ReligiousLiberty.TV / Founders' First Freedom®  – News and Updates on Religious Liberty and Freedom
Menu
  • Home
  • Articles
  • Church and State
  • In the News
  • In the News
  • Supreme Court
  • Free Speech
  • Legislation
Menu

Gibson Filming Project Based on War Hero Who Refused to Carry Weapon

Posted on April 7, 2015April 7, 2015 by Michael Peabody

 

USA-P-Okinawa-p277b

(Pictured: Maeda Escarpment, Okinawa, 1945)

[dc]T[/dc]his 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 in the battle even though he refused to carry a weapon as a matter of religious conviction.

In March 1945, 182,000 American soldiers and 1,300 ships approached Okinawa, located 360 miles southwest of Japan, with the intent of using the island as a major troop and air force base for the planned invasion of the main islands.

More than 100,000 Japanese soldiers, led by Lt. Gen Mitsuru Ushijima, defended the hilly island from positions in bunkers and fortified ridges. The Japanese planned to allow the Americans rush ashore and then take full advantage of the terrain to attack them from several sides.

The battle began on April 1 as Marine and Army troops landed on relatively accessible beaches and quickly established a 27 square mile beachhead. As the troops went inland, the terrain changed and the Americans faced significant resistance with Japanese troops sending dense waves of mortar and artillery fire down on the Americans, killing thousands and disabling their vehicles.

Private First Class Eugene B. Sledge of the 1st Marine Division called Okinawa “‘the most ghastly corner of hell I had ever witnessed?.Every crater was half full of water, and many of them held a Marine corpse. The bodies lay pathetically just as they had been killed, half submerged in muck and water, rusting weapons still in hand. Swarms of big flies hovered about them.’ Wherever he looked, Sledge saw ‘maggots and decay. Men struggled and fought and bled in an environment so degrading I believed we ‘had been flung into hell’s own cesspool.”  (See HistoryNet – “Battle of Okinawa: The Bloodiest Battle of the Pacific War“)

On April 29, the 96th Infantry Division attacked the Maeda Escarpment, or Hacksaw Ridge, a heavily defended escarpment, and 500 Americans were killed. The 96th was eventually relieved by the 77th Infantry Division.

dossHere, in the midst of untold carnage, Private First Class Desmond Doss, a Seventh-day Adventist conscientious objector who refused to carry a weapon even to protect himself, crawled to wounded soldiers, dressed their wounds, and carried them to the edge of the cliff where they could be lowered to medics below. When he was hit by a grenade fragment, he dressed his own wound rather than endanger another medic. The litter bearers finally arrived five hours later, and as they were carrying him to safety, the three were attacked by a tank. Doss saw that another man who was more critically wounded lay nearby, and Doss crawled off the litter and told the bearers to help the other man. While waiting for their return, Doss sustained a compound fracture to his arm after being shot, bound up his ‘own arm using a rifle stock as a splint, and crawled 300 yards to the aid station.

On November 1, 1945, Doss received the Congressional Medal of Honor from President Truman, for  “his outstanding bravery and unflinching determination in the face of desperately dangerous conditions Pfc. Doss saved the lives of many soldiers. His name became a symbol throughout the 77th Infantry Division for outstanding gallantry far above and beyond the call of duty.”

This will be Gibson’s first film since “Apocalypto” filmed in 2006. The Doss character will be played by Andrew Garfield who is best known for his role as Spider-Man / Peter Parker in “The Amazing Spider-Man” (2012) and “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” (2014).

Among the producers of the film is Terry Benedict who filmed the award-winning documentary “The Conscientious Objector”  (2004), Gregory Crosby who also wrote the treatment, Paul Currie, Bruce Davey, Steve Longi, Bill Mechanic, David Permut, James M. Vernon, and Suzanne Warren. (See IMDB.)

The Doss story was introduced to Gregory Crosby by Stan Jensen, who is an advisory panel member of ReligiousLiberty.TV.  According to Crosby, “[a]lthough I’ve been a creative and production executive over the years, I never really had the desire to produce anything until my dear friend Stan Jensen of the Seventh Day Adventist Church brought me the amazing story of PFC Desmond T. Doss, the first conscientious objector in history to win the Congressional Medal of Honor.  I was so blown away by the story, I knew right away I wanted to be involved with the project from beginning to end.  What an inspiring man Desmond was — the REAL Forest Gump — a man who refused to kill or even touch a gun for that matter, even during bootcamp.  He was beat down, made fun of, and treated like a coward, but he didn’t care.  It was between him and God, and he was determined to serve his country his way and not give up.  As incredible as it sounds, Desmond was able to save over 75 lives in the Battle of Okinawa using faith as his only weapon.”

Hacksaw Ridge is slated for release in 2016.

For a history of conscientious objection see Michael Peabody’s article in Liberty magazine, “Watch His Conscience” July / August 2010.

Category: Film and Television, History, Military

3 thoughts on “Gibson Filming Project Based on War Hero Who Refused to Carry Weapon”

  1. Dan Kelly says:
    April 7, 2015 at 4:44 pm

    Doss paved the way for thousands of other Conscientious Objectors (CO’s) that have followed him in the service of their country. I served 2 years at the 130th Station Hospital in Germany specialing patients fresh out of surgery until they recovered from anesthesia. I was very pleased to do so.

  2. Tom Parsons says:
    April 7, 2015 at 11:37 pm

    The Medal of Honor is not won as if one was in a contest, it is awarded for conspicuous acts of valor on the battle field. There is a difference….

Comments are closed.

©2025 ReligiousLiberty.TV / Founders' First Freedom® – News and Updates on Religious Liberty and Freedom
Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experience, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}