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CONTRASTING MASCULINITY IN WAR VALLEY FILM
“HACKSAW RIDGE”
Ika Laidi Maftuhah1, Amata Fami2, Nur Ikhsan Mukhammad3 IPB University
Bogor, West Java, Indonesia
*Email: [email protected]
Abstrak
Meskipun fokusnya pada penentang hati nurani, film ini memberikan contoh bagaimana nilai-nilai maskulinitas mendapat manfaat dari hubungan kekuasaan dan maskulinitas. Dalam film Mel Gibson 2016 "Hacksaw Ridge," menampilkan kisah Dawes, seorang prajurit Amerika yang terdaftar dalam Perang Dunia II yang ingin menyelamatkan nyawa sambil membantu negaranya. Dia seorang pria yang memiliki komitmen dan prinsip, yang percaya bahwa "Jangan membunuh" benar-benar berarti bahwa tidak ada yang boleh mengambil nyawa manusia.
Keyakinan ini lebih penting dari pada kesesuaiannya dengan perusahaan dan negara. Metodologi ini digunakan dengan tujuan untuk memperoleh data yang komprehensif dengan tahapan sebagai berikut: reduksi data, penyajian data, dan verifikasi atau penarikan kesimpulan. Penentuan bahan kajian dengan pemilihan momen-momen dari film
“Hacksaw Ridge” memiliki unsur-unsur yang berhubungan dengan penelitian ini, khususnya kemanusiaan. Temuan penelitian ini mengungkapkan tiga aspek yang ditampilkan dalam konstruksi makna kemanusiaan yang direpresentasikan dalam film “Hacksaw Ridge”, yaitu seorang prajurit yang menolak untuk memegang dan membawa senjata ke medan perang, seorang prajurit yang menolak untuk membunuh lawannya, dan seorang prajurit yang menolak untuk tidak mematuhi perintah dari atasan mereka. Ketiga elemen ini menunjukkan sisi manusiawi seorang prajurit yang maju di medan perang.Abstrak berbahasa Indonesia dan Inggris.
Kata kunci: Hacksaw Ridge; Film; Kemanusiaan; Perang.
Abstract
Despite its focus on conscientious objectors, this film provides an example of how masculinity values benefit from the relationship of power and masculinity. Mel Gibson's 2016 film "Hacksaw Ridge," tells the story of Dawes, an American soldier who enlisted in World War II and wants to save lives while helping his country. He was a man of commitment and principles, who believed that "Thou shalt not kill" really meant that no one should take human life. This belief is more important than its conformity to the company and the country. This methodology is used to obtain comprehensive data with the following stages: data reduction, data presentation, and verification or conclusion. Determination of the study material by selecting moments from the film "Hacksaw Ridge" has elements related to this research, especially humanity. The findings of this study reveal three aspects that are displayed in the construction of the meaning of humanity represented in the film "Hacksaw Ridge", namely a soldier who refuses to hold and carry weapons to the battlefield, a soldier who refuses to kill his opponent, and a soldier who refuses not to. obey orders from their superiors. These three elements show the human side of a warrior advancing on the battlefield.
Keywords: Hacksaw Ridge; Film; Humanity; War.
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INTRODUCTIONThe 2016 film Hacksaw Ridge, directed by Mel Gibson, is based on the true story of Desmond Doss, who is considered the first conscientious objector to receive a medal of honor from the United States of America (Sturm, 2017). Although it focuses on conscientious objectors and reveals the brutality of war, it remains a question mark to what extent this film can be read in terms of anti-war. This film proceeds through the representation of ideologies based on religion, patriotism, nationalism, and militarism (Giroux, 2015).
Desmond (Andrew Garfield), the subject of the film is the son of a religious Adventist family. Desmond was one of the men who received conscientious objector status during the Second World War because of his opposition to killing people (Desmond and Moore, 2014). The reason the conscientious objectors at that time did not go to war was large because of their religious beliefs. Thus, Randol writes that conscientious objectors of World War II, including Desmond Doss, in the US, were not "political opponents" because they saw war as natural Desmond's justification for war caused him to want to fight even though he opposed killing people, and it was with this attitude that he made a mark in American history (Reed, 2014). He did not see his religious beliefs as an obstacle to going to war and wanted to join the army and fight as a medic. Doss enlisted in the army to serve combat medic. Tom's father,
who was a World War I veteran, was deeply disappointed by the decision. Before leaving town, he proposed to Dorothy and asked her to marry him. He is in the army now and is placed under Sergeant Howell's command. He didn't want to go to shooting practice because of his faith and he didn't want to work on Saturdays either because Saturday was his Sabbath. Therefore, Sergeant Howell and Captain Glover attempted to release Doss for psychiatric reasons but were refused, because Doss's religious beliefs did not constitute mental illness. Eventually Doss was able to join as a combat medic because his father gave him a letter stating his son's pacifism was protected by the Congressional Act. Doss was assigned to a unit of the 77th Infantry Division. During the battle of Okinawa, Doss lost his friend Smithy and the others. Howell and his troops were injured on the battlefield.
