Terry Benedict, a producer of Oscar-award nominated Hacksaw Ridge, talks about getting to know Doss, working with Mel Gibson and Andrew Garfield, and verifies an urban legend.
Hacksaw Ridge, the $55 million Mel Gibson-directed World War II film that tells the story of Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Desmond Doss completed filming in December 2015 and is now in post-production with a targeted release date of early November 2016 in time for Oscar consideration.
This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Okinawa, and director and actor Mel Gibson is working on making a film based on the life of one of the soldiers, Seventh-day Adventist conscientious objector, Desmond T. Doss, who won a Congressional Medal of Honor for saving dozens of lives while refusing to carry a weapon.
By Ryan Bell – In the United States, the claim that Christians are being persecuted is unsubstantiated. Of course there are cases of intolerance. Christians in predominantly secular contexts, like public universities and large cities like New York and Los Angeles, do experience discrimination, but it hardly rises to the level of what could be credibly called persecution.
In the end, I find this movie to be a whitewash of a very compelling story in a difficult time in American history. Racism and segregation are not portrayed as the evil, insidious institutions that they are, but are depicted instead as the result of catty White women attempting to maintain their place within their own social hierarchy. Furthermore, Toure, in his belated review of “The Help,” discussed the idea of the magical Negro, so I won’t get into too much of it here. But I will say that I highly doubt that a White toddler needed her Black maid to remind her, “You is kind, you is smart, you is important.” It would’ve made better sense if the child said it to the maid.