Hacksaw Ridge

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Hacksaw Ridge (2016)

Rated R

Directed by Mel Gibson             Production Company: Summit Entertainment

Starring Andrew Garfield, Vince Vaughn, Sam Worthington, Hugo Weaving

A young man volunteers for combat duty in World War II despite his spiritual convictions to not kill another human being.

Opening Thoughts

How was your Fourth of July? I spent mine with my family and I had a really great time, doing all the Independence Day goodness: parade, swimming, and grilling. I love being an American and being able to celebrate our nation’s birthday every year, and as wobbly as things have been in the past few years, I still think America is a great country. So when I was trying to decide on a movie for my July post, I was looking at several movies that felt patriotic to me, including Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Captain America, and The Best Years of Our Lives. After praying about it, I felt God highlighting Hacksaw Ridge to me.

I hadn’t seen this movie in a while, but I remembered the story and also that this movie was fairly intense, violence-wise. I gave it a rewatch, and yeah, it’s extremely gory in spots, but what was most impressed upon me was not the violence depicted, but the man Desmond Doss and his courage to hold to the convictions of his faith. Desmond was a true patriot, and when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, he, like many others, “took it personal.” He didn’t like bullies. But due to violence in his own background, he was committed to saving, rather than taking lives. Based on the real life story of combat medic Private Desmond Doss, Hacksaw Ridge tells the story of how this “conscientious cooperator” saved the lives of 75 men (some say more than that!) and went on to become one of the first CO’s to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor. Read on to see what God showed me in Hacksaw Ridge!

Spoilers For Hacksaw Ridge here!

The movie begins with a brief flash-forward of Desmond being taken away on a stretcher as he recites Isaiah 40, before flashing backward to his childhood. Desmond and his brother Hal argue, which escalates into a fistfight, culminating in Desmond clubbing his brother with a brick. Terrified that he has killed his brother, he stares in shock at a picture of the Ten Commandments, fixating on “Thou Shalt Not Kill.” His mother gently tells him his brother will live, but Desmond responds in horror, “I could have killed him!” His mother quietly agrees, reminding him that is why God has given us the commandment to not murder.

The film moves forward fifteen years, when Desmond falls in love with Dorothy, a nurse at a local hospital. He proposes and she accepts. Desmond also enlists in the armed forces as a WWII combat medic, to the disapproval of his parents.

Once Desmond arrives in boot camp, he is met first with frustration from his commanding officers, then with out and out harassment from his company when it becomes clear that not only will he not use weapons to kill enemies, but that he refuses to even touch a gun. Eventually Desmond is held in the brig for disobeying orders, forcing him to miss his own wedding, and his case is brought to a military tribunal. Desmond’s father, Tom, himself a veteran of WWI (and obviously affected by PTSD), uses his connections with his former commander to influence the deciding verdict, and Desmond is allowed to proceed in his combat medic training without being forced to use a weapon.

Desmond’s company arrives in Okinawa to take the Japanese bunkers at Hacksaw Ridge, which is atop a cliff accessible only by hanging cargo nets. The ensuing battle is harsh and intense, and Desmond’s medical skills are put to the test. At one point the chaos around him drives him to plead with God, “I don’t know what to do. I can’t hear your voice!” Immediately, he hears the voice of a fellow soldier crying for help and goes to assist him. Over the next night and day, Desmond risks his life to retrieve man after man, lowering them down the cliff to safety, all the while begging God over and over to “let him get one more.”

After rescuing dozens of men, Desmond comes upon his sergeant, Howell, pulling him to safety under a hail of enemy fire. He lowers him to the ground, then, grasping the body of a fallen friend, he flings himself over the cliff to the waiting arms of his unit below.

