SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Reported to be Gary Cooper's favorite film role, and probably mine as well. In the charisma department, he is abetted by the presence of Walter Brennan, made up to look older than his 47 years. Brennan plays the local parson and store keeper for this rustic community of farmers. He appears to be one of the few of this community who has had significant "book larnin'". Periodically, he showed up to discuss Alvin's problems and philosophy relating to religion and violence.Margaret Wycherly plays Alvin's aged widowed mother, with big soulful eyes, mostly silent and slow to move around. She would play Ma Forrester 5 years later, in "The Yearling" : a very similar type of role, in another rustic setting. Both Brennan and Margaret would receive Best Supporting Actor nominations for their performances in this film. Incidentally, Clem Bevans, who played the minor character of Zeke, would play Pa Forrester in "The Yearling": a very distinctive character.Ex-Little Rascal Dickie Moore played Alvin's kid brother, George. He was the same age as Joan Leslie, who played Alvin's girlfriend and future wife, Gracie. Thus, based purely upon age, George and Gracie seemed a much more likely couple than Alvin and Gracie. 40 year old Cooper came across as more appropriate as her father. Joan was the same age as the real Gracie at this time. The real Alvin was 30: a much more common age spread than the 24 years spread between Cooper and Joan. In those days, a young man often had to wait until he was 25-30 or so before he had the financial means to support a family. In Alvin's case, he also was the sole support of his mother and young siblings. Also, in those days, rural women often were worn out before their time, birthing babies, along with their many indoor and outdoor chores. When looking for a replacement wife, a man often looked for a young woman who was looking for security.The balance between Alvin's civilian and military lives I though was about right. This is not primarily a war movie, although Alvin's fame derived from one war incident, in which he along with 7 privates captured 132 Germans, along with killing a bunch. I thought the battle scenes in recreating this accomplishment were well done. The dismal trench warfare of the western front cried out for a few publicized heros. Alvin wanted to forget about the war as soon as possible, saying he wasn't especially proud of what he had done over there. It was just a job, to reduce the killing. To have cut short his civilian life would have much reduced the general appeal of the film. Like the later "The Yearling", it gives a somewhat authentic snapshot of a segment of Americana early in the 20th century that most urban people had never encountered. York made various demands upon his agreement to sell the rights to his story. Firstly, his share of the profits would go to a bible school. Also, the actress who portrayed his wife must be wholesome, a non-smoker and non-drinker. Third, the screenplay must depict both the good and bad in his character. Fourth, Gary Cooper must play him. In fact, Cooper initially declined the role, and was only persuaded to accept it after meeting Alvin. Alvin had been subjected to repeated pleas to film his life since just after the war. It was only the beginning of WWII that induced him to agree. The Warners were vehemently anti-fascist and anti-communist. I have proposed elsewhere that several Warner-produced Errol Flynn films in the late '30s and 1940 likely had an intended anti-fascist subliminal message. Beginning in '41, this was transformed into 2 flag-waving biops relating the WWI, intended to promote acceptance of the eventual necessity of a formal entry of the US into the war. The other such film was "Yankee Doodle Dandy", released the following year. Warner later produced several musicals that were also blatant war propaganda films. This includes "This is the Army", "Thank Your Lucky Stars" and "Hollywood Canteen". They also released a number of WWII-related Errol Flynn war films during the war, along with "Casablanca".The present film and 'Yankee Doodle Dandy" share a number of similarities besides being nostalgic biop flag-wavers. Joan Leslie was the leading lady in both. Cooper and Cagney were both 40 or so, thus much older than the subjects they represented as well as the 16-17 year old Joan. Both were more than 2 hours long(too long for some, but I didn't think so), about 30 min longer than most feature films. Both were either the top or near top box office earners of the year. In both, the flag-waving aspect was diluted by copious time devoted to other matters.My title is taken from the last line in the film

Do not believe the good reviews of this movie. There are many things that this movie does that are extremely terrible. The main problem is that HE IS ONLY IN THE WAR FOR A SMALL FRACTION OF THE MOVIE. The rest of this film is basically Little House on the Prairie, except at least that show doesn't make you wanna stab yourself in the eyes and ears with a rusty railroad spike. The sound design in this movie is terrible as well as some of the over the top and unrealistic acting. The mother of York sounds like she is about to drop dead any second. This movie seems like it would be an action filled America movie. But alas, it is bland and disgustingly made to rally people to go to war.

