War and Pacifists

"War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today."  -  John F. Kennedy


Prologue: Mel Gibson's Comeback and the Conscientious Objector Who Won the Medal of Honor

"Hero" has become a word tossed around indiscriminately and, far too often, inappropriately. Especially when you consider the irrefutable valor of Desmond Doss, the first conscientious objector in American history to win the Medal Of Honor. Serving as a combat medic who refused to carry a weapon of any kind, the unassuming Seventh-day Adventist from Lynchburg, Virginia, defied heavy enemy gunfire to singlehandedly retrieve and lower 75 wounded comrades off a 350-foot escarpment notoriously nicknamed Hacksaw Ridge during the Battle of Okinawa in World War II.

Doss' story, untold in a feature film for several decades, will finally reach the big screen in November as "Hacksaw Ridge," directed by Mel Gibson, a filmmaker seeking overdue redemption after ugly outbursts of anti-Semitism, racism, homophobia, and domestic violence earlier in the decade.

After being pulled over for driving drunk in Los Angeles in July 2006, the Oscar-winning director of "Braveheart" hurled racist slurs about "f***ing Jews" at the arresting officer.

In 2010, Gibson's ex-girlfriend, Russian singer-songwriter Oksana Grigorieva, claimed that he had punched her and broke her teeth. He later admitted to slapping her but insisted he did it to stop her from shaking their one-year-old baby, Lucia.

Oksana  subsequently released released secretly recorded audio of Gibson's profanity-riddled rants against her, using the N-word and other derogatory phrase and threatening to put her in "a f***ing rose garden."

In October of this year, Mel Gibson told People magazine's website that he has been sober for ten years. Despite his status as Hollywood pariah, actress-director Jodie Foster, who had starred with Gibson in the 1994 western comedy "Maverick," remained his close friend.

Mel Gibson accompanied Jodie Foster and her two sons, Charlie
and Kit, when she was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award
at the 2013 Golden Globes.

In 2011, Foster directed Gibson in "The Beaver," a dramedy about a depressed alcoholic who develops an alternate personality via a beaver hand puppet found in the garbage. The film, which featured Foster as Gibson's wife and Jennifer Lawrence as his girlfriend, was considered a flop. The Time magazine review deemed the picture "a sad, somber drama," noting, "It's hard to separate Gibson's true-life story from what's happening onscreen."

In 2012, Gibson played a getaway driver incarcerated in an odd Mexican communal prison in "Get the Gringo," which he co-wrote and co-produced. "Blood Father," a 2016 French-produced action film, cast him as an ex-con. He also had cameo roles in "Machete Kills" (2013) and "The Expendables 3" (2014).

Mayhem ensues in "Get the Gringo," also known as
"How I Spent My Summer Vacation."

On the verge of the national release of "Hacksaw Ridge," The Hollywood Reporter noted, "After ten years in directors jail...the freeze-out is thawing" and "the embattled star is poised for a comeback." Alec Banks, a Los Angeles writer, remarked that some feel the movie "suggests that Gibson is exploring elements that fall in line with his own checkered past; namely, voicing an unpopular and controversial opinion regardless of its reception." Which is exactly how Desmond Doss served his country.

Established in 1863, the Seventh-day Adventist Church is a Protestant denomination distinguished by its strict observance of Saturday as the Sabbath and by its emphasis on the imminent Second Coming. When the U.S. declared war on Japan, Desmond Doss could have pursued a deferment because of his job at the naval shipyard in Lynchburg, Virginia, but he wanted to serve his country. "I felt like it was an honor to serve God and country," he later said. "We were fighting for our religious liberty and freedom."

Doss always asserted he wasn't a conscientious objector. "I was a conscientious cooperator." He believed in wearing a uniform and in saluting the America flag. He believed that the war was justified but that killing was wrong. He recalled, "I was willing to go to the front lines to save life, not take life." Enlisting in the U.S. Army in April 1942, four months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he was assigned to the medical detachment of the 307 Infantry 77th Infantry Division.

Adamantly refusing to even touch a weapon and devoutly refusing to work on the Sabbath, Doss was continually harassed and ridiculed by his fellow soldiers and ostracized by his commanding officers, all of whom regarded him as a pest and a joke, calling him "Holy Joe." There were even threats that in combat one of his own men might shoot him. The Army made a number of attempts to transfer or discharge him. With humility, Doss, not unlike the Bible's long-suffering Job, kept the faith.

