145. Sergeant York (1941)

Directed By Howard Hawks

Synopsis

Man from small town Tennessee discovers Jebus and goes to war to shoot a number of Fritzes. Comes back a hero and decides to go back to Redneck's Ville.

Review

Oh well another unamazing film on the list. Gary Cooper is great as always except for the fact that he is actually playing Mr. Deeds again. Maybe he is being typecast as the innocent American hero, but the part is too close to Deeds for comfort. But then Deeds is a much better film.

World War I is a fertile ground for good cinema stories, and this is a good story, but it is also too sappy and religious to be able to take seriously. I am sure it is a lot of people's cup of tea, but its sheer populism and simplistic theologies don't agree with my stomach. We never realise and neither does York what exactly he is fighting for (does anyone know what WWI was all about anyway?), it is never mentioned that it was a pointlessly stupid war and waste of life and as a propaganda film for the joining of the US to the Second WW it fails, because there is not much of a similarity between the two wars. There were actual points to fighting WWII, which are touched on in passing here, when York's superior talks about freedoms.

In the end if you want to watch a film about WWI you would do better with La Grande Illusion or All Quiet On The Western Front instead of with this piece of well acted and well directed well-meaning rubbish.

Final Grade

6/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:


The actual firearm used by York to dispose of a line of seven Germans was not a Luger as depicted in the film, but rather a 1911 .45 ACP automatic. The Luger was preferred for the filmmaking, however, purely on the basis that they couldn't get the .45 to fire blanks.

Alvin C. York allowed the making of a movie based on his life only under the condition that Gary Cooper should play him.

Ronald Reagan was considered for the role of Alvin York, but York insisted that Cooper should play him.

The movie utilizes a Springfield 1903 rifle whereas York actually used an M1917 Enfield rifle to capture the Germans.

The American Film Institute ranked Alvin York #35 in their list of the top 50 heroes in American cinema.

The American Film Institute ranked Sergeant York #57 in their list of the top 100 inspirational movies in American cinema.

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