Pariah No More? Mel Gibson Gets Standing Ovation at ‘Hacksaw Ridge’ Screening in Beverly Hills (Video)
Mel Gibson Gets Standing Ovation at ‘Hacksaw Ridge’ Screening in Beverly Hills (Video)
[...] heavy the baggage that Mel Gibson carries from a decade ago, the audience screening his World War II battlefield hero movie “Hacksaw Ridge” at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills Monday night looked past it — to the movie itself.
“Show your heart — not just your applause — for Mel Gibson,” producer Bill Mechanic asked the crowd after the credits rolled.
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“Hacksaw Ridge” tells the story of Desmond Doss Sr., a conscientious objector who fought for his right to take the battlefield without a gun, serving as a medic in Japan.
The 131-minute barrage of floor-rattling sound and relentless gruesome death left the Academy audience shell-shocked.
Mechanic made the comments as Gibson and Vince Vaughn also hung around in the Samuel Goldwyn theater, taking pictures with fans as Andrew Garfield huddled on stage in an intense one-on-one with Doss Jr. during their first meeting.
The lead character’s son, who lives in Washington State, did not initially know the film was being made.
Many of the after party shots seemed destined to end up on Facebook themselves, with guests asking for pictures with Vaughn and guests like Gerard Butler in the dimly lit Academy lobby.
Mel Gibson Gets Standing Ovation at ‘Hacksaw Ridge’ Screening in Beverly Hills (Video) At TheWrap