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Mates,I was interested after many years to see the old Gary Cooper movie "Sergeant York."
The story line: Alvin York is a farmer in a remote community in Tennessee. He wants to improve his life and works like a demon to buy a piece of "bottom land" which is better than (I guess) land on a hillside. His mother: "Funny how those on the bottom look down on those at the top." York has a contract for a certain period to pay but the land is sold (on an extension of the contract time) behind his back. He goes for revenge but is struck by lightning on the way over - has an epiphany- and becomes strongly religious. He is drafted for WWI, but as he takes the teachings of the Bible to heart, is a conscientious objector. He goes into the infantry and has a crisis of conscience. From some more sophisticated officers, he is talked into accepting that killing is the "price of freedom" and has been the unfortunate necessity of American history. He then becomes an enthusiatic soldier and in combat kills many Germans with a machine gun nest and single-handedly captures something like 150 more. He returns to the US as a national hero and is given a 500 acre farm (all "bottom land") with house full of luxuries "a pump in the kitchen" and barn. Hero falls into the arms of his admiring beloved.
What do we learn from "Sergeant York"?
One view: If you labour long and hard and honestly for what you want it will be denied- the harsh reality of "business". But, if you let yourself be persuaded by those in power to turn your back on your core beliefs and you then successfully kill a large number of the enemy- as designated by someone else- you will be handed more than you ever hoped or desired.
An unintentionally cynical portrayal of the American way of life?
Cheers,
Bambi B
If you don't mind I may post this on "Outside" also..
Follow Ups:
Your view is exceptionally cynical and negative.I think the weakness in your argument of the individual vs. "authority" is that it doesn't recognize the inability of the individual to raise meaningful resistance against subjegation by an organized force. When the broader community is seriously threatened, the individual has a responsiblity to help defend it and can't opt out without passing rather severe tests (which York didn't).
Passive or non-violent resistance is only effective when the opponents share some common moral foundation. Gandhi's non-violence was effective against the English but what if he'd opposed a Stalin?
You also seem to assume that authority is, in itself, sinister, even when it is acting on behalf of or representing the community; especially a democratic community based on respect for individual.
I think we must balance valid suspicion of authority with equally valid suspicion of the aims of the individual. Experience shows that both have a tendency to put self-interest first.
Keep in mind when that film was released. It was mid-1941 and Europe was engulfed in war--Germans the bad guys again. It was a good tale(and mostly true) but still mild pro-war propaganda.The epiphany of the lightning strike didn't happen--his reformation was mainly caused by his mother's worrying about him. And the free house and farm weren't completely free because the group that gave it to him wasn't able to raise enough money to pay for all of it. The crisis of conscience was real. York became a pacifist after WWI and was outspoken against the U.S. getting involved in WWII...but eventually decided Hitler was a guy who needed to be stopped. He tried to join the infantry again after the U.S. entered WWII but was too old.
nt
I've read the biography of the US footsoldier who did single handedly capture 100+ prisoners in a single action during WW1; but I regret it was so long ago now I don't remember his name.
I would imagine the rest of the film is pure fiction; it's not unlike the Stalingrad "Vassily Zaitsev" film, very loosely based on fact.
Too jingoistic and not one of Coops best, but agree it does have it's moments
Eric
Eric,I guess that is my real question, how much of the movie story was contrived to heighten the dramatic effect of struggle and reward, because the message has a darker side: the sublimation of the individual (York) to the will of authority (the army), even to the point of killing people (the Germans), sacrifice of personal belief (actual Christianity), risk death for the good of the greater society (USA), and that achievements are honoured and rewarded to a greater degree for these sacrifices than effort that benefits only the individual.
I guess we think of the US today as more the promoter of individual achievement than that kind of nationalist socialism, but the York kind of thinking does pop up around wars and I think "Sgt. York" was '38 or '39 when the sabers were rattling again and a lot of people in power wanted the US in on the war as soon as possible.
Fortunatley, that kind of childish war mongering is too naive to be effective today.
Cooper's York is very likeable and I always like people who are shown to have woken up to at least ask deep moral questions (should I kill another person?- is the biggest), but York is characterized with a terrible weakness to please- a complex, flawed person.
Quality: I was struck by some of the photography, the scenes of York working for the land money plowing silhouetted against the sunset was a living Thomas Hart Benton painting.
Cheers,
BB
Bambi,
that's an apt post mortem. It's a memorable film for some of the scenes as you describe, Gary Cooper does a good job of weaving the somewhat unusual character of York into a credible screen persona.
I had a Granduncle who survived WW1 France who'd secretly kept a diary; an offense punishable at that time by Court martial, and if found guilty, death by firing squad. He told me there were battle scenes so awful, he believed that had television existed as a medium at that time that that War would've been curtailed by public outcry from all sides.
My Granduncles diary was published and later adapted into a play.
I have never met anyone more ardently anti-war! Peckinpahs "Cross of Iron" is the best anti-war film I've seen; James Coburns Sgt. Steiner as the battle weary vet and my Granduncle would've understood each other well
There's a great Antiwar scene in "The People vs Larry Flint" when he's questioning the morality of the media publishing scenes of Vietnam while he's being persecuted for printing nudity; slides of victims of war are being projected while he's making his point
That's a sleeper of a film, and probably more relevant now than when it was released
Eric
Tokyo
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