Alvin York may be causing a ruckus every now and again - or often - and likes to drink a bit. But it hits him one day that maybe he can have some purpose: a bit of land, a farm, some bottom-land, he can do some good things with it. But he needs money to buy it, and at the same time he also is pining for the local lady Gracie. So he keeps at it, plugging away with work on the land, and even wins a very competitive bout to win a turkey shoot - low and behold, by golly, he's a perfect shot! How he is doesn't matter, as the last line says, I suppose, the Lord works in mysterious ways. But he can't get the farm right away as someone else buys it. He's despondent, and suddenly, in one of those real MOVIE scenes (in capital letters) a literal bolt of lightning comes near his way, gets his gun, and he finds Jesus by walking into the Pastor's church as the 'Old Time Religion' song booms like a rock concert. York's hooked.How he suddenly flips to becoming a full-blown religious man - and he may seem rather mild compared to today's evangelicals, but make no mistake he's basically 'Born Again' as it were - is one of the flaws of the film for me. But of course one has to take it on the context when it was made; it was a film made right on the cusp of World War 2, and as always in Hollywood at the time, the 'Legend-fact-print-Legend' sort of thing is going on (did this really happen, that during a storm he became completely imbued with the religious spirit, enough to teach kids Sunday school and so on)? Perhaps the religion does do him some good - one wonders if he would, on his own accord, apologize to people he was being foolish to (even if they, frankly, were being bigger d***s to him, but then such is the case of the dimensions of the characters).But up until this point, Sergeant York is the story of this man, told plainly but with visual sophistication and with the usual entertaining pace that Howard Hawks was known for, and it's the simplicity of spirit that works for the film. We see how Alvin is a man who just wants his little lot in life - to get that land, get that girl - and today, or maybe even for some back then, it'd seem hokey. But Gary Cooper sells it so well, he's so damn earnest that you can't really put him down easily, despite the fact that, arguably, he's too old to play the role. He was as well for High Noon, but that didn't stop him from making the character wholly believable and full of genuine spirit. Even when York shows that he doesn't have the best of them ol Book-Smarts, he knows right from wrong, and when he becomes full of the old-time religion he doesn't feel like he should kill - it is a commandment, after all - despite the call for draft in world war one.There is some interesting conflict there, and yet... we all know where this train is headed. I was glad that there was an hour of set up in Tennessee, to show the world that York came from, the people around him like his mother and the Pastor (he played by Walter Brennan, also playing this Pastor in such a way that's strong and dramatic and even fun that you kind of want to 'Wrestle Satan like a bear' as he recommends). But after this, when York goes of to war, it actually wasn't quite as complex. Yes, there is the moment where York has to question what he's doing - if he really can kill with what he knows as the Bible's commandment, and also the parallel of Daniel Boone's own legend - but there's only limited self-reflection in this story. At best, and something I did appreciate, by the end Alvin doesn't totally 'sell-out' as it were, though he very easily could've. Ironic that he's offered movie rights in the film... wait a minute, ain't we watching the Alvin York story here? The action on screen has some excitement, but the war sequence is also more chaotic than I would've expected, given that Hawks is such a clean, clear storyteller throughout most of the film. Only by the time when Alvin gets to doing what makes him so world-renown does it carry some real clarity and purpose. It's also hard to see Alvin doing what needs to be done in a war and he doesn't feel really that much compunction about it (oh, Cooper may have a moment when he shies from knowing the number of how many he killed, but... is that enough?) But all the same, the director and star make Sergeant York a fairly memorable movie about this man, and it carries an All-American spirit that is kind of touching. Here is an age before cynicism in such things really took over, so for all of the hokey moments and goofy bits of Southern-fried characterizations (some of the supporting characters are very one note, it really must be said), there's still a purity about it that is appealing.

. . . as every corporal has his day, but Sgt. Early becomes a late non-commissioned officer. SERGEANT YORK depicts a "feel good" conflict; war at its best, as comrades who've just had their brains blown out by artillery shell shrapnel are accused of napping on the job, mortally wounded men spin in 540-degree pirouettes straight off the ballet stage as they succumb, and war criminals identify themselves immediately when questioned in a language they can't comprehend so they can be executed on the spot. (No drawn out trials, conflicted defense lawyers, or hangings for them; No Siree, just a quick bullet in their back.) Everything is done by the book, and that Book is the Bible. Hardened German infantry troops are not quite as smart was wild American turkeys, giving an experienced gobbler slayer from Tennessee's Daniel Boone Country a distinct advantage. Going from a Conscientious Objector applicant to America's most decorated WWI hero is kind of like one person going from being Cassius Clay to being Colin Powell. According to this movie, SERGEANT YORK, Corporal Alvin Cullum York's real life war exploits were far easier than making a living on his Tennessee farm. As today's economy reduces millions of Americans to Alvin's Pre-War economic status, expect to see scores more Sergeant Yorks emerging from the woodwork.