Sergeant York

Sergeant York (1941) is Howard Hawks' war drama based on a true story — watch it online on iFILM. Gary Cooper plays Alvin C. York, a backwoods Tennessee sharpshooter who went into the First World War as a conscientious objector and came out the most decorated American soldier of the conflict.

York was raised in the hills, shooting squirrels and staying out of trouble — mostly. When the draft came, he filed for exemption on religious grounds. His commanding officer handed him a history book and left him alone for a weekend. York changed his mind. In October 1918, in the forests of the Meuse-Argonne, he worked through a German flank almost single-handedly: 28 men killed, 132 captured, and a handful of machine-gun nests silenced. He did it with marksmanship he had learned hunting game back home.

Hawks keeps the film grounded in the man's moral struggle rather than the spectacle of battle. Cooper took home the Academy Award for Best Actor, one of the more deserved wins of the era. Stream Sergeant York (1941) online on iFILM.