During the Battle of Okinawa, without a concern for his own life, Doss would leave his foxhole at night to comb the area for wounded comrades. But it was atop the escarpment they called Hacksaw Ridge, honeycombed with caves, tunnels, holes, and pillboxes, where his unequivocal valor truly shown, as the small-framed, 150-pound medic, oblivious to enemy, scooped up the wounded, one by one, and singlehandedly lowered them down the 350-foot rock face, repeatedly praying to be allowed to save just "one more" and then "one more."

Over 12 hours, he managed to lower one man every ten minutes. One Japanese rifleman later recounted having Doss in his sights more than once, but his gun jammed every time he pulled the trigger.

This World War II photograph supposedly shows
Desmond Doss atop the escarpment.

At the foot of the crag, soldiers were stunned by his actions and repeatedly shouted for him to come down. "They called him a nut," one of his comrades commented decades afterward. "What a beautiful nut, eh?"

Throughout the War in the Pacific, American medics were a primary target for Japanese snipers, who believed that their loss would particularly sap G.I. morale. The final, do-or-die Allied assault on the escarpment was actually delayed by orders coming down the chain of command to allow Doss, now the unit's sole medic, to say a prayer.

On the battlefield Doss saved the life of one of the officers who had been resolved to see him transferred, Captain Jack Glover. "He was one of the bravest persons alive," said Glover, who became a lifelong friend of Doss, "and then to have him end up saving my life was the irony of the whole thing."

Desmond Doss was wounded himself when he tried to kick a live grenade out of harm's way. As the litter-bearers were carrying him to safety, he rolled off the stretcher to make room for a more seriously wounded soldier. His left arm was then shattered by a sniper's bullet, and after fashioning a splint from a broken rifle (probably the only time he touched a firearm), he crawled to aid.

Over 12,500 Americans died in combat in The Battle of Okinawa. More than 110,000 Japanese were killed. Before being discharged in 1946, Doss was diagnosed with tuberculosis, which, after years of medical treatment, not only cost him a lung and five ribs but, due to ineptly administered antibiotics, his hearing as well. A cochlear implant in 1988 significantly improved his hearing.

When Harry S. Truman awarded him the Medal of Honor, the humble Virginian was taken aback by the Missouri-born president's folksy demeanor. Doss later remembered, "He didn't even give me a chance to be nervous."

Desmond Doss died in 2006, age 87, after hospitalization for respiratory problems.

For 60 years, Doss refused to allow his story to be filmed, until he met filmmaker (and fellow Seventh-day Adventist) Terry Benedict. The result of their friendship unfolded in the 2004 documentary "The Conscientious Objector," which reaped several awards at various film festivals.

Documentary filmmaker Terry Benedict prepares his camera
for an overview of Okinawa in "The Conscientious Objector."

According to the internet's "Independent Critic," Richard Propes, Terry Benedict "clearly has an eye for interesting camerawork and graphics. His eye for the unusual helps to elevate a film that primarily utilizes graphics and veteran interviews, along with archive war footage. Benedict's approach is faithful to Doss' own belief in simplicity."

Propes said, "It is very heartbreaking to see these men, their eyes obviously filled with pain, as they revisit many of the locations where they served for the very first time." Propes conclusively stated, "'The Conscientious Objector' is a powerful film about an inspirational man."

"Here's a warrior," is how one fellow soldier described
Desmond Doss, seen here with his son, Desmond Doss Jr.

There have been only two subsequent conscientious objectors who were awarded the Medal of Honor, both posthumously. Risking his life in heavy enemy gunfire, 21-year-old U.S. Army Corporal Thomas W. Bennett (pictured below), a Southern Baptist serving as a medic in Vietnam, pulled a number of men to safety. Two days later, Bennett was trying to reach a soldier wounded by a sniper when he was gunned down. President Nixon presented Bennett's Medal of Honor to his mother and stepfather.

Army Specialist Joseph LaPointe Jr. (pictured below), who was also a Baptist conscientious objector serving as a medic in Vietnam, was on patrol when his unit came under heavy fire from an entrenched enemy. The unit suffered several casualties. LaPointe dodged bullets to get to two wounded comrades at the head of the patrol. He treated the men and tried to shield them with his body despite being twice wounded himself, until a grenade took all three out.

Revolutionary War and Pacifists

Historically, the nation's first conscientious objectors were members of the religious sects Quakers and Mennonites, along with the Amish and Hutterites, who arrived in the mid- to late-17th century and whose faith forbade them from taking up arms in warfare. The Dunkard Brethern arrived in the early 1700s, and smaller sects like the Shakers joined them soon after. America, however, was not necessarily the haven of safety yearned for by such pacifists, who were sometimes looked upon as subversive heretics.

