I have a copy of the Oscar-nominated “Hacksaw Ridge” to give away! Andrew Garfield plays Desmond Doss, a conscientious objector who served in WWII as a medic and personally saved more than 70 soldiers in one of the bloodiest battles of the war.
To enter, send me an email at moviemom@moviemom.com with Hacksaw Ridge in the subject line and tell me your favorite branch of the military. Don’t forget your address! (US addresses only). I’ll pick a winner at random on March 3, 2017.
In the Oscar-nominated “Hacksaw Ridge,” Rachel Griffiths plays the mother of Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield), a devout WWII medic who saved the lives of 75 soldiers by carrying each one of them to safety as he dodged enemy fire in Okinawa. The movie is now available on DVD/Blu-Ray. In an interview, Griffiths spoke about playing a real-life character and re-teaming with her fellow Aussie Hugo Weaving, who plays her husband. She also gave me some information about her next project, an ABC miniseries called “When We Rise.”
How did you work on that excellent Virginia accent? You really captured the Lynchburg sound.
Copyright Warner Brothers 2017
Oh, you are so kind. I had two conversations with Lynchburg ladies and I listened to a lot of samples before I found a sample that we settled on. You want to be specific when you do an accent. You don’t want to just kind of just do a general idea of it. But you also have to find that accent that is going to be comprehendible across the world first. You can’t be so accurate that everybody is like, “What did she say?” And you have to sound like you and the people who play your family are all from the same place. I ended up probably taking my cues as much from Andrew because I play Andrew’s mother. I figured I had the most influence on him so we needed to sound similar. So I was listening to a lot of Andrew’s early scenes that he was doing before we shot our part and I think he had a lovely softness and it definitely has this kind of rural edge to it but it wasn’t too sudden and it didn’t feel like he was commenting on who these people were.
Is it different to prepare for a role when it is a real person’s story?
I think it’s kind of a privilege to tell someone else’s story and it’s not something that we want to do lightly. You certainly don’t want people’s first response coming out of a film like that to be, “Why did they make it in Australia?” It’s a touching universal story and particularly something we can relate to because Australians were so involved in the Pacific during WWII. The Pacific war was as much our war as it was the American war, when Australians are experiencing their stories they feel as close to home because we sent many of our boys off who had barely experienced another life, from a very simple life into a hell that they could never have imagined. That’s a very universal story with the resilience of how you get through that.
I’ve heard that you’ve described Mel Gibson’s movies as kinetic. What do you mean by that?
They never stop moving and they are never boring. You never fall asleep in them. The cameras are always moving, the people are always moving. I think he has a heightened need for input and visceral stimulation; you can just tell that by talking to him. His dial is set to eleven where as my dial might be set to three or four and I think what makes his movies so compelling is, I this amazing momentum, it’s like stepping on a ride and you don’t want to get off and you can’t get off until it’s done.
Your character has limited screen time but is very important to the story. How do you convey so much in a relatively brief time?
You can’t measure your importance by how much time you’re on the screen. I think it’s really understanding what is that character’s role. I did want to convey that his faith was based in the kind of deep moral and emotional conviction that’s communicated through a mother, not just a book. I didn’t want people to see him as a fundamentalist only leaning on a book for his guidance. Behind that book is these kind of early critical moral essence that comes from a place of great strength and love. That is the job of me in that movie and his mother generally especially when his life is conflicted with a male figure who, for reasons of his own trauma is not able to be living a loving and forgiving life.
You’ve worked with Hugo Weaving before — does that help you to play his wife?
For sure. I am glad for the opportunity to work with Hugo. He is so amazing, he is such a human being — I have nothing but the greatest love and respect for him. So I think I brought that to the relationship. You know there’s a kind of just tender adoration that I have for him as a performer and as a human being so he can be behaving as he is but to me on screen but I am just seeing this incredible painful agony that he is actually in. So I’m sure that helped to make it more complex.
Copyright Warner Brothers 2016
How is it different preparing to play a real-life character?
Of course it depends on whether or not that character is actually known to the public. If you are playing Jackie Kennedy obviously you’d have to meet certain expectations but the true roles I’ve played tend to be the less overtly famous ones. In the end you make a decision to tell the story but I would the hate ever to be sitting on a couch with a person I am playing and being embarrassed or ashamed of the betrayal I have done so I always fight for my character’s believability. I do think there is an extra layer of obligation, but it is with that person and their living descendents. I do think you’re more committed to making sure they’re not compromised.
What does a Mel Gibson bring to directing that only an actor can understand?
