The story of conscientious objector and army medic Desmond Doss. Sam Worthington is in this so…
— Alan
Wow, what a remarkable man:
He was a company aid man when the 1st Battalion assaulted a jagged escarpment 400 feet [120 m] 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. Pfc. Doss refused to seek cover and remained in the fire-swept area with the many stricken, carrying all 75 casualties 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. On May 2, he exposed himself to heavy rifle and mortar fire in rescuing a wounded man 200 yards [180 m] forward of the lines on the same escarpment; and 2 days later he treated 4 men who had been cut down while assaulting a strongly defended cave, advancing through a shower of grenades to within 8 yards [7.3 m] of enemy forces in a cave’s mouth, where he dressed his comrades’ wounds before making 4 separate trips under fire to evacuate them to safety. On May 5, he unhesitatingly braved enemy shelling and small arms fire to assist an artillery officer. He applied bandages, moved his patient to a spot that offered protection from small arms fire and, while artillery and mortar shells fell close by, painstakingly administered plasma. Later that day, when an American was severely wounded by fire from a cave, Pfc. Doss crawled to him where he had fallen 25 feet [7.6 m] from the enemy position, rendered aid, and carried him 100 yards [91 m] to safety while continually exposed to enemy fire. On May 21, in a night attack on high ground near Shuri, he remained in exposed territory while the rest of his company took cover, fearlessly risking the chance that he would be mistaken for an infiltrating Japanese and giving aid to the injured until he was himself seriously wounded in the legs by the explosion of a grenade. Rather than call another aid man from cover, he cared for his own injuries and waited 5 hours before litter bearers reached him and started carrying him to cover. The trio was caught in an enemy tank attack and Pfc. Doss, seeing a more critically wounded man nearby, crawled off the litter; and directed the bearers to give their first attention to the other man. Awaiting the litter bearers’ return, he was again struck, by a sniper bullet while being carried off the field by a comrade, this time suffering a compound fracture of 1 arm. With magnificent fortitude he bound a rifle stock to his shattered arm as a splint and then crawled 300 yards [270 m] over rough terrain to the aid station. Through his outstanding bravery and unflinching determination in the face of desperately dangerous conditions Pfc. Doss saved the lives of many soldiers. His name became a symbol throughout the 77th Infantry Division for outstanding gallantry far above and beyond the call of duty.
I read this guys story years ago and always thought it should be made into a movie. He was religious (a Quaker maybe?) and absolutely refused to pick up a gun and kill. After threatening to throw him in prison hey made him a medic. The men in his company mercilessly teased and berated him about it and called him a coward. Eventually the company gets into a huge fight and most of them are shot, blown up and wounded. The crazy motherfucker saved his whole company one by one in a Herculean feat of endurance, courage and absolute refusal to leave even one man behind, even though he took all the brunt of their scathing ridicule. The climax to this movie is going to be fucking amazing if they do it right. It doesn’t get any more dramatic than gaining the undying, and unswerving respect from almost a hundred men through an act of sheer badaasery that saves them all.
Oh, forgot one more insane thing he did. He was wounded badly in the legs while out saving yet another man and had to wait hours in agony until a litter came to get him. On the way back to the field hospital he and his litter bearers, along with some more guys nearby, get attacked by a TANK. He sees other wounded men after the battle and CRAWLS OFF his litter and is like “take them!”. If they had someone do that in a fictional story no one would buy it, it would come off too selfless, too brave, too much of a sacrifice. But this guy did it. Also won the Medal of Honor for his actions. The citation of the Medal reads like something Audie Murphy would look at and go “damn, that dude is a badass”.
Great story.
By the way, you can use the [details] tag to hide text like the old spoiler tag.
Summary
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This movie is quickly becoming quite the darling at press preview screenings.
Geez, my eyes are tearing up just reading the description.
You know that rare feeling you get when you hear about an upcoming movie or see a trailer for it and realize you have to see it. You will see it. In the theater. Nothing will prevent you from going. This is for me one of those movies.
Relevant podcast about him and other conscientious objectors.
I can’t think of a better role model and someone to look up to than this guy. Stands by what he thinks is right, suffers for it, bears it. When pushed against the wall and given the decision what to do, goes above and beyond anything any battlefield medic has ever been recorded doing. Sets the bar for everyone else in history. He made a makeshift gurney and lowered it down a cliff time after time with his injured comrades. Note that I didn’t say buddies or friends. They didn’t respect him like that yet. But can you imagine dozens of soldiers, all scared and bleeding and hurt, when this guy they made fun of and bullied starts dragging them to safety one by one. And they have to wait there until he gets closer and closer to them. They are at his complete mercy. He can say “enough, I’m exhausted or too scared” anytime. I bet the emotions were overwhelming. I’m betting there were big tough grown men crying out of fierce respect mixed with an utter shame. This is gonna be an intense film.
My one concern is I don’t really like the casting. That actor seems more like the “whiney skinny kid” type. I would have loved to have seen a younger Christian Bale in this, with his sheepish downcast looks and fierce eyes.
Fuck. Why did Mel Gibson have to be involved? Grrrr.
Saw this over the weekend. Did not have too much advance anything on it except that it was about a medic at Okinawa and Mel Gibson directs. Also caught something about it being a movie about ‘faith’ in a sort of ‘no atheists in fox holes’ sort of way. I would not have gone out of my way to see it except that my teenage son wanted to see it because supposedly the WWII combat scenes were ‘awesome’.
Let me just get this out of the way. The combat scenes were ‘awesome’ in the sense that they were ‘terrible’ as in ‘terrible to behold’. Absolutely some of the most gut-wrenching violence put on screen. I would say positively gratuitous except that in a way, that ‘war is terrible’ is a big part of the movie so I guess it gets a pass. In any event; nobody should be applauding at how our brave fighting boys are giving the Nips hell (or vice-versa). It’s ultra grim and bloody and awful.
