OVP: Sergeant York (1941)

Film: Sergeant York (1941)

Stars: Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan, Joan Leslie, George Tobias, Margaret Wycherly

Director: Howard Hawks

Oscar History: 11 nominations/2 wins (Best Picture, Director, Actor-Gary Cooper*, Supporting Actor-Walter Brennan, Supporting Actress-Margaret Wycherly, Original Screenplay, Art Direction, Cinematography, Film Editing*, Score, Sound)

Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2022 Saturdays with the Stars series, we highlight a different Classical Hollywood star who made their name in the early days of television.  This month, our focus is on Walter Brennan: click here to learn more about Mr. Brennan (and why I picked him), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

Walter Brennan only lost one Oscar in his whole Academy career.  By 1941, it had become something of a running joke with the Academy giving Brennan trophies every year.  His statue for The Westerner, in particular, was considered a big upset against films like Foreign Correspondent and The Great Dictator which had gotten more Academy love.  His one loss, oddly enough, came for the film that would be the most-lauded of his quartet of nominations, and indeed perhaps the most honored film (in terms of Oscar) of Brennan's whole career: Sergeant York.  Made in 1941, Sergeant York was a gargantuan hit, getting Warner Brothers the #1 movie of the year, and was nominated for 11 Oscars, making it one of the frontrunners for the trophy that would eventually go to How Green was My Valley (and famously not Citizen Kane).  This is also a weird collective moment for me, as this is one of the first original "extended" lineups that I have finished watching for Best Picture (the plethora of Best Song & Score nominations those years cover up that I've seen most of the major movies of 1941).  I was intrigued given its reputation as one of the signature war films of this era what Sergeant York would end up looking like as I finished up both Oscar's Best Picture lineup that year and their romance with Brennan, who despite working another 25 years in Hollywood would never be cited again.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is unusual for a war film in that it focuses for most of the movie on Alvin York's (Cooper) life outside of World War I.  We see his humble beginnings, first as a wastrel who is raised by a pious mother (Wycherly) who then finds god under the guidance of Pastor Pile (Brennan), and aspires to make a life for himself on a farm.  When World War I breaks out, he enlists, though before that he becomes engaged to his sweetheart Gracie (Leslie), and though he is a conscientious objector at first on religious grounds, decides ultimately to become a soldier who uses his gun.  This invites an outstanding act of bravery, where he holds the line singlehandedly against the Germans, and takes dozens of them prisoner with only a few of his fellow American soldiers.  He is awarded dozens of medals for this, including the Medal of Honor, but his greatest reward is getting to go home to Gracie, get married, and start a family on the farmland he spent the first half of the movie trying to buy.

It's hard for people today to realize, but in 1941 Alvin York was something of a household name.  Much of the bravery exhibited in this movie (and the honors he received after) was based on actual fact-York would become one of the most decorated US Army soldiers of World War I.  Particularly in the midst of World War II, a dose of patriotism was probably not a hard sell for theatergoers who wanted to see an American hero on the big-screen.  The problem for me with the film, though, is that it's unfathomably boring for the first 90 minutes of its run.  The scenes that are at-home with York drag and while the war scenes themselves are quite thrilling & interesting (York became a legend for a reason-this is fascinating stuff), they feel like an almost afterthought on the movie.  The war parts keep it from getting a 1-star situation, but man is the rest of this dreadful.

The film won 11 nominations, and for-the-most part they're a bust.  The best aspect of the film is probably the art direction, as the bunkers look quite well-constructed, and give you a sense of the closeness to danger York was encountering, and how these men lived...though that's again just for 15 minutes or so of the picture.  The Sound, Score, & Cinematography are routine-you couldn't find anything much different than any other picture of the era, and I dare you to find anything interesting about it.  The Editing has not so much as a fascinating cut (even in the war scenes)...this beat Citizen freaking Kane?  Come on now Oscar.  The script is tired, the direction lousy (Howard Hawks, the man who made genuine classics like Bringing Up Baby, Rio Bravo, Scarface, Red River, and Gentleman Prefer Blondes got his sole directing nomination for this)?  And the performances are a snooze.  Brennan doesn't even get to have some of his goofier comedy bits in this, and Wycherly looks like she's on novocaine the entire film-apparently you could win an Oscar nomination just by standing and looking penitent for the run of your movie in 1941.  Gary Cooper, whose acting style is more miss than hit for me, is not Will Kane here-this is a one-note piece of work, and don't get me started on something thinking this is better than what Orson Welles was doing that same year.