The men’s attitudes towards Desmond and his beliefs have completely reversed, with them now showing him the utmost respect. Desmond’s commanding officer, Captain Glover, comes to him asking for forgiveness regarding his former attitude and actions. He humbly asks Desmond to go back into battle with them the next day, even though it is his Sabbath, because he has become such an inspiration to all the men they don’t want to go to war without him. Desmond agrees, and the next day the entire company ascends to the battlefield one last time. This time, Desmond is wounded deflecting grenades thrown by Japanese, and as he is carried away on a stretcher, weakly asks for his Bible, which has gone missing. One of the men goes back onto the battlefield and finds it for him.

The film ends with footage of the real Desmond Doss, describing his time in battle, and receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor, one of the first conscientious objectors to ever do so.

So What Did God Show Me?

-I was watching the scene when Desmond and his brother are roughhousing, and I was thinking how easy it can be to get caught up in the moment of things and let our emotions take over. When that happens we lose control and don’t think about the consequences of our actions, like Desmond does when he whacks his brother with a brick. Obviously, it was not okay that he did that, and I’m sure we’ve all had those moments of “seeing red”. I know I have. I think with most people this happens more often than we would like, and depending on the outcome of the event, we can be haunted by the results of our actions for a long time. However, I think God can allow those adverse and chaotic moments to impress upon us the seriousness of the consequences when we lose control, which stays with us so that we can “do better” next time.

After bricking his brother, Desmond is in shock. He stares at a picture of Cain and Abel, with the words “thou shalt not kill” underneath, and you can really see how the full impact of his behavior is affecting him. Vaguely in the background his father is telling him, as punishment, he’ll have to beat him now, but his mother deflects him by saying that there is enough violence in him already, and beating him probably won’t have the desired effect on him. Instead, she talks with her son, telling him that his brother Hal will be ok. She lets him realize on his own the extent of his actions, and Desmond, still shaken, realizes how he could very easily have killed his brother in his anger and violence. His mother gently but firmly agrees with him, impressing on him how murder and the taking of life grieves God.

I like how his mother, Bertha, chose to deal with this situation. Desmond’s father Tom already beat him and his brother “because the sun came up and whipped them because it went down,” so another beating probably would not have made that much of an impression on him. Realizing that he legit almost killed his brother scared Desmond much more than the threat of a beating would have. But by letting him truly understand how close he came to killing his brother, Bertha was able to encourage Desmond’s convictions to cherish human life. Recognizing and owning up to his irresponsible actions gave him a greater respect for life and trying to preserve it in others.

-I cannot even imagine the depth of conviction that Desmond had to stand there in front of everyone and say that not only was he not going to kill anyone, he wasn’t even going to touch a rifle. I mean, picture this scenario. It’s World War II. America got surprise-attacked by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor and everyone was pretty understandably pissed about it. Many men were just itching to grab a rifle and mete out some well-deserved revenge. So for Desmond to stand in front of everyone and share his belief like that must have made him look like a traitor. I can hear some of the guys’ reactions now. “Oh, so you don’t care that the Axis forces are pissing on our doorstep? Maybe we should all lay down our weapons and invite them into the living room to take a dump on our couch!!”

In being so straightforward and public with his beliefs, Desmond was risking everything, the malice and mockery of his peers, the punishment of his commanding officer, getting kicked out of the military, just to stand true to his convictions. I was struck by a lot of similarities between what Desmond had to endure for his beliefs and the early Christians. Like Paul, Desmond was threatened with prison, suffered beatings, and was put on trial for what he believed in. Is there anything you believe in so much that you’d be willing to endure all that, truly?

I think a lot of people would have given up or compromised at that point, especially when he was forced to miss his own wedding, but Desmond remained staunch in his decision, no matter what anyone did or said to him. He absolutely refuses to compromise, even when Dorothy encourages him to “just wave a rifle around” to placate them. Desmond understood that if you compromise once, even just a little, that it’s that much easier to do again, and again. You get better and better at making excuses for your behavior until what was once so important just isn’t that big of a deal anymore.

