‘Hacksaw Ridge’: Mel Gibson’s New War Film Focuses On Conscientious Objector And Medal Of Honor Winner Desmond Doss [Video]

Hacksaw Ridge might help bring Mel Gibson back into Hollywood’s grace.

After a decades-long descent into near obscurity brought on by numerous self-imposed obstacles in the form of racist, sexist, homophobic, and anti-semantic rants that all but ruined his megastar career, it looks like Tinseltown might finally be willing to give the once-iconic actor and director yet another chance.

Before it went the way of the dodo itself because of its own dumb missteps, Gawker was kind enough to compile “All the Terrible Things Mel Gibson has Said on the Record,” in case you need a refresher. Tip: You probably don’t remember just how many of these little outbursts there were from Mr. Gibson, so you’re going to want that refresher.

Critics are hailing Academy Award® winning director Mel Gibson’s powerful new film #HacksawRidge. NOW PLAYING. Tix: https://t.co/e05eu2eZtL pic.twitter.com/Des2rKxMrU

— Hacksaw Ridge (@hacksawridge) November 5, 2016

After starring in and/or directing such cult classics as the original Mad Max trilogy and blockbusters like the Lethal Weapon franchise, Braveheart (1995), The Patriot (2000), We Were Soldiers (2002), The Passion of the Christ (2004), and Apocalypto (2006), Gibson’s career hit a brick wall when excerpts of a DUI arrest report quoting him as blurting out anti-Semitic comments went public in 2006.

The Los Angeles Times and other media outlets reported on the anti-Semitic comments at the time. The reports drew new attention to previous politically incorrect statements Gibson had made as well.

Until Hacksaw Ridge was released earlier this week, Gibson had not directed a film since Apocalypto. He’s also had trouble landing movie roles. He starred in The Edge of Darkness (2010) and Get the Gringo (2012), as well as the indie film The Beaver (2011), directed by his friend Jodie Foster. That film grossed less than $1 million in domestic box office sales, according to Screen Rant. Get the Gringo skipped theaters altogether and went straight to on-demand.

In other words, Mel Gibson has clearly been in a slump.

If early reviews are any indicator, Hacksaw Ridge just might be able to redeem him — at least in terms of critical reception and box office sales.

Discover the film critics are calling the best war film since Saving Private Ryan. #HacksawRidge – NOW PLAYING! https://t.co/e05eu1Xo5b pic.twitter.com/mL3Eq2Om9c

— Hacksaw Ridge (@hacksawridge) November 6, 2016

In Hacksaw Ridge Gibson focuses on the battlefield heroism of Private First Class Desmond T. Doss, a conscientious objector who served as an unarmed battlefield medic during WWII. Along with Corporal Thomas W. Bennett and Specialist Joseph G. LaPointe, Jr., both of whom served in Vietnam, Doss became one of only three conscientious objectors to ever receive the Medal of Honor, according to the website for the Selective Service System.

Doss’s Medal of Honor citation, which the Tennessean recently published in full, details actions that are almost too heroic to believe.

“He was a company aid man when the 1st Battalion assaulted a jagged escarpment 400 feet high. As our troops gained the summit, a heavy concentration of artillery, mortar and machinegun fire crashed into them, inflicting approximately 75 casualties and driving the others back. Private First Class Doss refused to seek cover and remained in the fire-swept area with the many stricken, carrying them one by one to the edge of the escarpment and there lowering them on a rope-supported litter down the face of a cliff to friendly hands.”

The citation continues like that, covering Doss’s actions over a several day period. It ends with an account of him being seriously injured by a hand-grenade blast, administering first aid to himself, and then insisting that his stretcher be given to another wounded man. After that, he is shot by a sniper, while still suffering from the grenade wounds, and fashions a splint out of a rifle stock and crawls 300 yards to safety.

The actions described occurred on the Ryukyu Islands, off of Okinawa.

Doss survived and received the Medal of Honor from President Harry S. Truman in 1945.

Hacksaw Ridge has been earning overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics, which is undoubtedly wonderful news for Mel Gibson.

“Hacksaw Ridge…is a bluntly effective faith-and-flag war drama, the true story of a remarkable hero with a knot of moral tension at its center,” A. O. Scott writes in a review of Hacksaw Ridge for the New York Times.

[Featured Image by Kemaaa | Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and Resized | CC BY-SA 4.0]