That being said, it was truly a fantastic movie experience and reluctantly I’m going to have to tip my cap to Crazy Mel Gibson on this one. He didn’t rub the faith/religion in my face. It’s at a very appropriate level that, even as an atheist (albeit, one who has never been in a foxhole) I completely appreciated. I don’t know who the newcomer young actor is who plays our protagonist but he was extremely accomplished and brought a lot of innocence and humility to the role without being a humorless churchbot.
Shout out to Vince Vaughn in a very un-Vince Vaughn role as the company Sargent. In all, a serious movie but there are times when Vaughn is chewing out his troops that are laugh out loud funny.
Do recommend. It was certainly not the movie I was expecting and (despite the onslaught of war violence in parts) I was grateful for that.
The actor portraying Doss (Andrew Garfield) was the previous Spider Man as well as Eduardo Saverin in The Social Network.
— Alan
Ah. Duh. Right there in the title too.
I sure hope there is a gag reel somewhere that has Vince Vaughn talking to Andrew Garfield after Pvt. Doss has ushered numerous wounded to safety. Telling him, “You’re so money and you don’t even know it.”
The movie didn’t live up to the powerful story just in the summaries in this thread (in addition to leaving out some specific, impressive details of the heroics).
I think it would’ve been better with a different director. And cast. And script. The first half, before the war, struggled to hit the right tone as a period piece and frequently just seemed hokey or corny. I get that Andrew Garfield as Doss was supposed to be a bit of a corny guy by design, but it all felt, well, like a movie. Cliches, unnecessary slow motion (at every point in the movie, not just in the explosions at the end), flat cinematography outside of a couple moments in the war, and an opening flash-forward that seems unnecessary and removes some tension from the later battles. One problem with Garfield specifically involves a production detail that’s a spoiler if you don’t already know the story:
There’s interview footage with the real Doss at the end of the film. Once I saw the real Doss, it occurred to me that maybe I didn’t like Garfield’s performance because it felt a little like he was doing an impression the whole time. I think more often than not that’s a distraction when portraying real people, it’s usually better to just get the right actor to give their own performance. Maybe I’m off base in that assessment, but it’s my best theory for why Garfield didn’t work for me in the role. Well, that, and Garfield’s haircut didn’t seem period-appropriate. But he wasn’t alone, Weaving and Vaughn seemed miscast as well.
The movie fairs better once they get to the war, and it would be difficult to overstate how gruesome things get. The first major battle had almost a gory, goofy, horror vibe to it, like Sam Raimi stepped behind the camera for the battle. From there things proceed violently, predictably, heroically.
So, whatever, it was decent, but I think the critical praise must be for the fact that this is a real amazing thing that happened, not for any particular skill in bringing it to the screen.
Of course I’m not doing this movie any favors seeing it the same day as Arrival, which I loved, and loved particularly for the production and cinematography (which carry a lot of weight for me in movies).
It’s a romance… a flicking romance publicized as a war movie
I got NoMans Land tricked…`
I saw this today. It’s actually a pretty good movie, as in deep emotional and horrifying. They’re absolutely correct in saying it’s bloody. The first 1 hour or so isn’t on the front, but shortly after we get there it’s all sorts of eew. Having said that, the gross factor is probably only a notch, maybe half a notch higher than Saving Private Ryan. I think in this movie it was needless gross in that area, but for those who want to know that’s where i would put it.I’ll also admit i looked down a few times before… well it was graphic.
As far as the story goes, it was a good story, and it is a good movie. I think there are a lot of movies out there that are good stories about interesting people but the movie barely holds it together and therefore it’s not a good movie. If this were fiction, I’d probably not believe it, but really well done. There a few actors in there that I find… wanting in other movies, but I think they did their parts well. I didn’t find anyone wanting really. I was drawn in on an emotional level.
Are you talking about Sam Worthington? Because Ithought he was pretty darn good in this. Less sure about Vince Vaughn though.
As for the movie itself, it makes me glad Gibson’s out of Hollywood jail. I don’t think the script’s much good; the first half especially is really corny and shallow. Once we get to the ridge though, his savagery salvages the movie for me. I think I want him making borderline scuzzy exploitation movies for the rest of his life.
I also didn’t expect to come out of the movie feeling so ambivalent about its hero as I do. Ultimately, I kinda side with the rest; he’s being prideful. He’s willingly and enthusiastically supporting the war effort, but his refusal to touch a gun shifts the burden of taking lives to others out of…basically selfishness. At least, that’s what I took away from the movie. On the other hand, if he didn’t have that pride and certainty, he might not have made the heroic effort he did, so…I dunno. There’s certainly some interesting stuff here.
Yeah he stood out to me. Vince Vaughn I thought was fine. He didn’t detract from the movie for me at least and I kind of smiled in horror and amusement at his drill sgt. tactics. What I find interesting is i enjoyed the first part of the movie more than the brutal second part, but of course that’s just me.
I agree it seems like he’s forcing others to fight for free and the right to say choose a leader and get blood on their hands while he chooses not to take that stain, but on the other hand, the story is remarkable and full of courage and bravery. But like I said, i found the human element of the first part of the movie worthwhile.
I enjoyed it, although some of the scenes prior to basic training were extremely cringe worthy due to corniness. After that it was great, including all the big characters.
At the end of the movie and real life interviews the packed theatre gave a several tens of seconds standing ovation. I’ve never seen that in the US (where I’m from), let alone in mainland China (where I live). That was pretty moving to see from a few hundred middle class Chinese.