I wish I could stand so firm in my own convictions, but I know that I’ve compromised many times, over and over. In the end I’m cheating no one but myself.

-At one point Desmond had the snot beat out of him by the other men in his unit. Half his body was bloodied and bruised, but he still made his bed (still stained with his own blood) neatly, and later, when confronted by his sergeant, Howell, refused to identify the men who attacked him or even admit that he had been attacked. Now, having been bullied as a child, there were plenty of times I lied about having been harassed, but usually the only reason I did that was because I discovered early on that if I exposed my attacker, I’d get it twice as worse the next day. I lied because I was scared. That is not what Desmond is doing here. He doesn’t identify his attackers because he knows that they are acting out of ignorance. Like Jesus, he is able to forgive them, because they “didn’t know what they were doing.”

I deeply admire his character in being able to do this, as well as taking the beating in stride, and not taking the easy way out by quitting, even when he was encouraged by Sergeant Howell, who told him there was no shame in it. Desmond felt God had told him to join the military and become a medic, and that’s what he was going to continue to work towards. God never promised him it would be easy, or that it would happen immediately.

-At one point Desmond was told by a frustrated Captain Glover, “You don’t win wars by giving up your life.” I found this incredibly ironic because first of all, that’s exactly what Jesus did. Second of all, this is what being a part of the military is all about! Maybe Desmond wouldn’t carry a gun, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t capable of fighting for his country. Because even if you do carry a gun that’s not necessarily going to save your life. There were dozens of wounded and dead soldiers on Hacksaw Ridge that were proof of that. Desmond even says, “It isn’t right that others should fight and die while I sit home safe.” Being a part of the armed forces isn’t only about defending our country, it’s about the very real possibility that you could lose your life on behalf of others. This is why every single member of the armed forces deserves our utmost respect. I’m the daughter of a major, the granddaughter of a colonel, and the great-granddaughter of a major general, and I have so much gratitude for these men who pledged to protect this country with their lives, if necessary. I was blessed in that I never lost any family members during wartime, but I know that wasn’t the case for so many.

-One of the other medics tells Desmond that the Japanese target the wounded. The Japanese would seek out and kill the wounded and medics as a form of discouragement and to break morale, so medics usually went into battle without their Red Cross markings. It made me think about how Satan also attacks the wounded and those who would help them. A wounded person is weak, and Satan will take advantage of that to try and take them out. Therefore he also has a special anger for those who would show compassion and love to a wounded person. (And I’m not just talking about physical wounds here.) I believe God is calling all of us to be “medics” to those wounded on the battlefield of life. Yes, like Desmond, if we put ourselves in that position, we put ourselves in the enemy’s crosshairs. But also, like Desmond, how as Christians can we afford to ignore the cries of the wounded for help?

-After the incident with his brother, Desmond has seen what violence can do in a life, and how it can affect others. But what really shifted his belief and made him determined to never harm another was one night when his father threatened his mother with a gun. Desmond came in between them and wrestled the gun away from his father. His father, who suffered PTSD after his experiences as a soldier in WWI, tells him to just go ahead and “pull the trigger”, but Desmond, thankfully, does not. His father, Tom, was a man of violence, and as a child Desmond looked to be headed in the same direction, but he chose a different path. I think this is a great example of how the fight with his brother affected his later decisions. Who knows, perhaps if he hadn’t almost killed his brother, if he hadn’t had the memory and the fear and regret of what he had almost done, he might have killed his father for beating his mother. But as Desmond later tearfully confesses, “In my heart I killed him,” and that was just as bad in his own eyes. All of this compounded to strengthen Desmond’s promise to himself and God to never touch a gun, because he had seen firsthand just how easy it would be to give in.

-At one point, Desmond is trapped in fear, panicking, and he questions God, saying he can’t hear him. But  then Desmond hears a cry for help from a wounded soldier, and knows immediately what it is that God wants him to do. In Matthew 25:40, Jesus talks about those who helped even the least of these were really helping him.

