THE CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2004 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): *** 1/2
Terry Benedict's THE CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR is a beautiful, powerful and deeply-moving documentary about the life of Desmond T. Doss, a recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor for acts of incredible bravery during World War II. Although classified as a conscientious objector for his religious beliefs as a Seventh Day Adventist against carrying a weapon or working on Saturday, he wanted to be called a "conscientious cooperator," not an objector. He refused the automatic deferment available to him since he worked in a naval shipyard. Instead, he signed up to join the military and asked to be put on the frontlines to care for the wounded.
Doss, who was at our world premiere screening of the movie, said that he was proud to have been able to serve his god and his country. A frail man in his World War II uniform with his medal around his neck, he was old but still sharp. The crowd went wild over him in a long standing ovation that included tears and applause.
What he got when he first joined the service, however, was anything but applause. One superior officer after another kept trying to humiliate him, court-martial him and overwork him until his hands bled, but his convictions were sincere and firm. He quite literally believed in the illustrated version of the Ten Commandments which hung in the living room when he was a child. The documentary, which is an amazing blend of archival footage and contemporary interviews with those who helped and harassed him, seems to have it all, right down to the aforementioned Ten Commandments illustration and even one of the original comic books about his life that was published during the war.
Doss's unswerving belief in not even touching a gun came from an incident in his childhood. One day, his drunkard father picked up a gun in a fight with his brother-in-law. As he was about to shoot, Doss's mother stepped between them. After that Doss made a vow never to touch any weapon. Doss's brother did serve in World War II and without asking for any special status.
Although the men in Doss's unit were always giving him a hard time in training, thinking that he was faking it and getting some special break, this all changed once they got into battle. On Okinawa, in the some of the most vicious fighting in the entire war, Doss demonstrated incredible bravery on occasion after occasion. Although medics were not supposed to go out at night since it was too dangerous, he went out night after night treating whomever he found in the dark. And he always paid special attention to men so seriously injured that other medics had given up on them as hopeless cases.
In addition to treating the wounded, he also volunteered for other dangerous duties with one of the most important coming when he put up netting for climbing on a seventy foot cliff under heavy fire. The plateau above the cliff turned out to be the bloodiest place in all of the battle for Okinawa. Time after time, the American soldiers would try to hold the top and then have to retreat after suffering massive casualties. As the battle raged towards its highpoint, seventy-five American wounded were left there, certain to be killed by the Japanese. For twelve hours, Doss single-handedly dragged every one of these men to the ridge and then carried or lowered them down the seventy-foot cliff, all under constant enemy fire. For this act of selfless heroism, in which he saved some of the people who had harassed him in training camp, he was given the Medal of Honor.
Shortly thereafter, Doss was badly wounded and was carried out on a stretcher. On the way out, he saw someone else hurt and untreated, so he rolled out of the stretcher and crawled over to yet again help his fellow man. His only regret was that somewhere in the process, he had lost the little bible that his wife had given him and which he read daily. When his fellow soldiers heard this, they went back under fire and searched until they found it.
Bravery, your name is Desmond Doss.
THE CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR runs 1:40. It is not rated but would be an R for war violence and would be acceptable for teenagers.
The film was shown as the closing night film for San Jose's Cinequest Film Festival (www.Cinequest.org), which ran March 3-14, 2004.
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