While the Japanese attack them, Doss hears the cries of the dying soldiers and decides to come back to save them, carrying the wounded to the edge of the cliff and pulling them with ropes that have been tied. Doss returns to save people including saving his enemies as well.
Captain Glover tells Doss that the men are inspired by selfishness and that they will not launch their next attack without him. With reinforcements, they turned the tide of the battle (Simanjuntak, et al, 2022).
He faced many problems by refusing to hold a gun in the army, but he did not give up and managed to make himself accepted after a
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while. In addition, by being unarmed in war, he saved the lives of many, making him one of four hundred and thirty-one men among the sixteen million uniformed men in the United States during the Second World War (Desmond Doss, nd). In his analysis of Desmond Valley of War, which tells his story, Joshua Matthews argues that the film is neither anti-war nor pro-war and sets it apart from other war films by describing it as "amazing"(Simanjuntak, et al, 2022). Indeed, it is quite difficult to position the film in one place. This film not only creates a dilemma when Desmond, whose story is based on volunteering to join the war despite his opposition to holding guns and killing people but also oscillates between advocating for peace and peppering militarism through the representational conflicts it contains (Nyirenda et al, 2018).
What is clear, the dilemmas and turmoil in this film are represented through the encounter of different masculinities. The appearance of different masculinities in the film proceeds through conflicts that are by the atmosphere of war (Buchbinder, 2012). There are three different encounters with masculinity. First, encounters between soldiers in the army, which are shaped by homosocial relations; second, the encounter between the father and his son leading the way, which is highlighted as the biggest reason for the film's breaking point. The third is the encounter between American soldiers and Japanese soldiers in a war where national values
dominate. In this study, it is examined how masculinity, which is presented as a figure that is contrary to the dominant masculinity values in the film, maintains and reproduces these values through these encounters and conflicts (Messerschmidt, 2015).
WRITING METHOD
In writing this article, using the normative legal writing method as legal writing method to study and write the discussion of this writing. The use of normative writing methods in writing and thesis writing is based on the application of theories and writing methods required by the author. The data collection technique in this paper is carried out through library research, which is a method of collecting data by conducting searches and reviewing library materials (Colorafi and Evans, 2016).
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Two Generations - Two Wars: The Soldier's Son from a "Dead" Father
The discovery of masculinity in contemporary cinema is often associated with fatherhood. Apart from showing different masculinities in the barracks and war scenes, the conflict of masculinity between the two generations is shown through the father-son encounter in the film Savaş Vadisi (Donmez, 2013). The presented representation of Desmond's relationship with his father provides important clues as to how he
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positioned himself and built his manhood (Connell, 2020).Desmond's father is a former soldier who fought for his country in the First World War and lost many friends (Desmond and Moore, 2014). Throughout the film, he is often seen at the graves of his fellow soldiers. He drank with them, chatted with them, poured his drink on their graves. Moreover, he did not hold back from being violent toward his son and wife. The father figure in this film is an example of what the consequences of conscription and participating in the war against men can be in the construction of masculinity. This example that is not taken into account by his children and seems very extreme becomes normal when faced with the brutality that is shown openly in the conflict scenes in both films (Black, 2013). Just as Desmond presents a "different" representation of masculinity, his father offers a "different"
representation of fatherhood.
Desmond's father symbolically marks the deceased father. It was the first time this death had occurred in war (Maluleke, 2015).
As he drinks at his friends' graves, he says "as if I died with you". The second death was a death committed by Desmond which directly targeted the father. Desmond intervenes when his father abuses his mother and draws a gun, grabs the gun, and points, ts it at his father. He didn't pull the trigger, but the father's symbolic death took place there. This past incident, which Desmond told Smitty while watching, was also the moment he vowed never to pick
up a gun again. The fact is that it is a generally accepted view that fathers' values of masculinity are largely passed on to their children as role models (Chodorow, 2018). In the film, Desmond and his brother Hal are
"crazy like their father" behavior and violent play is seen in the first scene of the film.
However, even though this father stands as a bad role model with alcohol addiction and violent tendencies, he doesn't want his children to make the same mistake because he has personally experienced the effects of the devastating war and knows that he has become this way because of the war. However, it failed. “The tension between a father trying to incorporate his values into the life of his son trying to find his way” is reflected in the film.