Prior to the Revolutionary War, Quakers and Mennonites did not pitch in when their neighbors built forts and contended with Indians. Overall, though, communities were generally content to let them be because they were hard workers who fulfilled other civic duties. During the war, exemptions from armed service varied by state. Pennsylvania, for example, required conscientious objectors who refused to join companies of volunteers to pay a fine.

Besides refusing to pay taxes, which they believed would go to pay for the war effort, many Quakers, as witnesses for peace, wouldn't take an oath of loyalty. Consequently, their goods and property were seized as penalties. Conscientious objectors often faced imprisonment.

Mennonites and the Dunkard Brethern were mostly farmers who were frequently called upon to contribute food, clothing, and blankets for the troops, as well as supply horses and wagons for transportation and lumber for construction. For the most part, they complied willingly.


Civil War and Pacifists

The first conscription in the United States came with the Civil War. Although conscientious objection wasn't part of the new draft law, individuals in the North could provide a substitute for military service or pay $300 to hire one. Conscientious objectors in the Confederacy had few options, among them moving to the North, hiding out in mountain forests, or coming up with $500 for public treasuries.

A contemporary cartoon from the early 1860s depicts
Confederates conscripting a Unionist with the admonition,
"Come along, you rascal! And fight for our King Cotton..."

Pacifism during the Civil War was dramatized in "Friendly Persuasion," directed by William Wyler, who won Oscars for "Mrs. Miniver," "The Best Years of Our Lives," and "Ben-Hur." Set in 1862 Indiana, the movie starred Gary Cooper as Jess, a farmer and patriarch of a Quaker family whose religious beliefs conflict with his fondness for the worldly diversions of music and horse racing. His wife, Eliza (Dorothy McGuire), is a Quaker minister whose faith shuns acts of violence, while eldest son Josh, played by Anthony Perkins (best known for playing Norman Bates in "Psycho") in his second screen role, is torn between his distaste for violence and a conviction to defend his family's home against approaching Confederate troops by joining the Home Guard.

Peter Mark Richman (left) shares a scene with Anthony Perkins,
Gary Cooper, and Dorothy McGuire in "Friendly Persuasion."

The New York Times critic Bosley Crowther noted, "Thee should be pleased by this film," which he described as "loaded with sweetness and warmth as and as much cracker-barrel Americana as has been spread on the screen in some time." One Quaker commentator observed, "'Friendly Persuasion' seems...to come as close to truth and fairness as I expect to see Hollywood get in a treatment of Quakerism; I recommend it to every Quaker parent, as projecting images their children ought to see and imitate..."

President Ronald Reagan, who regarded "Friendly Persuasion" as one of his favorites, presented the film as a gift to Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, suggesting he view it as a symbol of the need to find an alternative to armed combat to resolve differences between nations.

Purportedly, Gary Cooper never watched "Friendly Persuasion"
beyond viewing the unedited rushes from a day's shooting.

One person who was not a fan of the movie was the star. Gary Cooper, at age 55, didn't want to play the father of grown-up children, nor was he comfortable playing a character reluctant to take action. "Action seems to come natural to me," he said. "There comes a time in a picture of mine when the people watching expect me to do something." He disliked the film, and he disliked his performance.

In an early screen role, a young Martin Sheen portrayed a conscientious objector during the Civil War who, adamantly opposed to killing, flees to the woods of West Virginia in 1972's "No Drums, No Bugles," written and directed by independent filmmaker Clyde Ware. Sheen (pictured below) delivers a tour de force performance as the man who sets up shelter in a cave and is cautiously accepted by his new animal neighbors, including a bear.

One particularly poignant scene in "No Drums, No Bugles" has Sheen's character sneaking back into his house to glance for a moment at his sleeping wife and child. Not surprisingly, particularly considering Sheen's offscreen political activism, the film was produced at the peak of the Vietnam War.

Another Civil War period picture about a draft dodger filmed during the Vietnam era was "Bad Company," the first movie directed by Robert Benton, who co-wrote the screenplay with David Newman (the pair's script for 1967's "Bonnie and Clyde" was Oscar-nominated). Benton subsequently won Academy Awards for writing and directing 1979's "Kramer vs. Kramer" and for writing 1984's "Places in the Heart."

Barry Brown (best known as the wealthy American, Frederick Winterbourne, in 1974's "Daisy Miller," starring Cybill Shepherd and directed by Peter Bogdanovich) played a straight-arrow youth from a Methodist family in Ohio who, with the aid of his parents, runs away to avoid conscription in the Union Army. He falls in with a group of runaways hoping to make their way West, robbing and pilfering anybody and anything in their path, under the Fagin-esque tutelage of a young conman played by Jeff Bridges. The picaresque adventures play out like Mark Twain-meets-Oliver Twist.

