“A RELUCTANT WAR HERO”

By Raymond Benson

Howard Hawks’ biopic of American war hero Alvin C. York, Sergeant York, was the highest grossing film of 1941. It received many accolades, including a Best Actor Oscar for star Gary Cooper and a trophy for Film Editing. It was also nominated for Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay (John Huston was one of four writers involved), Supporting Actor (Walter Brennan), Supporting Actress (Margaret Wycherly), Cinematography, Art Direction, Music Score (by Max Steiner), and Sound Recording. The film was released in the summer of ’41 and did very well at the box office. By the time it was playing in rural America later in the year, though, the attack on Pearl Harbor had occurred. The mobilization to prepare for war helped give Sergeant York a second wave of financial success and it continued to play on U.S. screens into 1942.

“Biopic” may be too broad of a description of the movie because it covers only two years of York’s life. The year is 1916 and York is already a grown man. York (Cooper) lives in an extremely rural area of Tennessee, near the Kentucky border (one of the bars he frequents with his best friends, played by Ward Bond and Noah Beery, Jr., is divided by the state line on the floor—and Tennessee residents must go to the Kentucky side of the place to purchase their liquor, and then walk back across the room to the Tennessee side to sit and drink it). York is an uneducated farmer (he can read, but an entire book is daunting for him) and poor. He lives with his wise but stern mother (Wycherly) and two younger siblings (the sister is played by a teen June Lockhart). The town—such as it is—has an unofficial patriarch in the form of the pastor and general store proprietor, Rosier Pile (Brennan). York is sweet on Gracie (Joan Leslie), and she has reciprocal feelings for him, but he worries that he has no land of his own or anything else he can offer.

One stormy night, York is on his way on horseback to perhaps kill a man whom he feels stole a land purchase from him. York is struck by lightning and he survives. He suddenly finds religion after the incident. This dovetails with America’s entering World War I, and York is drafted. He enters the army but insists that he is a conscientious objector. The last act of the film becomes an engaging war movie in Europe, and it depicts how York overcomes his objection to perform a significant heroic act that solidifies his place in American history.

While Sergeant York is perhaps a little lengthy at 134 minutes, under the direction of Howard Hawks it moves from one entertaining set piece to the next. The characterizations are expertly rendered by the entire cast. Brennan is always good during this period of his career (he won three Supporting Actor Oscars between 1936 and 1940), and George Tobias, as a fellow soldier from New York who teaches York about “subways,” is also winning. The movie, however, belongs to Cooper, who displays charm, humility, and integrity throughout the picture.

(Note from the Warner Archive:  Warner Bros. Motion Picture Imaging (MPI) presents a "Before & After" video comparing the previous master of Sergeant York (1941) with our brand-new master featured on our new Warner Archive Blu-ray.)

Warner Archive’s Blu-ray is a port-over from Warner’s original DVD release. The restored transfer is gorgeous and clean, and it comes with an audio commentary by film historian Jeanine Basinger. Supplements include a “night at the movies” selection of shorts (a semi-comic documentary called Lions for Sale, and a Porky Pig cartoon). Of special interest is the 38-minute making-of featurette, Sergeant York: Of God and Country.

For fans of Sergeant York, Gary Cooper, Howard Hawks, or depictions of Americana, the new Warner Archive edition of the picture is worth the upgrade.

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