Sergeant York

Alvin York lives in the Tennessee hills, drinks, brawls and has no life to speak of. After a religious conversion he refuses to carry a gun. Called up in the First World War, his conscientious objector claim is denied. In France, in the Argonne, left alone against a German position, he becomes the most talked-about American soldier of the war. Howard Hawks directed. Gary Cooper plays York. The film exists at the end of a long refusal. The real Alvin York turned Hollywood down for years and only agreed in 1940 while looking for funding for a Bible school, negotiating the contract himself. The screenplay was built on York's diary but contains a great deal of invention. It was the highest-grossing film of 1941. It received eleven Academy Award nominations and won two, with Cooper taking Best Actor. It landed in the middle of the argument over entering the war. Advocates of preparedness hailed it as Hollywood's first solid contribution to the national defence while isolationists called it propaganda for the Roosevelt administration. The publicity included York's visit to the White House, where Roosevelt praised the picture. What York earned from it, roughly 150,000 dollars within two years plus later royalties, started a dispute with the tax authorities that lasted a decade. Who it is for: viewers who like classic Hollywood biography and Gary Cooper. Who it is not for: anyone looking for a film sceptical about war. It was made on the threshold of American entry and does not hide it.