Sergeant York (1941) [Two-Disc Special Edition] – DVD

***½/**** Image A- Sound A Extras B
starring Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan, Joan Leslie, George Tobias
screenplay by Abem Finkel & Harry Chandlee and Howard Koch & John Huston
directed by Howard Hawks

by Travis Mackenzie Hoover Before it settles into the martial flag-waver it clearly wants to be, Sergeant York is a terrific movie. Its story of Tennessee-born WWI hero Alvin York, heavily supervised by the man himself, is one of not just a military coup, but an evolving conscience as well–and if that conscience eventually cons itself into supporting that most pointless of international conflicts, the film is nevertheless a moving story of personal growth. Though it barely betrays the hand of Howard Hawks (it lacks the team spirit that courses through his oeuvre), the director tells the tale with the kind of conviction and nuance a lesser director couldn’t provide. The movie feels York’s progress from alcoholic ne’er-do-well to industrious would-be farmer and prospective husband, and instead of taking his emotions for granted, it expresses them with a noted lack of condescension.

York (Gary Cooper) was of course famous for capturing 133 German soldiers more or less single-handedly, but as the film opens, you’re thinking of anyone but that guy. Initially a hellraiser and a layabout, York appears to be more interested in drink and random shooting than anything of importance or permanence. This of course tears at the heart of his mother (Margaret Wycherly) and earns him stern words from local pastor Rosier Pile (Walter Brennan). But after York is pushed away by his crush, Gracie (Joan Leslie), he becomes determined to stake out a piece of land–and when he doesn’t get it, he nearly falls back into his old ways. What’s important is that this isn’t all treated as a fait accompli: it’s an ongoing process of learning and accepting what York eventually comes to see as the word of God.

Even a cynical atheist like me can appreciate York’s subsequent attempts to do good and live by some personal and moral bedrock–and for about two-thirds of the running time, Sergeant York is an admirable piece of filmmaking. To be sure, it’s soft-pedalled when he’s asked, against his newfound belief, to serve in WWI: once the fight for freedom is intoned by random commanding officers, everything we’ve seen gets wiped away for a prelude to the coming war. And as well-crafted as those scenes are, I’d be lying if I didn’t say they don’t hold a candle to the earlier home-and-hearth passages. York’s disappointment at his inability to secure highly-coveted “low land” is far more disturbing than anything in the combat sequences, which are the kind of no-sweat affairs that generally mar flag-wavers.

It speaks to the skill of Hawks and the writers (John Huston among them) that this doesn’t erase the achievement of the bifurcated film’s first half. Although Sergeant York stops dead the moment York goes to war, it also leaves the lingering memory of a lost boy moving in the direction of his salvation–and it’s that movie for which I will treasure the whole. Cooper, of course, lends his befuddled manhood to York, keeping him humble and poignant; one can’t imagine the role with any other actor (and indeed, York hand-picked Cooper). I may be reading it wildly against the grain, but the parts on offer are greater than the sum, and I recommend them wholeheartedly.

THE DVD
Debuting on DVD in a Two-Disc Special Edition from Warner, Sergeant York ever-so-slightly misses the mark considering the studio’s impressive track record. The b&w full-frame transfer is handsome but a bit too soft and given to strobing, though the Dolby 1.0 mono sound is exceptionally clear and free of defect. Lions for Sale (9 mins.) is a 1941 documentary short about the training of circus lions and the annoying narrators who speak of them; and Porky’s Preview (6 mins.), from the same year, finds the inestimable pig previewing simple, stick-figure animation of his own creation. (The earlier, fully-animated sequences of animals pouring into a theatre are the most amusing thing about it.) A Cooper trailer gallery featuring Sergeant York, The Fountainhead, Springfield Rifle, Friendly Persuasion, Love in the Afternoon, and The Wreck of the Mary Deare round out the platter.

Disc Two features two documentaries. “Sergeant York: Of God and Country” (38 mins.) is a fairly comprehensive retrospective making-of narrated by Liam Neeson. Special care is taken to vividly lay out the nuts-and-bolts of the production (including the glacial pace of production and Coop’s close bond with Hawks) in addition to the tortuous road to a screenplay, with an initially recalcitrant York having to be incrementally convinced first that films weren’t immoral, then that he should be able to profit off his war past, then to support an anti-isolationist stance in the days before Pearl Harbor. It’s a solid, if workmanlike, piece. Finally, “Gary Cooper: American Life, American Legend” (46 mins.) is a ’90s-vintage hagiography that’s almost totally reliant on movie clips and hosted by Clint Eastwood, who fawns over his mythological status with a credulity that makes one blush with embarrassment.

134 minutes; NR; 1.33:1; English DD 1.0, French DD 1.0, Spanish DD 1.0; CC; English, French, Spanish subtitles; 2 DVD-9s; Region One; Warner