-One of the wounded men begs Desmond not to leave him, even though the other medics have already written him off. “He won’t last a day.” They feel it’s more important to focus their efforts on those who have a chance of living. The medic did have a point, but I love how Desmond refused to give up on a wounded man, even though everyone else tells him the guy’s not worth the effort. Desmond knew the soldier’s fate was in the hands of God, that he was precious to God, and that God had not given up on him, so neither should he. How many times do we give up on people in our lives because we feel they’re “too far gone?” Maybe someone you know is trapped in an addiction, or some other type of spiritual battle, and everyone is telling you not to waste your time on them. What is God saying about it?

-Desmond’s incredible depth of compassion extended even to the Japanese, when he assisted an injured Japanese soldier. Desmond, in helping the wounded, didn’t think about who the person was, whether they were worthy of saving because of their deeds, whether this one was more important to save than another. This included helping their enemy, the ones who were harming all the ones he was trying to save. Incredible. And he never rested in his work, always praying for “just one more.” How many of us rest on our laurels, feeling like we have “done enough?”

-Hacksaw Ridge, next to Saving Private Ryan, has what is probably the most realistic, and hence, the most bloody depiction of what happens on a battlefield. No punches were pulled to depict the hell of war. But in watching Desmond charge into the active battlefield to bring so many wounded to safety, I was reminded of Psalm 91, specifically verses 10 and 14 through 16: “Though a thousand fall at your side, though ten thousand are dying around you, these evils will not touch you,” and “The Lord says, “I will rescue those who love me. I will protect those who trust in my name. When they call on me, I will answer; I will be with them in trouble. I will rescue and honor them. I will reward them with a long life and give them my salvation.” Desmond trusted God, and God protected him as he sought out the lost and broken. God was with the wounded men and sent Desmond to rescue them.

I love Psalm 91. It’s always been one of my favorite psalms, and a good reminder that God loves us and will not leave us, no matter the circumstances. He is a shelter that we can run to and trust in.

-I deeply, deeply appreciate the humbleness and humility of Captain Glover coming to Desmond, literally hat in hand, and apologizing to him for his previous behavior. Glover had expressed frustration and anger towards Desmond, because he felt like he was being obstinate and stubborn to make the army kowtow to his wishes. He assumed Desmond would be useless and a liability to him and the rest of his unit. But watching Desmond stay behind when everyone else had fled and save the lives of 75 men all by himself, unarmed, really opened his eyes to Desmond’s heart and character. He was able to truly see Desmond for who he was – a brave man, full of compassion for all, ready to work and help and sacrifice in any way that he could.

It’s galling to admit when you’re wrong, and is never fun. Every time I have to admit I was wrong and apologize I feel awful, but I do it because it’s what God calls us to. He calls us to humble ourselves and recognize when we are wrong, when we sin. But the wonderful thing is that when we are wrong, we can go to him and confess where we screwed up and receive his forgiveness, which is unending.

One of the most powerful things about Glover’s approach was that not only did he apologize, he asked for Desmond’s forgiveness (which I’m sure he gave). It wasn’t enough for him to say he was sorry, he wanted to make things right between himself and Desmond. That takes a lot and I was proud of Glover for doing it. Sure, some could say that he only apologized because he was trying to manipulate Desmond into going back into battle with them, since all the other medics had been killed, but I think that’s ridiculous, he was obviously sincere.

-One of the most beautiful lines in the movie was “Most of these men don’t believe the same way you do, but they believe so much in how much you believe.” This is incredible, because all the men who mocked Desmond, beat him, made his life miserable now looked on him with awe. How was he able to accomplish everything he did? Alone? Unarmed? It was unbelievable.

After his courageous actions, the men see Desmond differently, maybe as a saint or even a guardian angel. But it’s extremely important to remember that Desmond was still just a human man, with a human’s flaws and shortcomings. Any “good” that Desmond had in him comes only from the goodness of God within us.