That’s a really interesting question. I think he really understands how limited a kind of cerebral approach is. That’s not to say that you can’t discuss the character intelligently but you know on the set to that cerebral approach doesn’t necessarily get what you need. It’s a very unique approach he has. It’s like he’s inside the play with you, like if you’re kids on a fort, he is not outside the fort telling people, “You go there, and you be this and you be that.” He’s like one of the kids inside the fort. And you are all pretending to be pirates. It’s not like Princess Fluffy Pants watching the play — he is inside the play and he is like, “What if? What if this?” And you’re like, “Oh I’ve got it!” In that he kind of inspires us to get kind of hotter and more committed. Does that make sense?
How did your costume help define your character?
Well of course we were working with the majestic and wonderful Lizzy Gardiner who famously wore a dress made of credit cards to the Academy Awards when she won an Oscar for “Priscilla Queen of the Desert.” She is a genius. You know we might try on 30 cardigans and we both knew when we got exactly the right one, faded but not too faded, an honest cardigan. Some cardigans are like pretend honest. And her layering and textures. We were just in such good hands with her. If you rejected 60 worn-out cotton dresses to find the one she wouldn’t think you’re being difficult she would just know that’s the process and then you kind of nail it down to three and she might be like, “Well you know this one is in brown, I wouldn’t mind you popping a little bit.” So it’s is just very, very collaborative, very fun and she’s amazing.
Tell me about your ABC miniseries, “When We Rise,” premiering February 27, 2017.
“When We Rise” is about the history of the civil rights movements through a gay, lesbian, and transgender lens. It is also about the women’s movement and it’s about the struggle for equality and the history of very brave people who were living good and righteous lives but were held by certain percentage of the population to not be. I play a nurse called Diane Jones and the most wonderful thing about her is that at the time when people were so terrified of AIDS and HIV, you know the hospital orderlies wouldn’t take the trays into the ward, she as a mother, as a young mother was spoon feeding men and women who were dying of HIV-AIDS — the incredible courage of that and her faith that she was living a righteous and good life in that moment surrounded by the AIDS.
There were schools that wouldn’t let HIV children come to schools, there were people trying to get people fired for being HIV. For her to be holding the heads of dying men and wiping their bodily fluids is just a real blessing. I am so moved by the humble courage of people — not just the people with the microphone but people who are just quietly living goodness.
We are honored to present an exclusive clip from the Oscar-nominated film “Hacksaw Ridge,” directed by Mel Gibson. It is the true story of Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield, also nominated for an Oscar), a WWII medic who refused to fire a gun and saved the lives of more than 70 soldiers on Okinawa. The movie will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray on February 21, 2017.
Interview: “Hacksaw Ridge” Mel Gibson, Luke Bracey, Vince Vaughn
Posted on November 6, 2016 at 8:00 am
Copyright 2016 Warner Brothers
Mel Gibson’s first film as a director in ten years is “Hacksaw Ridge,” the true story of Desmond Doss, a medic in WWII who showed extraordinary courage and devotion, returning over and over again to rescue 75 wounded men under enemy fire in a battle in Okinawa. I spoke to Gibson, and to Vince Vaughn and Luke Bracey, who play soldiers in the film.
The movie’s battle scenes are intentionally brutal. “I don’t think I glamorized war,” Gibson said. “I made it look hard and hopefully realistic, at least that’s what the Okinawa guys told us. There’s not many of them left but it was an experience for them. I think is not really a war film, it’s a love story because a guy went in there through filial love determined never to kill anyone or harm anyone and he kept putting his life on the line to save lives so this is the greatest act of love you could perform, to sacrifice yourself for someone else so it’s a love story. It just happens to be in the worst place on earth.
Vaughn spoke about the challenge of portraying a the sergeant who trains and then takes into battle Doss and his unit.
I have a lot of military in my family and have done a lot of things throughout the years with the USO, so I had a good point of reference for start. And then being in a unique situation playing a sergeant, that you are training a new unit and that you’re actually going to carry them over to the battlefield, you really are going to feel responsible for these kids. You have got a lot of love for them and your job is ready to prepare them to be able to go to their training and as much as possible not kind of freak out during battle and to stay alive for themselves and for their brothers in arms.
Look, you are preparing for war, so the penalty of not being up to the task is death of yourself or the people in the unit. That’s why I think there is a bit of sense of humor in some of it because you want to reach people. You can’t just come and make them tone deaf because you are screaming at them the whole time. I think like everyone has their own unique way of doing it so I think there are moments when you are really hard, you are trying to get your point across to let them know what’s at stake and your intents. And then there is other times when you try to use it a little bit of a sense of humor to try to get them to laugh and to bring them together. And I think that this presents a unique situation. Here is a gentleman who is refusing to carry a gun. You just have to understand that from a military point of view this is close quarter battles you see the depiction of it in the movie, to be in a foxhole at night, sleeping with somebody and them on watch and someone approaches and they don’t have the means to defend themselves, then obviously no one would want to be in that situation. And I think made the true story and what is so powerful about Desmond is he had such a faith such a conviction and a calling and it really transcended the moment. There is something beautiful in that and I think that when you are true to your convictions and you do stay true to what you believe in, not only are you rewarded but actually everyone else around you is rewarded as well and I think you see that resonate in the film.
