Poducer Bill Mechanic tried to convince Mel Gibson to make “Hacksaw Ridge” in 2002, when Gibson was still at the height of his career, and again in 2010, four years after the Oscar-winning director and star had been all but exiled for anti-Semitic comments made during a drunk-driving arrest in Malibu. Gibson says something about the story of Desmond Doss, a conscientious objector awarded the Medal of Honor for bravery in combat as a medic during World War II, finally clicked for him when Mechanic reached out a third time in 2014. Gibson took a fresh look at Doss and saw a man who transcended the horrors of war, tending to both American and Japanese soldiers alike without regard for his own safety. He saw Doss as an example of “what we’re capable of in our venality, that we have a higher self.” To read more, click here.