“Hacksaw Ridge” Bombs at Golden Globes

January 9, 2017:     Despite much fanfare about its Golden Globe nominations in three categories, Hacksaw Ridge won nothing at the 74th Annual Golden Globes ceremony on January 8.

The Mel Gibson-directed war epic depicted the life of Adventist war hero and decorated conscientious objector Desmond T. Doss, and was filmed in Australia. Early reactions to its failure to win a Golden Globe grouped the film with other losing Australian nominees.

“Hacksaw Ridge gets no love at the Golden Globes” read the headline from Australia’s Daily Telegraph.

The article noted that the film “didn’t have any luck at the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards,” while reminding readers that “Hacksaw Ridge had much better luck at the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards in December, picking up nine awards from 13 nominations.”

Further commentary on the sorry state of Australian Golden Globe fortune this year came in a piece from Britain’s Daily Mail that noted “Mel Gibson, Nicole Kidman, Joel Edgerton and Australian-made films Hacksaw Ridge and Lion were all snubbed on Sunday night.”

Hacksaw Ridge was nominated for best motion picture (drama), best director (motion picture) for Mel Gibson and best performance by an actor in a motion picture (drama) for Andrew Garfield.

Hacksaw Ridge was released on November 4. It tells the story of Doss, an Adventist World War II army medic who was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for saving the lives of 75 men as a conscientious objector in the Battle of Okinawa.