Barry Brown's "strange on-and-off-again friendship with Jeff
Bridges" in "Bad Company" impressed reviewers. Sadly, Barry
Brown's acting career was cut short when he committed
suicide at age 27 in 1978.

The New York Times summed up the film as "a naturalistic, irreverent and sometimes broadly comic view of a largely ignored aspect of the Civil War," calling the story's motley assortment of Jesse James-wannabes a "decidedly unusual company that is surprising and mostly a pleasure to meet."

The "largely ignored aspect of the Civil War" got the big-budget, glossy Hollywood treatment in 2003's "Cold Mountain," based on the best-selling novel by Charles Frazier, scripted and directed by Anthony Minghella, a literary filmmaker who won an Academy Award for directing "The English Patient." With a cast of powerhouse players including Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Renee Zellweger (who won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar), Natalie Portman, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Donald Sutherland, Brendan Gleeson, Ray Winstone, and musician Jack White, the movie reworks Homer's "The Odyssey" in a tale of a wounded deserter from the Confederate Army near the close of the Civil War ("I ain't getting shot again for some cause I don't believe in") and his arduous trek back home to Cold Mountain, a (fictional) backwater community in rural North Carolina, to reunite with his sweetheart.

Incidentally, for history buffs, the particular conflict the deserter (Jude Law) walks away from is the Battle of the Crater, part of the Union Army's Siege of Petersburg, which pitted General Robert E. Lee's Army of North Virginia against the Army of the Potomac, commanded by General Meade, under the supervision of General Grant. The battle was a disaster for the North; Grant considered it "the saddest affair I have witnessed in the war."

Although the purpose of the Home Guard, on both fronts, was to protect civilians from enemy aggressors, "Cold Mountain" depicted the Confederate Home Guard - led by the loathsome, lecherous Captain Teague (Ray Winstone) - as sadistic vigilantes who mercilessly hunt down deserters and violently terrorize citizens suspected of hiding deserters.

Ray Winstone (center) portrays the human slug Captain Teague,
whose retinue of disreputable deputies includes the albino-like
killer Bosie (far right), played by British-born Chris Hunnam
(best known as Jax Teller on the FX series "Sons of Anarchy").

First World War and Pacifists

During World War I, conscientious objectors were sent to camps throughout the U.S., where they had to convince officers that their objections to the war were sincere. They were allowed to serve in noncombat military roles. The 2000 or so objectors who refused to cooperate in any way with the armed forces were often imprisoned in military facilities, where some were subjected to such harsh treatment as limited rations, relentless harassment, solitary confinement, manacling, and other forms of physical abuse. Two Hutterite draftees died during their incarceration.

This was one of several anti-conscientious objector
cartoons popular during World War I.

Eventually, because of the shortage of farm labor on the home front in the First World War, some conscientious objectors were granted exemptions either for farm work or relief work in France. A limited number of objectors performed alternate service as firefighters in the American Northwest.

Alvin York, a dirt-poor Tennessee hillbilly who worshipped in a Protestant church that opposed all forms of violence, applied for exemption from service in World War I as a conscientious objector but was denied a number of times before being drafted. "I didn't want to go and kill," he later remarked. "I believed in my Bible."

However, despite his church's doctrine of pacifism, he declined to sign documents from his pastor seeking a discharge from the Army on religious grounds. He also refused to sign papers provided by his mother asking for an exemption as the sole support of her and his siblings.

York served in the Argonne Forest in France and ended up becoming one of the most decorated American soldiers of the war.

Alvin York poses aboard the USS Ohioan in 1919.

In the rank of corporal, York received the Medal of Honor after leading an attack on a German machine gun nest, killing at least 28 enemy soldiers, taking 35 mounted machine guns, and rounding up 132 prisoners. An expert marksman in the hills of Tennessee, York used his sharp-shooting skills to "touch the Germans off just as fast as I could," in his words, repeatedly calling for the enemy to just come down and surrender. "I didn't want to kill any more than I had to," York recounted. "But it was they or I. And I was giving them the best I had." After his American Enfield rifle ran out of bullets, he drew his semi-automatic pistol and dispatched, one-by-one, a line of six Germans swooping down on him with fixed bayonets, cutting them down "just like a flock of turkeys." He would say, "A higher power than man guided and watched over me and told me what to do."

Perhaps not coincidentally, Germany surrendered little more than a month after the battle.

A 1919 painting by illustrator Frank Schoonover depicts Alvin
York's heroics in the Meusse-Argonne Offensive of 1918.

