conclusion, and not with- trolled violence. It is not a lib- island would put the Japanese of Steel. American soldiers and onslaught drove the majority club in hand, over the lifeless out cause. It does not, how- eral institution open to plu- homeland within reach of reg- Marines suffered crippling casu- of the Americans back down corpse of Abel. Doss remembers ever, appear to have been the ral perspectives, nor should ular American bombing—and alties, at one point losing eight the escarpment, but dozens were left trapped and dying on lamenting aloud, “How in the case. Against the suggestion, it be. It must rely solely on an allied ground invasion—the company commanders in less the battlefield. Hearing their world could a brother do such a Benedict insisted to the con- whatever is most effective for deeply entrenched Japanese than 36 hours. had been preparing against that cries, Doss refused to retreat thing?” In that instant, he heard trary. “Desmond’s story is not winning the fight, within the and stayed in the fire-swept the voice of God declaring, “If about pacifism,” he asserted, laws of conscience and armed prospect for years, and the pla- Gibson gives to his war story teau atop the escarpment was area. Over the course of the next you love me, you won’t kill.” “Doss passionately believed— conflict. Rightly recognizing the treatment he gave the cru- transformed into a fortified hive twelve hours, Doss would carry From that moment on, Doss like the rest of the observant that America’s enemies are not cifixion in The Passion of the of hardened pillboxes, intercon- his injured comrades from the recalls, “I didn’t ever want to country—that the war had to themselves conscientious ob- Christ, rendering the battle a ca- necting caves, spider-holes, steel combat zone to the cliff’s edge, take life.” happen.” Benedict insisted that jectors, the military of necessity cophony of mud, flame, viscera, and concrete reinforced weap- first under the inadvertent, and Doss saw no fundamental con- trains men of violence to stop spurting stumps, concussing ons emplacements, and tens dangerous, cover provided by a The second formative moment tradiction in being both a good them. of thousands of determined, noise, and the mulched bodies U.S. artillery barrage unleashed involves a fight between Doss’ Christian and a good soldier. and besieged, Japanese war- of screaming men. It is a horrif- to cover the American with- drunken father and his uncle. Regardless, Doss refused to riors. They were ready for the ic, brutal, bloody bit of realism. draw and pound the enemy, and The incident escalated until Lending credence to such accept objector status—he in- Americans. In discussing the violence of the later while evading Japanese his father grabbed a pistol and claims, Doss would indeed be sisted he was a “conscientious battle scenes, Gibson is quoted patrols that prowled the battle- threatened to kill. Doss’ mother a rather odd kind of pacifist. cooperator.” He eventually won The attacking U.S. forces would as agreeing, with remarkable field killing American wounded. was eventually able to intervene, Although he was eligible for a out. He would go on to prove be thrown back off the escarp- understatement, “Yeah, they According to his Medal of Honor giving young Doss the weapon to draft deferment—because of his himself anything but a weak ment nine times in seven days. get hairy.” But, to his credit, citation, by the end of the night hide in the woods. He returned employment as a war industry link. In addition to his Medal Machine gun fire was so thick the violence has appropriate Doss had singlehandedly fer- in time to see his father being worker at a shipbuilding yard— of Honor on Okinawa, Doss that men were cut in half and fell purpose. First, it is an attempt ried “75 casualties one-by-one escorted away by the police. he, in his own words, “felt it was was awarded a Bronze Star with in heaps like jumbled cordwood. toward a kind of empathy with to the edge of the escarpment The trauma was exacerbated for an honor to serve God and coun- valor on both Guam and Leyte, Shells landed in such volume those who have experienced and there lower[ed] them on Doss by his realization that his try.” Believing the war was being and would earn a Purple Heart

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Providence_fall16_beta.indd 76-77 11/29/16 8:28 AM during each of the three island God who told you not to putting the world back together Pushing back on such state- campaigns. His motivation was touch a rifle?” again—just as a surgeon, despite ments might seem like splitting always his desire to serve his the gore and knife-work, is aim- hairs, but linguistic precision God, his country, and to love Desmond Doss: “God ing at health as he cuts away a is important. Just as an illus- his men. “They were my bud- says not to kill. That’s gangrened leg. In this world as trated Ten Commandments one of his most important dies,” he said, “some of the men it is, and not as we would have in a child’s room would better commandments.” had families, and they trusted it, hardship is often the road to morally form impressionable me. I didn’t feel I should value peace and wholeness. young people were it to more my life above my buddy’s, so I CS: “Most people take that to mean Don’t com- accurately render the sixth com- decided to stay with them and Lastly, we must also take care mit murder. War is a mandment “thou shall not mur- take care of as many of them as I not to overstate what Doss completely different set der” rather than “not kill”, the could.” Such character, Benedict accomplished. How can one of circumstances.” descriptions we use to portray shared, would come to be spe- overstate such extraordinary reality, including theological cially revered even among that DD: “I don’t see it that heroism? By misrepresenta- truth, are freighted with moral august cadre of fellow Medal way” tion. Several commentators, of Honor recipients, who in- including Mel Gibson himself power. Words matter. Images vited Doss to be their informal CS: “…King David was a in an interview about the film, are powerful. chaplain. Doss’ own men, who warrior king and much have suggested some variation had tried so hard to be rid of loved by God” of the idea that Doss went into Such moral precision is import- him, would come to trust, love, battle “with nothing to defend ant if we are to accurately por- and respect