World War II · Film · 2016
Hacksaw Ridge
Desmond Doss, a Seventh-day Adventist from Virginia, joins the army as a medic but refuses to touch a rifle, and must prove himself on a cliff on Okinawa.
Where it happened
Follow the story across 2 places.
Stop 1: Lynchburg, Virginia
Shaped by a violent father and his faith, Desmond falls for a nurse, Dorothy, and enlists as a medic after Pearl Harbor.
Stop 2: Maeda Escarpment (Hacksaw Ridge), Okinawa
Key location
When a counterattack drives his unit off the ridge, Desmond stays behind alone and starts lowering the wounded down the cliff by rope.
What really happened
Desmond Doss enlisted in April 1942 and served as a medic with the 307th Infantry Regiment, 77th Infantry Division, on Guam and Leyte before Okinawa. The Battle of Okinawa, from 1 April to 22 June 1945, was the bloodiest of the Pacific war, with more than 12,000 Americans and over 100,000 Japanese soldiers killed and tens of thousands of Okinawan civilians dead.
On the Maeda Escarpment, which soldiers called Hacksaw Ridge, Doss stayed on top after his battalion was driven off and lowered wounded men down the cliff one by one; his Medal of Honor citation credits him with about 75 lives. The film leaves out his earlier campaigns, and his court-martial is invented: in reality the army tried to discharge him but never tried him.
Where to watch
Checking streaming services…
Full details
- Original title
- Hacksaw Ridge
- Directed by
- Mel Gibson
- Countries
- United States, Australia
- Languages
- English, Japanese
- Released
- 2016
- Period
- –
- Theaters of war
- Pacific, The Americas
- Themes
- Combat
- Biography
- True story
