Review of Sergeant York (1941) by Robert R — 09 Oct 2018

I'll be honest. I was mildly disappointed by this. I'm a big history buff. I love me some war movies. Every movie I've seen from Howard Hawks so far has been fantastic. And I think Gary Cooper is the man.

So, what went wrong here for me? Well, first and foremost, we don't even get introduced to the notion of war until about two-thirds of the way through this thing. Up until that point, it's us watching Alvin York try to earn enough money to buy a plot of land in his hometown so that he can impress the girl he fancies.

And I get it -- you have to build a story and a character before you place them in any sort of fray. But this is most of the story we're given throughout the film. Perhaps I was mistaken in thinking this was going to be a strict war movie, but judging by the poster and logline at hand, I may have to give myself a pass on this one.

This isn't a bad movie. It's just a sometimes painfully safe, Hays Code era studio picture looking to Hollywood-ize a complex human being's life down to thematically palatable terms. Yes, the war scenes are terrific.

Once we get there. Beyond -- or rather, before -- that, though, I couldn't justify a lot of what the movie chose to focus on instead.