Hacker Cinema
Sergeant York
1941 · Film · 134 min
Directed by Howard Hawks
Alvin York a hillbilly sharpshooter transforms himself from ruffian to religious pacifist. He is then called to serve his country and despite deep religious and moral objections to fighting becomes one of the most celebrated American heroes of WWI.
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The 3 top grossing films of 1941 the year of Citizen Kane:
* Sergeant York, a superhero war propaganda film
* Honky Tonk, a racy Clark Gable / Lana Turner western
* Louisiana Purchase, a zany Bob Hope musical
For the record, Citizen Kane was a flop, and there were many excellent movies made this year.
This is a bad argument.
Have you ever seen Sergeant York? No? The film, which is based on historical accounts from World War I, describes Sgt. York's technique for taking down an entire flock of geese, as applied to German machine-gunners.
You never take out the leader first. If the leader goes down, the rest of the flock scatters. You shoot the one furthest back. Then second from the back. And so on, from back to front, until they are all down.
It isn't fun to undermine every last little support before attacking the central pillar, but if you want to accomplish your goal, that's the most certain way to do it. So when those first Disney Bros. 'toons go public domain, you don't go after Mickey right away. First, you take back Pete. Then, you take back Minnie. Take back Clarabelle and Horace. Then, just when it looks like you might take Mickey, too, you plop Oswald down in his place.
In fact, it might be funny to just edit Mickey out of Steamboat Willie entirely, and replace him with a digital Oswald. Every time another Mickey Mouse short goes public domain, stick Oswald in there. Erase Mickey from history, from back to front. If the trademark isn't there, there's no possible trademark claim.
I suspect the Depression was more of a thing, because I'd asked about it. Most people did not do combat duty during the War. We won that war in the factories and oilfields.
It was also the most heavily propaganda-oriented thing in living memory. Y'know all them John Wayne war movies? Yep.
The classic propaganda movie is best exemplified by "Sergeant York". The scene where the dapper officer explains the conflict between "Thou Shalt Not Kill" and "Duty, Honor, Country" is exactly how propaganda works. "Well, it's not killing if they're Huns."
I always thought "The Best Years of Our Lives" exposed the more sinister aspects of the war experience ( it describes PTSD decades before the concept existed beyond "shell shock" or "battle fatigue" ) , and it's interesting that my favorite authors were either outsiders ( like Saul Bellow or Phillip Roth), pop historians ( Michener ) or those who went through the war as dogfaces ( Heller, Vonnnegut ).