Sergeant York – The Man and the Movie

Alvin York, World War I hero, refused Hollywood’s attempts to tell his story for years. He finally gave in to their pressures, but under one condition. Sergeant York would have to be portrayed by none other than the great Gary Cooper. If nothing else, Sergeant Alvin York could have been a casting director. The choice of Cooper was pure genius. His portrayal of Sergeant York won him an Oscar, and insured that the incredibly brave exploits of this true American hero would never be forgotten.

Hollywood has taken liberties with history, from the story of the Exodus to Braveheart to the Alamo, all the way to the Gulf War. The saga of Sergeant York is no different, with film makers not letting the facts get in the way of a good story. Yet, if anything, the movie fails to show the overwhelming odds that York truly faced when he captured 132 German soldiers in France.
Alvin Cullum York was born on December 17th, 1887, in Pall Mall, Tennessee, the third of eleven children. He had very little education and as late as 1914, when he was 26, he was a trouble-making drinker that constantly got into fights in the boondocks saloons of his home state. Unlike the movie, where his “wicked ways” come to an end when lightning strikes his gun and almost kills him, the real Alvin York lost a good friend in a bar fight. That event, plus the pleas of his mother to stop drinking and the preaching of his pastor, helped him turn his life around, to the point where he became a respected member of his church. When he was drafted in June of 1917, York sent the notice back with the words “I don’t want to fight” written on it. His church teachings told him that killing was wrong, and he labored with the moral dilemma of obeying the word of God or the laws of his country. When the draft board denied him an exemption because his church did not expressly prohibit killing during war, York had a hard ethical decision to make.

In the film, Gary Cooper, who at the age of forty when the movie was made was ten years older than York was when he went to war still managed to pull off the depiction of the soldier. In reality York did spend two days and a night in the hills by himself as he agonized over his choice, eventually deciding that sometimes it is necessary to kill to save lives. But he did this before he reported to the army. The 1941 film shows him being sent home from the army to decide whether or not he will fight.

Alvin York arrived in France on May 21st. 1918 as a private, but by September had been made a corporal. He was an excellent sharpshooter, and saw considerable action during the St. Mihiel drive. On October 8th, in the Argonne Forest, he would become a household name, and according to General George Pershing, “the greatest civilian soldier of the war.”

When York’s battalion advanced through a triangular shaped valley, it came under fire by German machine gun nests from all sides. The losses were heavy; soon only seventeen men were left. York and the sixteen other soldiers tried to sneak behind the enemy’s flank from the rear. They succeeded and they surprised the German machine gun regiment headquarters, which were eating breakfast. They all surrendered, except for one German that York killed after being shot at by him. The other machine gunners on the hills, now aware of the Americans, opened fire and killed all but York and seven others.

The movie shows York single handedly killing Germans and taking prisoners. In truth, he had these seven men with him. But it was York that began to take aim and kill the German machine gunners as they lifted their heads to fire. He picked them off one by one, but not as the movie suggests by gobbling like a turkey until they looked to see what the sound was! When an officer and five of his men leapt up and charged York with fixed bayonets, he shot them all; the ones in the back were killed first because “I didn’t want the rear ones to see me touching off the front ones. I was afraid they would drop down and pump a volley into me.” .

A German major who was among those already captured was fluent in English. He told York that if he stopped killing his fellow soldiers he would convince them to surrender. He did, and all but one came down. York killed this man after the soldier had managed to throw a small hand grenade. York and the seven Americans surrounded the prisoners best they could; by now the captured numbered more than eighty. As they marched them through enemy lines they were fired upon again, but York made the German major convince them to give up. Again, all but one conceded. Again York was forced to kill the lone hold out lest risk being shot at by him.

George Tobias plays York’s pal “Puller” in the movie, who is killed by a captured soldier that York then kills. This never happened. When York and his men made it back to the American lines, they had a total of 132 Germans as prisoners, including three officers. Later, Army inspectors found 28 dead Germans where York told them they would be and decided his account of the battle was accurate. If anything York had played down what he and the others had accomplished. Alvin York was promoted to the rank of Sergeant and given the Congressional Medal of Honor for his feats.

York returned home to his Tennessee hills but refused to cash in on his fame as a war hero. He felt it would be wrong “to make money off my uniform and my soldiering.” He founded an agricultural school for boys and girls in 1927 but by 1937 could no longer run it and it was taken over by the state, where it exist to this day. York realized the value of education and became an advocate for it. He later operated a mill in his birthplace of Pall Mall. He was an adviser on the movie that told his story. In 1952 he suffered a stroke and was bedridden for the rest of his life. Royalties he had made from the movie, which he had given mostly to charity, came to the IRS’ attention in 1961, when the invalid hero was penniless. The government agency sued him for back taxes; an outraged America, hearing of his plight, rose more than enough to cover his debt. Sergeant Alvin C. York died on September 2nd, 1964. His grave is within sight of the very church that helped change his life as a youth. On the monument are carved two books. One is a textbook; the other is a bible.

The movie Sergeant York was very successful. It earned Gary Cooper his first of two Oscars, the other coming for High Noon. Walter Brennan, as the preacher that advised York and Margaret Wycherly as Alvin’s mother received supporting actor nominations. The black and white film, although it deviates from the facts in many cases, encapsulates the heroism and modesty, backwoods simplicity and complicated man that the real Alvin York was.

A general, after surveying the scene of York’s daring escapades, asked how he did it. l York replied to the leader, “Sir, it is not man power. A higher power than man watched over me and told me what to do.”