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Films >> Sergeant York (1941) >>

0:05:29 Meet Alvin York
Pastor Pile: “It appears to me that the devil be a-knocking at the door of the house of worship.”
0:20:53 Plow your furrows straight
Pastor Pile: “See that rock, Alvin? You've been plowin' around that rock a heap o' years.
Alvin: Sure have.”
Pastor Pile: “Did you ever think when you start plowin' yer furrows crooked, it's mighty hard to get 'em straight again?”
Alvin: “I never thought on it much.”
Pastor Pile: “It's that-a-way, I reckon, with other things 'sides plowin'. Satan's got ya by the shirt tail, Alvin!”
0:23:09 Like a bolt of lightning
Alvin: “Well, it’s just gotta come to a fellow.”
Pastor Pile: “It’ll come, my boy. You’ll see. Maybe slow like daylight comes. And maybe in a flash like a bolt of lightening.”
Alvin: “When?”
Pastor Pile: “When you ain’t even expecting it.”
0:33:32 I will never marry you, Alvin
Gracie Williams: “Folks say you're no good, 'ceptin' for fighting and hell-raising.”
0:35:16 Bottomland
Ma York: “That there's bottom land soil, ain't it? Queer how the folks on the bottom looks down on the folks on the top. It was always that way. No changin' it!”
Alvin: “I'm a-gonna get us a piece of bottom land!”
Ma York: “Your pa set out to get a piece of bottom land once. Nary a man ever tried any harder! Liked to kill hisself tryin'!”
0:48:11 Daniel Boone
Ike: “Ain't nobody ever cut 5 centers, lessen' it were Daniel Boone. And you ain’t wearing no ‘coon skin hat.”
1:04:24 The Lord’s Word
Alvin: “He was a-saying, 'Thou shalt not kill'.”
1:06:06 Agin’ the Book
Alvin: “I ain't a-goin' to war. War's killin', and the book's agin' killin! So war is agin' the book!”
1:10:24 Conscious objector
Alvin: “What kind of law is it that says a man’s got to agin’ the book and its teachings?”
1:11:08 War in Europe
Pastor Pile: “War's way to the other side of the ocean, Alvin. Lots of things can happen before you get there. You put your trust in the Lord, and He'll look out for you.”
Alvin: “I done forgot the Lord. I ain't never gonna forget him again.”
1:23:15 That ain’t no rookie
Sergeant: “Where did ya learn to shoot York?”
Alvin: “Well I ain't never learned Sergeant. Folks back home used to say I could shoot a rifle before I was weaned, but they was exaggeratin' some.”
1:25:53 God or country?
Alvin: “You see, I believe in the Bible and I’m a-believing that this here life we’re living is something the Lord done give us. And we got to be a-living it the best we can, and I’m a-figuring that a-killing other folks ain’t no part of what he was intending for us to be a-doing here.”
1:28:53 U.S. History
Major Buxton: “How they all got together and set up a government, whereby all men were pledged to defend the rights of each man, and each man to defend the rights of all men. We call it a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.”
1:33:25 The key verse
Alvin: “Therefore, render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's.”
1:59:59 Stop the guns
Alvin: “Well I'm as much agin' killin' as ever, sir. But it was this way, Colonel. When I started out, I felt just like you said, but when I hear them machine guns a-goin', and all them fellas are droppin' around me . . . I figured them guns was killin' hundreds, maybe thousands, and there weren't nothin' anybody could do, but to stop them guns. And that's what I done.”
Major Buxton: “Do you mean to tell me that you did it to save lives?”
Alvin: “Yes sir, that was why.”
Major Buxton: “Well, York, what you've just told me is the most extraordinary thing of all!”
2:08:15 Had to be done
Alvin: “What we done in France, we had to do. And some as done it, didn't come back, and that kind of thing ain't for buying and selling.”
EJG logo Edward J. Gallagher
Lehigh University Digital Library