Can a pacifist conscientious objector join the military and participate in a war while still being true to his or her principles? The film Hacksaw Ridge, directed by Mel Gibson, attempts to answer this question. Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, the film tells the true story of Desmond Doss, a Seventh-day Adventist and pacifist who nevertheless volunteers for the US Army during World War II, serving as a medic (spoiler alert).
Doss’s pacifist convictions arise through a combination of religious principle and personal anguish. As a child, his family is caught in its own cycle of violence. His father, traumatised by his own participation in the World War I, deals with his anger by physically abusing his wife and two young children. Mimicking their father’s violence, Desmond and his brother Hal get in a fight, ending only when Desmond nearly kills his younger brother by hitting him on the head with a brick.
