Alvin York, a World War I hero, denied Hollywood’s attempts to tell his story for years. Finally he gave in under pressure, but under one condition. The York Ranger would be portrayed by none other than the great Gary Cooper. If nothing else, Sergeant Alvin York could have a casting director. Cooper’s choice was pure genius. His portrayal of Sergeant York won him an Oscar and made the incredible achievements of a true American hero never to be forgotten.
Hollywood has taken liberties with history, from the story of Exodus to Braveheart to the Alamo, to the Gulf War. The saga of Sergeant York is no different, with filmmakers not letting things get in the way of a good story. However, if anything, the film fails to show that the odds were really against York when he captured 132 German soldiers in France.
Alvin Cullum York was born on December 17, 1887 in Pall Mall, Tennessee, the third of eleven children. He had little education and as late as 1914, when he was 26, was a troublesome drinker who constantly got into fights in saloons in his home state. Unlike the movie, where the “wicked ways” end when lightning strikes and nearly kills him, the real Alvin York lost a good friend in a bar fight. This event, together with his mother’s pleas to stop drinking and his pastor’s preaching, helped him to turn his life around, until he became a respected member of his church. When he was drafted in June 1917, York sent back a notice with the words “I don’t want to fight”. His church teaching told him that it was wrong to kill, and he worked with the moral burden of obeying the word of God or of his country. When the draft boards denied him exemption because his church did not expressly forbid killing in war, York had to make a difficult ethical decision.
In the movie, Gary Cooper, who was forty years old when the movie was made, was ten years older than York when he went to war {Alvin York turned thirty in 1917} still managed to pull off the image of a soldier. In fact, for two days and a night in the hills of York, he himself agonized over his choice, finally deciding that sometimes it was necessary to kill in order to save his life. But he did this before resigning from the army. From the movie 1941 it shows that he was sent home by the army whether he was going to fight or not.
Alvinus of York arrived in France on the 21st of May. Private in 1918, but became a corporal in September. He was an excellent spearman, and saw much action in the St. Mihiel drive. On October 10, in the Argonne Forest, he became a household name and, according to General George Pershing, “the greatest soldier of the Civil War.”
As the Yorkshire phalanx advanced through the triangular valley formation, it came under fire from machine guns from all sides from the Germans nested . The losses were heavy; seventeen men soon remained. York and sixteen other soldiers sneaked up behind the enemy. They succeeded and surprised the German headquarters regiment with a machine gun, who were eating breakfast. They all surrendered, except one German, who was shot dead by York. Another machine gun on the hills, now aware of the Americans, opened fire and nearly killed York and seven others.
The movie shows York as one of the traditional Germans killing and taking prisoners. Indeed he had these seven men with him. But it was at York that the machine guns of the Germans began to grind and kill, raising their heads to fire. He picked it up in detail, but not as the movie suggested, let them go away like a turkey until they saw what the sound was! When a centurion and five of his men jumped out and attacked York with fixed bayonets, he shot them. everyone; those in the rear were killed first because “I did not want to see the rear touching me with the front. I was afraid that they would fall and shake me.” .
A German major who was already among the prisoners was fluent in English. He told York to surrender if he stopped killing his fellow soldiers. He did, and one all went down. York killed this man after a soldier managed to throw a small hand grenade. York and seven Americans surrounded the prisoners in every way; you have already taken more than eighty. They fired again to go through the enemy’s fortifications, but at York they urged the greater Germans to surrender. Everything but one thing is granted. Again he was forced to kill York, who had tried alone, to prevent danger from being sent from him.
George Tobias in the movie “Puller” plays York, who is killed by a captured soldier, who then kills York. This never happened. When York and his allies made it back to the American lines, they had a total of 132 German prisoners. three leaders too. Later, Army inspectors found 28 dead Germans, where York said they would be, and determined that the battle plan was accurate. If York did anything, what he and others did. Alvin York was promoted to the rank of sergeant and awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor”> for his exploits.
York returned home to his Tennessee mountains, but refused the money because of his reputation as a war hero. He felt that it was wrong to “make my money uniform and military”. He founded an agricultural school for boys and girls in 1927, but by 1937 he could no longer run it and it was taken over by the state, where it continues today. York understood the value of education and became a lawyer. Afterwards the mill in his house Mallius Pall. He was a counselor in the movie that told his story. In 1952 he suffered a stroke and was bedridden for the rest of his life. The kingdom he had made from the film, which he had given as much as possible to charity, came to the attention of the IRS in 1961, when the hero was an invalid. They asked for the taxes back; Indignant America, having heard of her fortune, had more than enough to cover her debt. Sergeant Alvin C. York died on September 2, 1964. His grave is in front of the very church that helped change his life. young. Two books are engraved on the monument. There is one art; the other is the Bible.
The movie Sergeant York was very successful. Gary Cooper earned his first two Oscars, the second coming for High Noon. Walter Brennan, the preacher who had recommended York and Margaret Wycherly as Alvin’s mother, received nominations in favor of the actor. The black and white film, although it deviates from the facts in many cases, encapsulates the heroism and modesty, the backwoods simplicity and the complex man that the real Alvin York was.
The captain, observing the scene of York’s audacity, asked how he could do it. The prince of York answered, “Lord, not man’s virtue. A higher power than man guarded me, and told me what I should do.”