Not unlike Desmond Doss in years to come, Alvin York had been approached several times to allow a movie to be made about his experiences, but he likewise refused, explaining that "this uniform ain't for sale." By the early 1940s, however, as the storm clouds of another world war gathered over Europe, he was finally convinced of the patriotic value of such a picture. But he had three conditions. First, York's share of the profits had to be contributed to a Bible school he wanted to see constructed. Second, he demanded no cigarette-smoking Hollywood actress ("No Oomph Girls!") would be cast as his wife. And third, only Gary Cooper could portray him. Cooper initially turned down the title role in "Sergeant York" until York personally appealed to the actor. The 1941 film was co-written by John Huston and directed by Howard Hawks.

Corporal York (Gary Cooper) convinces a German major
(Carl Esmond) to surrender his troops in "Sergeant York."

Despite the fact that Cooper was a decade older than York, the actor stated, "I liked the role because of the background of the picture and because I was portraying a good, sound American character." York himself visited the set during production when one of the crew members asked him how many "Jerries"(a derogatory epithet for Germans based on the resemblance of their helmets to chamber pots, or jeroboams) he had killed. York surprisingly sobbed uncontrollably and became physically ill. The crewman was nearly fired, but York insisted he keep his job.

Gary Cooper confers with Alvin York
on the set of "Sergeant York."

A smash hit at the box office, "Sergeant York" was the highest grossing film of 1941. Attendance was boosted by the attack on Pearl Harbor, which occurred while the movie was playing in theaters. The picture's patriotic theme helped recruit soldiers; in fact, some young men went directly from theaters to enlistment offices.

Gary Cooper is flanked by costars George Tobias
and Joe Sawyer in "Sergeant York."

The movie was nominated for 11 Oscars, earning Gary Cooper his first Academy Award as Best Actor. During his acceptance speech, Cooper commented, "It was Sergeant Alvin C. York who won this award. Shucks, I've been in this business 16 years and sometimes dreamed I might get one of these things...Funny, when I was dreaming, I always made a good speech." As he left the stage, he forgot the Oscar on the podium.

The aforementioned "Friendly Persuasion" was actually the third film that found Gary Cooper involved with Quaker tenets and-or pacifist beliefs. In between "Sergeant York" and "Friendly Persuasion," Cooper starred in "High Noon" as aging Marshal Will Kane, newly wed to the much younger Amy Fowler (Grace Kelly), a devout Quaker and pacifist. Hours away from retiring to run a general store in another town, Kane decides to stick around when he learns that an outlaw he sent to prison will be arriving on the noon train. Amy's pacifist resolution is obviously to leave town before lunchtime.

Gary Cooper won his second of two Best Actor Oscars
for "High Noon."

Second World War and Pacifists

From 1941 to 1947, nearly 12,000 draftees who were unwilling to do any type of military service during World War II performed "work of national importance" in over 150 stateside Civilian Public Service camps. Conscientious objection during this period was covered in the 2000 documentary "The Good War and Those Who Refused to Fight It," narrated by Ed Asner, written and directed by Judith Ehrlich and Rick Tejada-Flores. Ehrlich later co-wrote and co-directed the Oscar-nominated documentary feature "The Most Dangerous Man in America," about Daniel Ellsberg and the publication of the Pentagon Papers, which exposed military top secrets of America's involvement in Vietnam.

"In the face of criticism and scorn, these men challenged the limits of democracy in wartime," Ed Asner says in the opening moments of "The Good War." "Many participated in the social movements that transformed America in the years that followed."

One of the earliest feature films to touch on pacifist soldiers in World War II was 1958's "The Deep Six," directed by Rudolph Mate, a multi-Oscar-nominated cinematographer. With starring roles in the western "Shane" and film noir classics like "This Gun for Hire" and "The Blue Dahlia" long behind him, Alan Ladd's star was fading when he appeared in this picture as a gunnery officer whose call of duty in wartime conflicts with his Quaker upbringing. Ladd also co-produced the film, which costarred William Bendix, Keenan Wynn, James Whitmore, and Efrem Zimbalist Jr. and featured the film debut of Joey Bishop.

"From Here to Eternity" this ain't. Alan Ladd and costar
Dianne Foster strike a studio-beach pose in a publicity photo
for "The Deep Six."

On a much lighter note, the 1945 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon "Draftee Daffy," directed by Bob Clampett, opens with Daffy Duck (a character virtually created by Clampett) patriotically cheering a headline proclaiming an Allied victory in a World War II battle: "A smashing frontal attack on enemy rear? Hooray!" Then "the little man from the draft board" shows up with Daffy's conscription notice, and the chase is on, all the way to Hades.