First Hal and Desmond reveal to the father that they have registered as volunteers to join the war (Desmond, 2016).
Desmond's motivation for war is a little different. He intended to fight for his country and God, not by killing people, but by saving lives (Desmond and Moore, 2014).
Darwin's sacred cause: How Hatred of slavery shaped Darwin's views on human evolution.
HMH. He represents a person who combines national values with religious values, thereby
"doubling his emotional investment" for the protection of the country and the nation. The scene where Desmond explains this decision to his father takes place at the graves of his father's friends (Beckwith, 2017). His father, referring to himself and the dead around him, said that "everyone acts as stupid as us" and
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drew attention to the futility and real consequences of war. Desmond goes to war for his country, ignoring his father's words that"if you get a chance to survive, you will not thank God".
Both Hal and Desmond seemed to see the impact the war had on their father individually, and they didn't let this get in the way of their feelings of patriotism and nationalism (Hart, 2018). They fulfill this military duty by supporting them with religious references, such as an obligation to serve God and humanity, rather than an order to refuse to kill. However, the father's tendency to violence, alcoholism, and being
"crazy" in all the scenes where he is seen is always connected to the war experiences he was experiencing at that time. The traumatic effects of the experience of war present a representation in the film that erases the dazzling splendor of the heroic myth and emphasizes its falsity. For example, the intervention of a father who wore his old uniform and sent a letter he received from the war service commander to court so that his son would not be punished in court, was prevented by saying, "You are nothing." again a member of this army". The father, very upset by this situation, mentions that he fought in his time and lost many friends, but then his uniform is forgotten, he doesn't say anything and he is considered "finished". The father figure in the film demonstrates the temporality of the position one acquires as a result of fearless fighting and offers the opportunity to see that
this position points to a false discursive construct operating as a tool of power (Macedo and Freire, 2018).
The father figure is the only character in the film who speaks against war (Weber, 2020). However, he also compromised his stance by intervening in a case where his son was tried for disobeying orders. Using his connections from the wars he participated in, he made sure his son returned to the army unpunished. However, he knew that if his son accepted the charge, he would not be sent back to the army and would return to his civilian life after a short sentence. Still, he lets his father's position get in the way of his values, achieves higher authority with difficulty, and shows his respect for his son's faith for the first time by having to enter a military environment he never wanted to enter (Simanjuntak &
Barus, 2020). It's the only sign of a dead father being brought back to life in the film.
As a result, Desmond's father reveals three critical issues through representations that are overshadowed by other narratives but become the basis of the film death as an identity, the meaninglessness of war as a phenomenon, and the transience of heroism as a status (Hall, 2012). Desmond, who is responsible for the symbolic death of his father, ignores the reasons that led to his first death and displays a struggle by participating in wars that he thinks are justified (Schulz, 2019).
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Conscious Denial and Hegemonic Masculinity as Power BlocksThe concept of hegemonic masculinity, first proposed in the early 1980s and developed by Raewyn Connell in the following years, is one of the most important and controversial concepts in the study of critical masculinity which deepens its analysis by opening up a separate field for himself with the support of feminism (Connell, 2014).
Connell uses hegemonic masculinity to emphasize power in inequality-based and legitimized gender interactions, thereby opening significant doors for gender discourse in literature. Connell's conceptualization emphasizes the fact that the dominant masculinity's position of power is constructed about other forms of masculinity as well as women. To emphasize this relationality, the terms "subordinate masculinity" for gay men who are dominated by heterosexual men,
"marginalized masculinity" for black men who are oppressed by white supremacist gender regimes, and "engaged masculinity" for men who do not live up to these values. hegemonic normative values (Lara and Fránquiz, 2015).
Masculinity but the benefits of hegemony and feeding the patriarchal order are used. use.
Hegemonic masculinity, according to Connell, constructs, legitimizes, and reproduces itself by pitting itself against femininity and other masculinities (Cerdán et al, 2022).
Hacksaw Ridge – War Movies About Peace Hacksaw Ridge is one of the greatest war films of modern times. It tells the story of
Hacksaw Ridge's battle in Okinawa and Desmond Doss, his life, its ups and downs, and his heroic actions in the war. The film's main themes are pacifism, the horrors of war, love, friendship, faith, and religion. Directed by Mel Gibson, the film stars Andrew Garfield, Theresa Palmer, Vince Vaughn, and many others (Mađerek, 2017). The film won several Academy Awards in 2017 and is considered one of the best war films of 2017 (Barus, et al, 2021). It shows that there is also a good side to war. It can result in good things like respect, friendship, or freedom. It is a film that is based on a true story about a real man and thus adds great cinematic artistic value.
