'Hacksaw Ridge' - Who is Desmond Doss?

Hacksaw Ridge opens in theaters this Friday and the studio wants to give audiences some background on WWII Army medic Desmond Doss. We've got a promotional video that features the cast and director Mel Gibson describing the Medal of Honor recipient's motivations and heroism.

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Andrew Garfield (The Amazing Spider-Man) stars as Doss, the son of a World War I veteran and Seventh-day Adventist who volunteered to serve in World War II as a conscientious objector. After considerable controversy in the Army, he was allowed to complete basic training without a weapons qualification and to serve unarmed with his unit in the invasion of Okinawa.

During the battle for Hacksaw Ridge, Doss stayed behind (again, without a weapon) after his unit fell back and single-handedly pulled more than 70 men off the battlefield, saving them from certain execution by advancing Japanese troops.

Hacksaw Ridge is director Mel Gibson's first movie in a decade and the skills at filming close combat that were such a part of Braveheart's success are most definitely on display here. And those shocking, incredibly powerful battle scenes have even more power because the movie's first hour-plus plays like a classic 1950s old Hollywood military drama. When the violence hits, the audience isn't at all prepared and the shock makes that fact that Doss has no weapon even more terrifying.

Check back later this week for our interviews with Gibson and the subject's son, Desmond Doss, Jr.