"Castle Keep" (1969) was an anti-war movie with surreal, Gothic overtones and skewed humor, based on the 1965 novel by William Eastlake, who served in the U.S. Army infantry during World War II. He was wounded leading a platoon in the Battle of the Bulge and was awarded the Bronze Star, but he would refuse to talk about the experience. Apparently, he was embarrassed because it was his own gun that misfired, blasting shrapnel into his shoulder.

Set in the Ardennes Forest during the Battle of the Bulge, the film opens with a French count sheltering a squad of war-weary GIs in his 10th century castle, hoping they will defend it against advancing Germans. In command is an anachronistic major in an eye patch with the appropriately archaic name Falconer, stoically portrayed by Burt Lancaster (pictured below).

The  cast also featured Patrick O'Neal as an art-loving captain and Peter Falk as a sergeant who goes temporarily AWOL to shack up with a baker's widow in the nearby town. Taking over as the village baker (pictured below), the sergeant delivers freshly baked loaves to the local brothel and declares, "Everybody should eat more bread. Feeds the heart. And remember, the heart's the second most important organ in the human body."

Bruce Dern (pictured below) enjoyed a small but colorful role as an evangelical lieutenant leading a ragtag band of conscientious objectors whose late-night chorus of "Brighten the Corner Where You Are" rouses the sergeant from the bakery and leads to this amusing exchange:

Sergeant (Falk): "You're waking everybody up, go back to your outfit."

Lieutenant (Dern): "We have no outfit. We've withdrawn. We don't believe in fighting."

Sgt.: "Who believes in fighting?"

Lt.: "We believe in God...All you believe in is fornication and fighting...We're conscientious objectors."

Sgt.: "You mean you conscientiously object to fornicating?"

A not-so-veiled anti-Vietnam War allegory, "Castle Keep" was directed by Sydney Pollack, best known for his work with Robert Redford in seven films, including "Jeremiah Johnson," "The Way We Were," and "Out of Africa."

In The New York Times review, Vincent Canby, who wrote that the film "has the form and visual beauty of a dark fairy tale," noted, "It is a sometimes funny and entertaining movie that accomplishes the dubious feat of being both anti and pro war at the same time."


Korean War and Pacifists

A wide variety of alternative services became available to draftees during the Korean War in the early 1950s. A number of farmers were assigned to dairy and experimental farms. The Church of the Brethern provided opportunities in welfare and relief services in Europe, while Mennonites created a service that employed conscientious objectors in construction, agriculture, and relief around the world. A large percentage of objectors accepted low-level jobs in hospitals. Many conscientious objectors utilized these opportunities to move into careers in education and social services.

The United Nations "police action" in Korea that came to be regarded as the "Forgotten War" was likewise overlooked, by and large, by Hollywood. One filmmaker who ignored the odds was Samuel Fuller, who wrote and directed, back-to-back, a pair of simplistic but tough-as-nails B-movies about the conflict in 1951, namely "The Steel Helmet" and "Fixed Bayonets." Fuller subsequently gained a reputation as a gritty director of hardboiled film noir and edgy genre pictures.

During World War II, Sam Fuller served in the U.S. Army as an infantry rifleman (pictured above) and saw action in Africa, Sicily, Normandy, Belgium, and Czechoslovakia in the 1st Infantry Division. He used his combat experiences as material for his semi-autobiographical 1980 film "The Big Red One," which was the nickname for the 1st Infantry Division. The film starred Lee Marvin as the no-nonsense, seemingly immortal sergeant who leads his squad through combat. Robert Carradine's cigar-chewing, wisecracking character, Private Zab (pictured below), was based on Fuller, who, by the time of his tour of duty overseas, was already an established screenwriter, crime reporter, and pulp novelist.

In "The Steel Helmet," a racially diverse American patrol establishes an observation post at an abandoned Korean Buddhist temple. By default, the leader of the kitchen-sink detachment is hard-bitten non-com Sergeant Zack, played by the instantly recognizable character actor Gene Evans (pictured below). Nathan Rabin, a reviewer for the A.V. Club, astutely dubbed Evans "a performer so grizzled he probably emerged from the womb chomping a stogie and sporting a shaggy beard."

Los Angeles-born William Chun plays a Korean orphan dubbed
"Short Round," a term for a bullet that doesn't go the distance.
(When Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, the screenwriters of
"Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," came up with the name
Short Round for Indy's 11-year-old Chinese sidekick, they claimed
that was the name of their pet dog.) In "The Steel Helmet," Short
Round confronts American racial attitudes when he insists on
being called a South Korean, not a "gook."