Desmond Doss is the main character of Hacksaw Ridge. He is a conscientious objector, meaning that he refuses to serve in the armed forces or bear arms on moral or religious grounds (Suroso, 2018). Opponents of conscience usually served in the army as the medical staff. He tried from the start to become a medic. The beginning of the film is idealistic and beautiful. He grew up in rural Virginia with his brother and parents. His father was a war veteran weighed down by the past and he didn't want his son to go to war because he thought they would get nothing in return for serving their country. There is a turning point in the film when in a mock fight, Desmond hits his brother with a brick. This action hurt him greatly and he decided not to hurt or kill any living beings again. He then helped a man who had a leg injury and from that moment he knew he wanted to be a medic
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in the army. He meets nurse Dorothy and when he falls in love with her, his intentions to become a medic increase. Then he decided to go to war. This made everyone around him dissatisfied especially his father and Dorothy.In the army, he was harshly treated for not wanting to carry a gun and no one thought he would contribute to the army and the war. He was even tried in military court for his belief but his father came to save him and he went to war as a medic where he saved around a hundred people at Hacksaw Ridge. Through the character of Desmond Doss, this film raises the theme of heroism, pacifism, and unconditional love in wartime because those values are almost impossible to find in war (Reilly and Dugard 2016).
"Hacksaw Ridge": freedom and willful objection
Hacksaw Ridge depicts the true story of Desmond Doss, the only conscientious objector who was awarded the Medal of Honor in World War II (Wenzell, 2019). His conscience not to take up arms in the face of his religious beliefs did not prevent him from practicing his patriotism, going to war to save lives rather than taking them. An objection of conscience is usually an act of individual resistance to the execution of a warrant or legal prohibition for reasons of conscience.
The refusal seeks exceptions or exceptions from complying with norms that do not conform to his moral code - ethical, philosophical, political motivations - so he
does not necessarily intend to change the contested legal system. In other words, the objection proposes “normative confirmation without radical subversion of the legal order.”
Enemy Representation (Monstrous)
The enemy representation takes place at the end of the film, which justifies Smitty's attribution of cunning to the Japanese. It was seen that the Japanese side who suffered heavy damage in the conflict took off their uniforms and surrendered by waving the white flag. This was a ruse and when the American soldiers stopped firing, the Japanese were bombarded with bombs. This is the most controversial scene from the film on social media. Desmond removed one of the bombs coming towards them with his hand and the other with his foot.
He received his only war wound during this unexpected conflict. Before long, it appeared that Japan had indeed accepted defeat.
The film ends with a representation in which all the men participating in the war are depicted as heroes. Armed American soldiers fighting for their homeland, unarmed Desmond saving lives for his Lord, and Japan conceding defeat seem united in a heroic position. In Hacksaw Hill, the winners are Americans, the losers are Japanese, and the heroes are all boys! Of course, the greatest hero among heroes was Desmond, who did what everyone else did holding a Bible instead of a gun, and was deemed worthy of a medal of honor.
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CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONSIt can be said that Desmond is an example of how religious values become complex and intertwined with militaristic values, and how this complexity occurs in a masculine show with the title conscientious objector. Whether Desmond is accepted as a conscientious objector or not, religion, patriotism, nationalist values, heroism, and the associated masculinity are displayed too prominently and influence Desmond's position, making it impossible to read any objections/participation carefully in films made by anti-criminals. -war. Militarism, which emphasizes masculinity and shows a patriarchal society as normal and right, is supported in many scenes through the appearance of masculinity that is prominent in the film. Desmond's different appearance of masculinity is also idealized by referring to religious values, militarism, and the myth of heroic masculinity. The acceptability of this show for other men is made possible not through the possibility that differences can be horizontally linked in power relations, but through the heroic struggle of difference by making engagements with the normative.
Desmond's performance of masculinity represents part of the hybrid power block.
The story explores how men who take risks seeking the status of dissenters can be considered protagonists of the objections of conscience movement, which includes women, and how the "male" aspect of military service
can fuel patriarchy even through objections of conscience. Desmond's character can be interpreted as a more dangerous illustration of this situation (Lewinsohn et al, 2017). He did not hesitate to accept the status of a conscientious objector during wartime, went to war to save lives, did not give up his values as much as possible, and achieved a heroic position in the eyes of a large group of people who were not opposed, perhaps not even belonging to the objection movement.
conscience. As a result, it fosters and reproduces militarism and patriarchy. This replication is the only way to secure his consent.
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