“THERE’S a movie coming out that you have to see,” my friend Div Damodar said a few months ago. This simply wasn’t the young Mr Damodar promoting a movie. He was giving me advance notice that Mel Gibson was back in the director’s chair (actually Gibson rarely sits down while his films are in production).
This is how I found out about the movie Hacksaw Ridge. Normally I don’t watch war movies. With children at home, and mindful of the impact of the glorification of violence in Hollywood, especially when I was growing up, I’m cautious of what I watch and expose my children to.
However as it turns out. Hacksaw Ridge, doesn’t glorify violence — it lays out the violence of armed conflict in a very raw manner — which takes the “Rambo” factor out of action films. Don’t get me wrong. The movie is rated R13 because of intense prolonged realistically graphic sequences of war violence including grisly bloody images. However in the midst of all of this is a powerful story of someone who respects life.
Hacksaw Ridge is the extraordinary true story of Desmond Doss (played by former Spiderman, Andrew Garfield) who, in Okinawa during the bloodiest battle of WWII, saved 75 men without firing or carrying a gun.
A committed Seventh-day Adventist, Doss was the only American soldier in WWII to fight on the front lines without a weapon, as he believed that while the war was justified, killing was nevertheless wrong. As an army medic, he single-handedly evacuated the wounded from behind enemy lines, braved fire while tending to soldiers and was wounded by a grenade and hit by snipers. As a result he became the first conscientious objector to ever earn the Congressional Medal of Honour.
The film received a staggering 10-minute standing ovation during its world premiere at the 73rd Venice Film Festival.
Speaking to Fairfax Media’s Stephanie Bunbury, Gibson, who has links to Fiji through Mago Island, and has had his own issues to confront in the past few years, said Doss’s story made him look at his own values.
“We are a bunch of people full of flaws. So to try and overcome those negative things in ourselves, that are born in us — a good way to that is to choose love,” Gibson said.
“And this is what impressed me about Desmond. Greater love hath no man than he give his life for another and this guy, that is what he was about.
“He was putting his life on the line, crawling into all kinds of horrible situations, for his brothers, for anybody. It didn’t matter what they looked like or smelt like. That’s a pretty high calling.”
This is not just a war movie. Doss’ principled stand makes life difficult even before he reaches Okinawa. His childhood carries the scars of World War One, post-traumatic stress disorder and domestic violence.
Doss is moved by his faith to ensure he observes the 10 Commandments, including the commandment that “Thou shall not kill”. This principle is challenged in the face of World War Two and the thinking that this is a “just war”.
When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour, Doss was working at a shipyard in Newport News, a position which made him eligible for deferment. Though taking it might have been an easier means of staying true to his convictions, Doss felt a moral obligation to serve, especially because the fight was not just for freedom but for religious liberty.
He figured that as a medic, he could, as he put it, “be like Christ: saving life instead of taking life”. Doss also believed serving as a medic would prevent him from having to break the Fourth Commandment (to honour the Sabbath, observed by Seventh-day Adventists on Saturdays) because, as he argued, “Christ healed on the Sabbath”.
Because he refused to carry a weapon, the military wanted to brand Doss as a conscientious objector. Doss believed there was a name for what he wanted to do, a conscientious co-operator.
Joseph Lalonde writes of lessons learned from the movie Hacksaw Ridge, “What name have you been given by others? Could you take that name and give yourself a new one? When you do, you change the way you, and others, look at yourself”.
One of the most moving scenes for me was when Doss, armed with nothing but a Bible, carries his wounded comrades to safety, one by one, through enemy fire, repeatedly beseeching God to “help me get one more”. Facing heavy mortar, artillery and machine gun fire, the majority of the battalion retreated back down the Maeda Escarpment (Hacksaw Ridge), leaving dozens of casualties behind to face death or capture at the hands of the Japanese.
“I had these men up there and I shouldn’t leave ’em,” said Doss. “They were my buddies, some of the men had families, and they trust me. I didn’t feel like I should value my life above my buddy’s, so I decided to stay with them and take care of as many of them as I could. I didn’t know how I was gonna do it.”
He dragged them to the edge of the cliff and attempted to lower them down the escarpment, spending 12 hours up on the ridge rescuing the men, averaging one man every 10 minutes.
Respect for life; commitment to faith; love for others — these were just three of the lessons my family reflected on during the drive home after the movie.
Are we willing to help, “one more”, despite the inconveniences, difficulties and dangers, because it is the right thing to do?
I continue to reflect on how one can serve one’s country, serve others and remain true to one’s faith and convictions in a world where compassion can be seen as a weakness rather than a strength and integrity can be compromised for convenience.
“I knew if I ever once compromised, I was gonna be in trouble,” said Desmond, “because if you can compromise once, you can compromise again.”
“Simplicity, serenity, spontaneity.”
* Reverend James Bhagwan is an ordained Methodist minister and a citizen journalist. The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Methodist Church in Fiji or this newspaper.
