Hacksaw Ridge; The Conscientious Objector; The Unlikeliest Hero

Desmond T. Doss, an extremely committed conscientious objector, was awarded the Medal of Honor for extraordinary feats of valor and compassion during a May 1945 battle on Okinawa. He took no Japanese soldiers' lives but saved at least fifty American lives. Doss's story has been the subject of two major treatments prior to Hacksaw Ridge. Booton Herndon's 1967 biography The Unlikeliest Hero provides valuable background to Doss's life before and after the war and sheds light on his wartime experiences. Terry L. Benedict's excellent documentary The Conscientious Objector (2004) devotes by far the most coverage to Doss's wartime service. Interviews with Doss and several of his comrades, some at the location of Doss's heroism in 1945, greatly enrich Benedict's study. Most Americans will probably know Doss only through Mel Gibson's Hacksaw Ridge. Based on these first two sources, perhaps the highest accolade that Hacksaw Ridge earns is that it “does right” by Doss. The actor Andrew Garfield skillfully and faithfully captures Doss's deceptively simple exterior and his deep and complex interior. Through Garfield we see that Doss's profound faith was much more than rote recitations of Bible passages; it was, above all, a relentless motor driving him in selfless service to others

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