Bracey talked about the “intense physical aspect to this stuff especially, the battle scenes. You spend about two months filming that stuff and I think preparation for me it was obviously very physical but not just getting in shape. There is a mental aspect to the physical side in that commitment to everything you are doing. If you take the right attitude towards it you can really tolerate it in a positive way where you can try not to give up and everything you do, you know it’s going to hurt but you know there’s so much left to go as well so I enjoyed that aspect of it, and also just kind of delving into what is a man as well. At what point does a man goes from telling another a man to harden up to the point where can empathize with him.”
Filmmaking technology has changed very rapidly, and Gibson appreciated being able to take advantage of lighter, faster cameras and better special effects.
In the old days you had two stops either way for light but now it’s infinite and you can turn day into night with no problem. You can blow frames up without any loss of quality, you can flop the shot. I mean it’s just crazy what you can do with colors and the color palette. So technologically things really advanced and you can move pretty fast and shoot from the hip but I would say filmwise, in the world of films there are restrictions if you want to make an independent film and this is an independent film. So your budgets are restricted, you have less time to do it. This is a superhero movie so don’t get me wrong, but if he’s not wearing spandex you don’t get the budget.
A lot of things had to come together to make the image happen on screen. The thing with combat or war sequences on screen is it that they have to be clear, so clarity is required but within that wider framework of clarity, almost like a sporting or chess game, you have to have a strategy that is at least readable but it has to look like chaos amidst that. So in order for all the pyrotechnics, and the stunts and bullet hits and the camera guys, the actors, the extras, the stunts guys, everything, a lot of things have to come together so that you can catch it all on the screen so that logistically speaking little bit like juggling a few balls at the same time. But there’s a lot of people doing it. You don’t do these things alone and it’s really about synchronizing the departments, the various departments to come together to really get that image that you want. And after that the special effects that was great afterwards. But the earmark of great special effects is when you can’t see them. You don’t know what the practical stuff is from the stuff that you do afterwards. There’s both — there’s a lot of practical stuff like some 800 shots I think where they are special effects. I mean there’s muzzle flashes and tracers and dirt hits and stuff like that that were put in afterwards that really add so much. So technically speaking it’s a real scheduling juggling match.
Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield) called himself a “conscientious supporter.” He wanted to support the troops fighting in WWII; he just would not touch a gun. And so, after brutal bullying and assaults and a court-martial, he was permitted to “go into battle without a gun.” And so, as a part of the “Liberty Battalion” of Army’s 77th Infantry Division, he went into one of the most dangerous battles of the war, with no weapons, just a Bible and some syringes with morphine.
Mel Gibson‘s first film as a director in a decade combines themes he returns to again and again: personal courage in the face of overwhelming odds, sacrifice for others, inspiration, faith, and very graphic, agonizing mortification of the flesh. The first half of the film introduces us to Doss, growing up in Lynchburg, Virginia with an abusive, alcoholic father (Hugo Weaving), falling for a pretty nurse (Teresa Palmer), and wanting to help the war effort without killing anyone.
Then there is an extended section covering basic training, with a tough but not humorless sergeant played by one of the few Americans in the cast, Vince Vaughn. It sweetly and sometimes amusingly harks back to the classic WWII films, with assorted characters from very different parts of the country are thrown together and a tough sergeant who whips them into shape with insults and threats, but everyone knows it is really for their own good, to teach them what they need to know to survive. There is no category for a regular army guy who says he cannot even touch a gun. They do everything they can to get him to change his mind or leave the military, but he will not give up. He’s a guy who will walk an extra two miles because he likes the woods. He knows who he is and what he believes.
And then, he is in battle. And again, he will not give up. “Just let me get one more, Lord,” is his prayer as over and over, 75 times, he heads back into enemy fire to pick up wounded men — including two Japanese soldiers — and carefully lower each one over a sheer cliff with an improvised pulley.
The scenes in battle are as harrowing as any ever put on screen. We are in the midst of utter carnage and chaos. Gibson knows how to create a visceral experience to make us understand just how extraordinary the rescue mission was. In an interview, he once said that he hates war, but loves warriors. Both are evident in this stirring tribute to a true hero.
Parents should know that this film includes extremely graphic and disturbing wartime violence with grisly images of wounded and dead soldiers, bullying and a brutal beating, domestic violence, and a car accident. Characters use some mild language.
Family discussion: How does the sergeant prepare the soldiers for war? How does he promote teamwork? What should the military do with “conscientious supporters?”
If you like this, try: “We Were Soldiers” and “Sergeant York”
