Trivia / Hacksaw Ridge

• Ability over Appearance: A possible explanation for why Andrew Garfield landed the lead role while sharing little facial similarities with real-life Desmond Doss.
• Career Resurrection: It seemed to be one for Mel Gibson, with actors and agencies becoming eager to work with him again, but his work since has largely been relegated to B-movies and independent films.
• Completely Different Title:
  • Released in France as "Tu ne tueras point" ("Thou shalt not kill").
  • Released in Brazil as "Até o Último Homem" ("To the Last Man"). Likewise in Spain with "Hasta el último hombre".
• Dueling Movies:
  • Hacksaw Ridge dueled with Doctor Strange at both the box office and with the theme of having the main character take a vow that causes him to refuse to harm or kill anyone, as both are medics (Doss took a vow to the Bible after nearly shooting his father, and Dr. Stephen Strange is a surgeon that took the Hippocratic oath, which he keeps as a sorcerer).
  • Also Silence, which like Hacksaw Ridge stars Andrew Garfield as a devout Christian whose faith is put to the test through brutal experiences in Japan.
  • Outside of US Markets, the film is dueling with the Jackie Chan film Railroad Tigers, another WWII film featuring Imperial Japan as the antagonists.
• Fake American: Most of the supporting cast is Australian. This is because the film had a relatively low budget and the production needed a majority-Australian cast to qualify for Australian government subsidies as a supplement. Andrew Garfield could count too; while he was born in the US, he was raised in the UK, and as a result his natural accent is a British one.
  • And Firass Dirani, who plays the Italian-American private Vito Rinnelli, is of Lebanese descent.
• Playing Against Type: Vince Vaughn, well known for his snarky-schlub roles, as hard-ass Sgt. Howell.
• What Could Have Been: James Horner and DP Andrew Lesnie were originally going to act as composer and cinematographer respectively but could not do so to due their respective passings.