[Editor’s Note: Memorial Day is Monday, May 31st, but we’re posting this week’s Classic Movie Obsession now because Turner Classic Movies will be airing Howard Hawks’ Sergeant York on Friday, May 28th at 2:30pm Pacific Time/5:30pm Eastern Time.]
By Jennifer Baldwin. Director Howard Hawks is a favorite among film critics and students of auteur theory. His fans include critics Robin Wood and Andrew Sarris, the Cahiers du Cinema crowd, and even Quentin Tarantino. I’m a big fan too.
Much has been written and said about Hawks, about his great films, about how he could work in every genre. But there’s one major Hawks film that doesn’t get much ink spilled over it; it’s the one major Hawks film that always seems to get ignored by the film critics and fans.
That film is SERGEANT YORK. Why are critics and Hawks experts so reluctant to discuss this classic biographical film about one of America’s greatest war heroes? It’s a movie anchored by the performance of a major movie star in Gary Cooper. It’s a rousing war movie. It includes many of the classic Hawksian themes. It’s beautifully shot. So what’s the deal, critics? Why no love for YORK when you’ve got plenty of words to write about HATARI!?
Two words: God. Country.
Critics avoid YORK like the plague because the film has been slapped with that wartime “propaganda” label and that’s all it needs to be effectively silenced as a work of art and an important film in the Hawks oeuvre.
Not that I’ve taken a poll or anything, but life experience tells me that most critics are left-of-center politically and that for them the subjects of Christianity and patriotism are sticky issues. A film that’s unabashedly pro-Christianity and pro-American patriotism doesn’t appeal to the majority of Hawks’ critical champions. We all tend to write about the movies that excite us and for most critics, a movie that wears its Christian patriotic heart on its sleeve is not something that appeals.
Which is a shame, because as a Hawks fan myself and a huge fan of SERGEANT YORK, I find there’s not enough written about the film. Seeing as it’s Memorial Day weekend and SERGEANT YORK is playing on TCM on Friday, May 28 at 2:30 PM PT/5:30 PM EST, I figured I’d give YORK its fair shake and make it my Classic Cinema Obsession of the Week. Continue reading Classic Movie Obsession (Memorial Day Edition): Howard Hawks’ Sergeant York
