Every once in a while as a filmgoer you run into a classic film that is so bad you are dumbfounded by its status in the pantheon of great movies. For me, Sergeant York is definitely one of those films. It is so boring and clichéd that it was a major chore to keep from shutting it off, and I only refrained from doing so because I had to complete it for my WWI book.
The movie is a classic of example of what happened to WWI in popular thought during WWII. Instead of being a great international calamity, it became a vehicle for patriotism and propaganda, albeit propaganda which people were willing to pay money to see, as Sergeant York was the highest grossing film of 1941. It was critically acclaimed, too- Gary Cooper won a Best Actor Oscar in the title role, beating out Orson Welles for Citizen Kane and Humphrey Bogart for The Maltese Falcon, something I doubt too many movies fans today would agree was the correct choice.
The movie is a biopic about Alvin York, an alcoholic from Tennessee who found religion and turned his life around. He was drafted into WWI and tried to gain consciousness objector status, but (according to the movie anyway) a stirring a speech from his commanding officer made him realize that Jesus wasn't really a total pacifist after all. He then became a war hero, and received the Metal of Honor from General Pershing.
The broad outlines of York's story seemingly they would automatically lend themselves to conservative propaganda, and that's exactly what happens. The movie's treatment of religion is simplistic in the most ridiculous sense. There are no real ideas behind the picture, and if it were made today, it could be found in the Christian bookstore next to the Left Behind movies. There is also a lot of down-on-the-farm country boy stereotyping in the movie. I know that Hawks probably intended this to be cute Americana in a John Ford kind of way, but he ain't no John Ford.
Essentially, Sergeant York has all the typical flaws of a movie of its era. It does not portray America is it, but as it wants to see itself, but is not smart enough to realize it. As I said earlier, in addition being clichéd, the movie is just plain boring. It goes on and on and on, with precious little of interest happening on the screen except speeches and the occasional fake action sequence once the war starts.
The only way that Sergeant York is helpful to audiences today is as a cultural curio. It helps to show us in some ways how we have evolved as a culture. There are lots of different kind of portrayals of war in movies, but today very few are as naïve and stupid as Sergeant York.
Sergeant York (1941)