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In Reply to: Re: "Sergeant York" and the American Way of Life posted by gware on March 08, 2003 at 20:37:24:
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
Follow Ups:
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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