Sergeant York

The worst war movies were made during the war, but the best ones too. This seems to be a paradoxity but if we think a little bit about this statement we find that this is obvious. If we compare the bad war films with the good ones we find only one difference, but this difference is fundamental: the matter of the actors. And Gary Cooper is a great actor. His personality guarantees the standard high quality all over the movie. He plays a farmer from Tennessee who wants to guarantee a comfortable life for himself and his love (beautiful: Joan Leslie) but the United States declares war to Germany and he has to enlist to the army. The first half of the movie is full of eye-popping black-and-white sceneries and great, laughable characters and situations. I love the character of George York (Alvin York's younger brother, played by Dickie Gibson) the most. That scene is so cool where he finds Alvin at the bar, which is settled on the border of Tennessee and Kentucky, and forces his brother to go home. He has a big gun in his hands for safety sake. These people are simple farmers, they live in peace and harmony, don't care much about the rest of the world (they don't even heard about the World War), they live by the rules of the Bible.

There is a great battle scene at the second half of the movie. Alvin realizes that the war is similar to the turkey hunting, kills lot of German soldiers and becomes a national hero and the most decorated American soldier of the WWI. This film is great because it's lack of unnecessary patriotism and heroism. It's about the duty we have to fulfill because there are situations in life when our personal happiness is less important than the freedom of others. Alvin C. York realizes this and goes to a war against a country which he has never heard of and protects people whom he has never met. That's why he is a great man. And when he fulfilled his duty he goes home to the well-earned peace and comfort. And when Gary Cooper fulfilled his duty and gave a superb performance as Alvin York, he got the well-earned Academy Award for the Best Actor.