Sergeant York (film)

Sergeant York
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Howard Hawks
Screenplay by	Harry Chandlee Abem Finkel John Huston Howard E. Koch
Based on	Sergeant York: His Own Life Story and War Diary by Tom Skeyhill Alvin York
Produced by	Howard Hawks Jesse L. Lasky Hal B. Wallis
Starring	Gary Cooper Walter Brennan Joan Leslie
Cinematography	Sol Polito
Edited by	William Holmes
Music by	Max Steiner
Production company	Warner Bros.
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date	July 2, 1941 (1941-07-02) (New York City)
Running time	134 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$1.7 million
Box office	$8.3 million

Sergeant York is a 1941 American biographical film about the life of Alvin C. York, one of the most decorated American soldiers of World War I. Directed by Howard Hawks and starring Gary Cooper in the title role, the film was a critical and commercial success, and became the highest-grossing film of 1941. In 2008, Sergeant York was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

The film was based on York's diary, as edited by Tom Skeyhill, and adapted by Harry Chandlee, Abem Finkel, John Huston, Howard E. Koch, and Sam Cowan (uncredited). York refused, several times, to authorize a film version of his life story, but finally yielded to persistent efforts to finance the creation of an interdenominational Bible school. The story that York insisted on Cooper for the title role comes from a telegram that producer Jesse L. Lasky wrote to Cooper pleading with him to accept the part, to which he signed York's name.

Cooper went on to win the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance, while the film also won Best Film Editing and was nominated in nine other categories, including Best Picture, Director, Supporting Actor (Walter Brennan), and Supporting Actress (Margaret Wycherly). The American Film Institute ranked the film 57th in its 100 most inspirational American movies list; it also rated Alvin York 35th in its list of the top 50 heroes in American cinema.

Plot

Before America's entry into World War I, Alvin York is a poor, young farmer in rural Tennessee, living with his widowed mother, sister, and younger brother. Alvin's leisure time is spent fighting and getting drunk with friends. Alvin's goal is to purchase a piece of farmland, fertile "bottomland". Alvin works hard to acquire the price for the land, and is given an extension by the owner. Alvin's sharpshooting skills enable him to raise the money needed, but the owner reneges, making Alvin angry and bitter. En route to seek revenge, Alvin and his mule are struck by lightning. The incident prompts Alvin to rejoin his church.

When the U.S. enters World War I, Alvin seeks exemption as a conscientious objector, which is denied. Alvin is torn between fighting for his country and the biblical prohibition against killing. His sympathetic commanding officer gives him leave to go home and come to a decision. Alvin reconciles his moral conflict after reading the biblical injunction to "render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's."

During the Meuse–Argonne offensive, York's qualms vanish when he sees his friends and comrades being killed as they assault a strong German position. With his superiors dead or incapacitated, he takes charge. He infiltrates the German lines by himself and finds a position that lets him enfilade the main German defensive trench. He kills so many German soldiers that they eventually surrender to him en masse. One of the prisoners of war treacherously grenades Alvin's good friend, "Pusher" Ross, and is gunned down by York. He and the handful of survivors from his unit lead their many captives behind their lines, but have a hard time finding anyone to take the Germans off their hands. The officer who finally does is astonished to learn that so few men captured so many of the enemy.

York is decorated and hailed as a national hero, feted in Europe, New York, and Washington DC, but he desires to return home. He rejects commercial offers that would make him wealthy, explaining that he could not take money for doing his duty. York returns home to marry his fiancée, Gracie. To his surprise, the state has purchased the bottomland farm and built a house for Gracie and him.

Cast

• Gary Cooper as Alvin C. York
• Walter Brennan as Pastor Rosier Pile
• Joan Leslie as Gracie Williams
• George Tobias as "Pusher" Ross, a soldier from New York City and one of Alvin's friends
• Stanley Ridges as Major Buxton
• Margaret Wycherly as Mother York
• Ward Bond as Ike Botkin
• Noah Beery Jr. as Buck Lipscomb
• June Lockhart as Rosie York, Alvin's sister
• Dickie Moore as George York, Alvin's brother
• Clem Bevans as Zeke
• Howard Da Silva as Lem
• Charles Trowbridge as Cordell Hull
• Harvey Stephens as Captain Danforth
• David Bruce as Bert Thomas, another of Alvin's soldier friends
• Charles Esmond as German Major
• Joseph Sawyer as Sergeant Early
• Pat Flaherty as Sergeant Harry Parsons
• Robert Porterfield as Zeb Andrews
• Erville Alderson as Nate Tomkins

Reception

Sergeant York was a success at the box office and became the highest-grossing film of 1941. This was influenced by the attack on Pearl Harbor, which occurred while the film was still playing in theaters. The film's patriotic theme helped recruit soldiers; young men sometimes went directly from the movie theater to military enlistment offices. After its initial release, the film was frequently reshown at theaters all over America during the war as a quick replacement for box-office flops and as a theme program for bond sales and scrap drives.

According to Warner Bros. records, the film earned $6,075,000 domestically and $2,184,000 internationally.

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an 88% rating based on 24 reviews, with an average rating of 7.4/10.

Accolades

Gary Cooper, with his Academy Award for the film, and Joan Fontaine, 1942

Award	Category	Nominee(s)	Result
Academy Awards	Outstanding Motion Picture	Hal B. Wallis and Jesse L. Lasky	Nominated
	Best Director	Howard Hawks	Nominated
	Best Actor	Gary Cooper	Won
	Best Supporting Actor	Walter Brennan	Nominated
	Best Supporting Actress	Margaret Wycherly	Nominated
	Best Original Screenplay	Harry Chandlee, Abem Finkel, John Huston and Howard Koch	Nominated
	Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration – Black-and-White	John Hughes and Fred M. MacLean	Nominated
	Best Cinematography – Black-and-White	Sol Polito	Nominated
	Best Film Editing	William Holmes	Won
	Best Scoring of a Dramatic Picture	Max Steiner	Nominated
	Best Sound Recording	Nathan Levinson	Nominated
National Board of Review Awards	Best Acting	Gary Cooper	Won
National Film Preservation Board	National Film Registry		Inducted
New York Film Critics Circle Awards	Best Film		Nominated
	Best Actor	Gary Cooper	Won

The film was nominated by the American Film Institute for its 2006 list of most inspiring movies.

Further reading

• Michael E. Birdwell, Celluloid Soldiers: The Warner Bros. Campaign against Nazism (NY: New York University Press, 1999)
• McCarthy, Todd, Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood (NY: Grove Press, 1997), ch. 22: "Sergeant York"
• Robert Brent Toplin, History by Hollywood: The Use and Abuse of the American Past (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1996)

External links

• Sergeant York essay by Donna Ross at National Film Registry
• Sergeant York at the TCM Movie Database
• Sergeant York at IMDb 
• Sergeant York at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
• Sergeant York at Box Office Mojo
• Sergeant York at Rotten Tomatoes
• Sergeant York And His People, by Sam Cowan, 1922, from Project Gutenberg
• Alvin York and the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, by Douglas Mastriano, Military History magazine, Sept 2006. (Corporal York's actions as seen from the German perspective.)
• Photos and details of the discovery of the site where York earned the Medal of Honor, Discovered 21 October 2006 by the Sergeant York Discovery Expedition.
• Craig S. Smith (October 26, 2006). "Proof offered of Sergeant York's war exploits". International Herald Tribune. Archived from the original on 2009-02-21. Retrieved 2011-11-22.
• Sergeant York essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, A&C Black, 2010 ISBN 0826429777, pages 333–335