Interview: Robert Schenkkan, co-writer, “Hacksaw Ridge”
A Script magazine interview with Robert Schenkkan, co-writer of the movie Hacksaw Ridge.
A Script magazine interview with Robert Schenkkan, co-writer of the movie Hacksaw Ridge.
I asked Robert to elaborate on his process for developing a factual character when there is very little research material.
All I had really was this black and white documentary film and, more useful, transcriptions of the interviews the documentarian had done with Desmond directly, and then with Captain Glover and some other people. That’s really the most immediate stuff I had about Desmond Doss. Then I cast a wide net as I often do. I read the regiment history. I read books about the Okinawa campaign. I read books about medics; the training and practice of combat medics. That was it. That’s what I had and very little of it spoke to Desmond’s interior because he just didn’t talk like many men of that time. Like so many who suffered from PTSD from the result of a war, there was that layer on top of that. So that’s where you begin to imagine what this guy must have been like; what he must have experienced; and try to craft the narrative that is both accurate and also compelling. The trap would be to write Desmond as a secular saint. In which case we could stand around his pedestal and admire him, but we wouldn’t engage with him. We wouldn’t really feel him because he would seem so ‘other.’
It’s very important to me as a writer, particularly with this kind of material, that as idiosyncratic as Desmond certainly was, and as heroic as his actions proved to be, he’s a very human individual which means that same kind of principled action is available to all of us if we are willing to commit to that extent. I think it’s important that we leave that door open.
The process for getting Hacksaw Ridge made took 10 years. When it came back around for re-work, Robert was working on another project. For this reason, Hacksaw has a second credited screenwriter, Andrew Knight. I asked Robert about working with another writer that is not a partnership.
I’m so pleased that Andrew was the writer that came on in my absence. I think he’s done a fabulous job. I quite like him. You know it’s not always the case. We sat down and met with one another and started to talk. There were so many similarities that we just laughed. We both have the same attitude towards the business and towards work and the same response to this material. It killed me that I couldn’t take this all the way because of All the Way — shooting and creative executing this passion project of mine with Stephen Spielberg and Bryan Cranston. It just wasn’t possible. Andrew was an inspired choice by Bill [Mechanic]. I’m very pleased with where he went with it. I’m very proud of the movie. I feel it’s very much my movie; very much my work. It was more like a relay race, and I handed the baton off, as it were.
For the rest of the interview, go here.
Twitter: @ROBERTSCHENKKAN