"The Steel Helmet" was filmed in ten days a mere six months after hostilities broke out in Korea. The picture's shoestring budget allowed for only 25 extras - recruited from UCLA - alternately playing American and North Korean soldiers in battle scenes filmed in Los Angeles' Griffith Park. The Chinese tank that attacks the patrol was constructed of plywood.

Sam Fuller's mixed bag of GIs in the errant patrol included a former conscientious objector, Private Bronte, portrayed by Robert Hutton (pictured below). Hutton was a B-list actor who bore a striking resemblance to A-lister James Stewart. During World War II, after Stewart enlisted in March 1941, Hutton benefitted from so-called "victory casting," landing roles that would have otherwise gone to Stewart.

Vietnam War and Pacifists

During the Vietnam conflict, 170,000 men received deferments as conscientious objectors, while as many as 300,000 other applicants were denied deferment. Nearly 600,000 young men illegally evaded the draft, and about 200,000 were formally accused of draft evasion. From 30,000 to 50,000 fled to Canada; another 20,000 absconded to other countries or hid as fugitives in America.

Conscription in the U.S. ended two years before American involvement in Vietnam did. On January 27, 1973, U.S. Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird announced that the draft ended as of that date, in favor of voluntary service. President Richard Nixon had hoped that ceasing the draft would end the massive demonstrations in opposition to the war. He was wrong.

In the 1970 drama "Jenny," unwed mom-to-be Marlo Thomas (making her feature film debut after five seasons as the star of the sitcom "That Girl") moves from a small town to the big city, where draft dodger Alan Alda (two years before his long-running gig as the star of the series "M*A*S*H") proposes an in-name only marriage in order to secure a paternity deferment. Inevitably, of course, the marriage-of-convenience leads to genuine romance.

Although she had been appearing in several television programs
since 1960, Marlo Thomas' performance in 1970's "Jenny" earned
her a Golden Globes nomination as Most Promising Newcomer.

"Drive, He Said" (1971), the first movie directed by Jack Nicholson, was a unique combination of college hoops and campus unrest, with screen newcomer William as a disenchanted basketball player on the verge of turning pro. The cast featured Karen Black and Bruce Dern. The film stirred controversy over a scene featuring costar Michael Margotta's full frontal nudity when his character freaks out at the draft board. Margotta later taught acting at the prestigious Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in New York City.

Jack Nicholson has a wordless cameo in a scene at the draft
board in "Drive, He Said." Nicholson would direct himself in
two more feature films, the western comedy "Goin' South" and
"The Two Jakes," an ambitious sequel to "Chinatown." 

In the midst of his good-ol'-boy phase (remember the movies with Sondra Locke and the orang?), Clint Eastwood played the title role in 1980's "Bronco Billy" as the quick-draw star of a cut-rate modern Wild West show. The aforementioned Locke and Geoffrey Lewis costarred, with nary an ape in sight, in what amounts to be, more or less, an homage to Eastwood's idol, Gary Cooper.

When a member of Billy's troupe, the youthful trick roper Leonard James, ends up incarcerated for deserting the U.S. Army, the sadistic sheriff humiliates Billy before accepting a bribe to release the kid. Leonard was portrayed by Sam Bottoms (pictured above), who memorably appeared as Clint Eastwood's ill-fated sidekick in "The Outlaw Josey Wales." Sadly, Bottoms succumbed to brain cancer in 2008, age 53.


Vietnam War and Pacifists: Muhammad Ali

When Cassius Clay defeated Sonny Liston for the World Heavyweight Championship on February 25, 1964, he proclaimed, "I am the greatest! I shook up the world! I'm the prettiest thing that ever lived!"

Soon afterward, Clay converted to Islam and changed his name, first to Cassius X, then Muhammad Ali.

On April 28, 1967, Ali refused to be drafted into the U.S. Army on the grounds of being a conscientious objector. Long opposed to the Vietnam War, he said, "Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs?" He insisted, "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong."

Ali was denied a boxing license in every state, stripped of his title, and had his passport forfeited. In June 1967, he was tried, convicted and sentenced in a Houston court to five years in prison for refusing to serve in the Armed Forces and was ordered to pay a $10,000 fine for draft evasion. Ali didn't box from age 25 to almost 29 - a boxer's prime athletic years - while his case worked its way through appeals. The Supreme Court overturned his conviction in June 1971.

One of the first films to touch on the controversy was the 1970 documentary "a.k.a. Cassius Clay," produced during Ali's exile from boxing. Actor Richard Kiley narrated.