What the men were seeing was not in fact Desmond, it was the Holy Spirit in Desmond. All of it, the love, the bravery, the compassion and caring and unwillingness to leave a single man behind was all and only the Holy Spirit. This really made me think about myself. What am I showing people? Do they see the Holy Spirit in me? Through my actions, through my words? It’s a sobering thought for a Christian, because this is how God calls us to live every day.

-It shows just how much Desmond has inspired the men when near the end of the movie, the entire company waits on Desmond, delaying their attack, while he stands and prays for each one of them. All mockery is gone, every man is displaying the utmost seriousness and respect. Dare I say some of them might even have been filled with a strange hunger, to want to know more about this God that drove Desmond to do what he did, because how can you see such things and not believe that God is real and behind it all?? God preserved his life and enabled him to rescue so many others, and I desperately hope, every day, that my life might inspire that same hunger for God that Desmond’s did. Because nothing I do on my own, in my own strength, ever will.

Closing Thoughts

There really are no words after such a movie. It made me feel a lot of things. I’ve always considered myself a “Samwise”, in that I will charge up Mt Doom carrying my friends the whole way if need be. I confess I don’t stand up for myself very well, and get teased a lot about “getting a spine”, but if you come against one of my loved ones, God help you, because you will have ME to deal with, and I PROMISE you won’t like it.

In those situations, I always picture myself valiantly attacking enemies to take them down and defend others. But in reality, scenarios go much more like when I used to do karate: if by chance I actually landed a strike that took someone down, my reaction would usually be along the lines of “OMG, are you okay?? I am SO SORRY,” as I stood there, horror-struck that I might actually have hurt someone.

When I was young I got bullied. A lot, for a long time. While this had a variety of effects on me, one of the main things I took away from this was I never, never want to make anyone feel like I have been made to feel. This has caused me to exercise great care in holding my tongue, and my actions, in check. Not that I always succeed, but I try. I’m always trying to see life from others’ perspective, because, in the end, like John F Kennedy said, “We all breathe the same air, and we are all mortal.” (paraphrased).

Does this mean I think attack is never warranted? Heck, NO! The Bible is full of people whom God calls to go on the offensive. God calls us to go on the offensive against our enemy, the devil. The spiritual armor God gives us is not only for defense, he has given us the sword of the Spirit to use in our assault of the enemy. Even Desmond Doss was going on the offensive in his own way. He was fighting back against those who brought the war to America’s doorstep, he just chose to do it in his own way (which included showing mercy to his enemy.)

I believe that people should have the right to defend themselves, and I believe that violence can be used in that defense. I’ll admit it, I have fun going to the shooting range and reading my friend Josh Chadd’s zombie apocalypse book series “The Brothers Creed.” But I also believe that violence isn’t always the answer. I believe in the adage that you can catch more flies with honey. Oh, I don’t know, it’s like Jesus, I guess. He was a man of peace and a man of war. He turned the other cheek and went like a lamb to slaughter, but he also trashed the market at the Temple before driving out the moneychangers with a whip. I guess, when you really come down to it, the answer is compassion. It is good to have compassion, love for others. And when we send out that compassion and it is received, then violence can be avoided and that is good and preferred. But if we send out compassion and it is spit back in our faces and compounded with harsh acts of evil against us and the ones we love, then violence is unfortunately necessary. Matthew 11:12 says “And from the days of John the Baptist until the present time, the kingdom of heaven has endured violent assault, and violent men seize it by force [as a precious prize—a share in the heavenly kingdom is sought with most ardent zeal and intense exertion]” (Amplified Version).

Unfortunately so many people today do not practice true understanding, compassion, and putting themselves in the other’s shoes. They’d much rather stir trouble up than try to “cooperate” like Desmond. In the end, like in Desmond’s case, it’s going to take Jesus and his presence to bring about that understanding. I pray he does.

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