Hacksaw Ridge Turns 10: Mel Gibson Built Okinawa on an Abandoned Dairy Farm, and It Still Beats Most CGI War Movies

A young man who rejects violence and even refuses to fire a weapon, let alone hold it in his hands, enlists in the army to serve his country sounds like a far-fetched, made-up story. And yet, it happened to be an unbelievably true account of Desmond Doss, a “conscientious cooperator,” as he preferred to call himself, who signed up for the U.S. Army to become a combat medic. Despite facing backlash in training, including a court-martial threat, he managed to take part in his active field duty during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. His job was to save as many lives as he could with the rest of the American soldiers battling against the Japanese on the titular ridge.

What’s even more amazing is that he chose to stay behind as the counterattacking Japanese increasingly overwhelmed the outnumbered U.S. troops, forcing the latter to retreat instead. Even when Doss was mostly alone, he is still credited with saving 75 lives with no guns, just pure faith, courage, and his medical supplies. His selfless act of bravery was rewarded with the Medal of Honor, making him the first conscientious objector — as both officially and legally classified by the U.S. Army — in American history to receive the highest military decoration.

Hacksaw Ridge Box Office and Oscars: How a $40 Million War Movie Earned $180 Million

Such a remarkable true story deserved to be told on the big screen, and Mel Gibson did a great job of balancing Hacksaw Ridge between a deeply moving drama and an uncompromisingly gritty World War II film (84% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics, 92% from audiences). At the heart of this movie lies Andrew Garfield‘s scene-stealing performance as Desmond Doss, whose role earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. The Academy awarded Hacksaw Ridge a total of six nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director, despite the movie only managing two technical wins in the Best Film Editing and Best Sound Mixing categories. Hacksaw Ridge opened in US theaters on November 4, 2016, so 2026 marks its 10th anniversary.

Hacksaw Ridge also proved to be a huge moneymaker, grossing over $180 million worldwide on a relatively modest $40 million budget. As an epic war movie, it seemed like an impossible calculation, since World War II films such as Saving Private Ryan cost $70 million, which would translate to around $140 million in today’s dollars.

How Mel Gibson Shot Hacksaw Ridge on a $40 Million Budget: Practical Effects and Realism

But Gibson and his team were smart enough to shoot Hacksaw Ridge primarily in New South Wales, Australia, allowing the production to enjoy huge government tax rebates. Gibson equally utilized other cost-effective strategies to maximize the budget, including making good use of an abandoned dairy farm outside of Sydney called Bringelly for the Hacksaw Ridge sequence by bulldozing the terrain, and removing the trees before layering the ground in mud and debris. He also kept the shooting schedule fast and efficient, reportedly completing it in just 59 days, compared with 90 days or more for a movie of this scope and scale.

And to make the titular ridge look like a big battlefield, Gibson and cinematographer Simon Duggan relied on strategic camera placements to evoke the illusion of scale. A war movie like this requires extensive special effects, but instead of resorting to expensive CGI and complex digital trickery, Gibson prioritized a practical-heavy approach, from the specialized “box bomb” explosive charge that could be safely detonated even if the actors or the stuntmen were only standing inches away, to using prosthetics for the gory details (e.g., severed limbs, gnarly wounds).

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How Andrew Garfield Prepared to Play Desmond Doss: Method Acting, Boot Camp and a Stunt He Couldn’t Pull Off

Andrew Garfield’s first Academy Award nomination (he earned a second for tick, tick… BOOM!) showcased his versatility in grounding a larger-than-life war hero through minimalist, less-is-more acting prowess and expressive eyes to convey his varied emotions. It helped that he completely immersed himself in method acting, spending time doing deep research on the real-life Desmond Doss. This included visiting his hometown of Lynchburg, Virginia, reading every book about him, and even “[walking] the walks that he walked”.

Garfield also underwent extensive military training with his co-stars, such as Vince Vaughn and Sam Worthington, at a special boot camp, and mastered his medical skills, from applying tourniquets to dressing wounds. He even went as far as insisting on doing his own stunts, which included manually dragging his co-star to keep the scenes as authentic as possible.

But upon trying to do it on set, he reportedly realized it was both humanly and physically impossible to drag even an actor smaller than him, leaving him with no choice but to rely on a combination of wire and a capstan winch instead. And yet, in real life, Desmond Doss, who was 5’8” and weighed roughly 145 pounds, managed to achieve the incredible 75-man rescue.

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Hacksaw Ridge is streaming on Peacock, AMC+, Philo and Angel Studios, and is also available for rent or purchase on Apple TV and Prime Video.