In 1977, Tom Gries (best known for directing the westerns "Will Penny," "100 Rifles," and "Breakheart Pass," as well as the miniseries "Helter Skelter") directed "The Greatest," starring Muhammad Ali as himself. Ernest Borgnine played renowned boxing trainer Angelo Dundee in a cast that included Robert Duvall, Ben Johnson, John Marley, David Huddleston, Roger E. Mosley, Paul Winfield, and James Earl Jones as Malcolm X. The movie is noteworthy for introducing "The Greatest Love of All" as its opening theme song (performed by George Benson) before it became an international smash hit for Whitney Houston.

Muhammad Ali confers with Ernest Borgnine and John Marley
on the set of "The Greatest."

"Ali" (2001), directed by Michael Mann and featuring Oscar-nominated performances by Will Smith in the title role and Jon Voight as Howard Cosell, was well reviewed by critics but proved to be a box-office disappointment. The supporting cast included Jamie Foxx as Ali's cornerman Drew Bundini Brown, Mario Van Peebles as Malcolm X, and LeVar Burton as Martin Luther King Jr.

Jon Voight (buried beneath layers of makeup and prosthetics as
Howard Cosell) and Will Smith (as Muhammad Ali) reenact a
memorable encounter on TV's "Wide World of Sports."

Will Smith initially turned down the role until Muhammad Ali called him, telling Smith he was the only actor as good-looking as him.

Muhammad Ali clowns around with Will Smith. Along with
boxers Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson, Smith was a pallbearer
at Ali's funeral in June 2016.

Possibly the most interesting take on Ali's conscientious objection to military service was presented in "Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight," a 2013 HBO movie dramatizing how the U.S. Supreme Court decided to rule in favor of the embattled boxer in 1971 in the case of Clay v. United States. In the film, directed by English filmmaker Stephen Frears ("Dangerous Liaisons," "High Fidelity," "The Queen"), Ali wasn't portrayed by an actor but appears through the use of archival news footage.

The impressive cast of veteran thespians included Frank Langella as Chief Justice Warren Berger and Christopher Plummer as Justice John Marshall Harlan II (both pictured above), with Ed Begley Jr. (Justice Harry Blackmun), director Barry Levinson (Justice Potter Stewart), Fritz Weaver (Justice Hugo Black), Harris Yulin (Justice William O. Douglas), and Danny Glover (Justice Thurgood Marshall).


Postscript: Return to Hacksaw Ridge

The heroic deeds of Desmond Doss in WWII
were depicted in a 1946 comic book.

A number of producers tried for decades to film the story of Medal of Honor recipient Desmond Doss, among them B-movie actor Audie Murphy, who happened to be World War II's most decorated hero.

Audie Murphy played himself in 1955's "To Hell and Back,"
a low-budget adaptation of Murphy's 1949 autobiography.

When filmmaker Terry Benedict obtained the rights to make the 2004 documentary "The Conscientious Objector," he also secured the dramatic rights for a feature film. Over the next few years, the rights to film Doss' story were sold, bought, and resold until 2014, when it was announced that Mel Gibson was in talks to direct the picture, titled "Hacksaw Ridge," which still credits Terry Benedict as one of the producers.

Cast as Desmond Doss, Andrew Garfield, probably best known as the star of the Marvel Entertainment's reboots "The Amazing Spider-Man" and its sequel, found the idea of playing a real superhero inspiring. Interestingly, to some, it might appear that Garfield is stepping in front of the camera as a surrogate for a younger Mel Gibson, particularly when the latter starred in "We Were Soldiers" (pictured below).

(Left) Mel Gibson plays real-life Vietnam War hero Lt. Col. Hal
Moore in "We Were Soldiers"; Andrew Garfield portrays real-life
World War II hero Pvt. Desmond Doss in "Hacksaw Ridge."

"Hacksaw Ridge" had its red-carpet world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, where it received a ten-minute standing ovation. In his review of "Apocalypto," A.O. Scott of The New York Times asserted, "Say what you will about him - about his problem with booze or his problem with Jews - he is a serious filmmaker." Sue Kroll, a marketing and distribution executive at Warner Bros., said Gibson's "talents as a filmmaker are undeniable. He is a gifted storyteller and has created some really exceptional films."

Mel Gibson checks out a shot on the set of "Hacksaw Ridge."
Gibson is also lining up work as an actor. He was recently in
Ireland, shooting "The Professor and the Madman" with Sean
Penn, directed by "Apocalypto" screenwriter Farhad Safinia.

Mel Gibson said, "A lot of attention needs to be paid to our warriors; they need...love and understanding. I hope this film imparts that message. If it does nothing but that, that's great."

"Here's a warrior."
Desmond Thomas Doss 1919 - 2006