In the eyes of the action icon, Desmond Doss’ refusal to kill and fight alongside his brothers in arms didn’t make him any less of a hero, in fact, it made him more of a hero due to the fact that his sole focus was the preservation of those around him.
During the press junket for Hacksaw Ridge, I had the opportunity to ask Mel Gibson how he reconciled the story of a man like Desmond Doss with his previous roles as gun-toting killers.
He clearly saw the question coming, because he was immediately able to identify it as a moment of “evolution” for himself as a filmmaker and a storyteller.