him. One of them DD: “That’s the Old Image credit: Lionsgate. himself except his faith.” This tray Mel Gibson’s extraordinary laughed, “[We] called him a nut. Testament! Jesus said, isn’t, of course, strictly true. new film as not about pacifism ‘a new Commandment contradictory obligations that non-violence in adherence to But what a beautiful nut.” but rather about the undeniable I give unto you that you they were finally incompatible. the ethic of Christ, he recogniz- As the film demonstrates more than once, Doss himself was moral and physical valor of an The question of whether follow- love one another…’” So while the same person could es that others, even Christians, kept from death by fellow sol- exceptional human being who, ing Christ can be squared with not rightly pursue both voca- might well be called to the ethic Some of these lines appear to be diers who used violence to save on many fronts, is eminently killing in war is a debate as old more than simply statements of tions, at least at the same time, of responsibility. as the Christian tradition itself. Aquinas believed both priests him. Indeed, in the first assault worthy of shaping the moral personal opinion. They seem to over the Hacksaw escarpment, vision of young people. On the Hacksaw Ridge, celebrating one make claims for Christians qua and the fighters of just wars had, Perhaps so. Nevertheless, the a Japanese soldier leaps on issue of killing in justified wars, committed to personal non-vi- Christians. These cannot be as their vocational aims, divine normative-sounding claims, as Doss, intent on killing him. Doss I believe Doss was dead wrong— olence, will be understood by simply written off as a the film’s goods. Therefore, he instruct- they stand, still suggest a fun- many to be taking the side of ed priests, though abstaining damental misunderstanding of struggles against his enemy but, and yet I stand in awe. In a portrayal of Doss’ views. The unwilling to use violence, the pacifism. For certain, both the real Doss makes similar norma- from just wars themselves, to the Christian view of war. Just Western culture increasingly contest can ultimately have only film and, in various interviews, tive-sounding claims. In one in- dispose and counsel other men wars, the only kind worth con- bent on denying basic religious one conclusion—unless some- Doss himself, would seem to in- terview he says, “I was fighting to engage in them. Alternatively, sidering, are fought to restrain liberties to people of faith, Doss’ one intervenes on Doss’ behalf. vite the view. In Hacksaw, Doss for freedom by trying to save life Doss’ view could have been that evil, to restore what was wrongly grit in refusing to stand down is Happily, someone does; and is portrayed on more than one instead of taking life, because I of Reinhold Niebuhr. Niebuhr, stolen, and to protect the in- an inspiration for everyone— the Japanese soldier is shot off occasion contrasting his role couldn’t picture Christ out there to my mind, never exactly dis- nocent. They are aimed at the whether a warfighter, academic, the top of him. The idea that with that of the trigger pullers with a gun killing people. I like abused himself of being a pac- restoration of justice and order baker, florist, or anything else— around him. Prior to enlisting, and, thereby, building a lasting we could choose between vio- to think of him out there with ifist, as most of his interpret- struggling to love their neighbor he says says to his father, “While ers assert. He insisted that the peace. Rightly understood, it is lence and non-violence in the an aid kit like me.” Elsewhere in light of their love of God in everyone else is taking life, I’m gospel example of Jesus Christ not that some are simply ‘tak- dark days of Nazis fascism or he comments, “I didn’t believe a hostile world that no longer going to be saving it.” Later counseled not simply non-vio- ing lives’ or ‘tearing the world Japanese militarism is false. in taking life. God gave life. It understands love. on, in a scene before his court wasn’t for me to take it.” lence but non-resistance. At the apart’ in contrast to Doss ‘sav- Whenever non-violence is an marshal board, he puts it this same time, he understood the ing lives’ and ‘putting the world equally efficacious option to Hacksaw Ridge is a crucial re- way, “With the world so set on Giving the normative-sounding biblical message to also counsel back together’. This is why resist grave evil or protect the minder of the importance of tearing itself apart, it doesn’t claims a less stringent under- political responsibility, includ- Aquinas’ discussion of war and innocent, then the just war religious liberty, personal integ- seem like such a bad thing to standing, we could see Doss’ ing protection of the innocent. the Apostle Paul’s discussion tradition lands on the side of rity, sacrificial love, and courage want to put a little bit of it back “pacifism” as the vocational In this conflicted world, the of the governments sword can non-violence. But because our together.” There’s also an im- kind—in the sense of its being a ethic of Christ is impossible—in both profitably take place within adversaries have a say about under fire—both enemy and portant exchange with Colonel personal calling from God. Even that it cannot mitigate the plight the context of their respective the conditions of life, some- friendly. Stelzer, an army psychiatrist Thomas Aquinas, who did much of the innocent—whereas the disquisitions on Christian love. times only lethal counter-force who is evaluating Doss’ ethical to systematize just war teach- ethic of responsibility is not im- In view of their intended aims, will do the job. The miracle on Marc LiVecche is managing position: ing, believed that certain vo- possible. Reason dictates we do there is no difference between the Hacksaw escarpment would editor of Providence. This re- cations—including warfighting what is possible over attempting Doss and those of the just war- not have happened had Doss view is an expanded version of Colonel Stelzer: “I’m try- and the priesthood—had such what is not. So while Doss be- rior: both are answering the not also been defended by men an essay that originally appeared ing to understand. Was it equally important but often lieves his personal calling is to vocation of saving lives and with guns. online at tothesource.org.

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