Plot
Alvin York (Gary Cooper), a poor young Tennessee hillbilly, is an exceptional marksman, but a ne'er-do-well prone to drinking and fighting, which doesn't make things any easier for his patient mother (Margaret Wycherly). He changes when he meets Gracie Williams (Joan Leslie), and works hard to become a good provider for her.
After he is struck by lightning during a late-night rainstorm he undergoes a religious awakening. York vows never to get angry at anyone ever again.
York tries to avoid induction into the Army for World War I as a conscientious objector due to his religious beliefs but gets drafted into the Army nonetheless. His status as a true conscientious objector is rejected since his church has no official standing, and he reluctantly reports to Camp Gordon for Army basic training. During basic training, his superiors find out that he is a phenomenal marksman and decide to promote him to corporal.
York still wants nothing to do with the Army and killing. Major Buxton, his sympathetic commanding officer, lectures York about history from a U.S. history book. He gives York temporary leave to go home and think about fighting to save lives. York wants to read the U.S. history book and the officer gives it to him. He tells York that after his leave if he still does not want to fight then he would recommend his conscientious objector exemption. York reads the book, and while fasting and seeking God, the wind blows his Bible open to a page and verse which instructs, "Render therefore unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's; and unto God the things that are God's." York reports back for duty and tells his superiors that he can serve his country, leaving the matter in God's hands, though he still has doubts that whether the Bible allows that he can kill someone.
His unit is shipped out to Europe and participates in an attack during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. Pinned down by German fire and seeing his friends being shot down all around him, his self-doubt disappears. Owing to the large number of casualties, York suddenly finds himself the last remaining Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) and thus placed in charge. He works his way around behind German lines and shoots with such deadly effect that the Germans surrender. Then, York forces a captured German officer (Charles Esmond) at gunpoint to order the Germans still fighting to surrender. He and the handful of other survivors end up with 132 prisoners. York becomes a national hero and is awarded the Medal of Honor.
York later explains that he did what he did to hasten the end of the war and minimize the killing.
Returning to Tennessee, after a ticker tape parade and celebration, the people of Tennessee have purchased the bottomland farm he tried to get before the war and paid for a house to be built on the land where Gracie and Alvin will start their married life.
Read more about this topic: Sergeant York
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—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)