This week’s pick is the 1941 Howard Hawks classic Sergeant York which stars Gary Cooper as the back woods Tennessee hero of World War I. The supporting cast include Walter Brennan (Pastor Pile), Joan Leslie (Gracie Williams), George Tobias (“Pusher” Ross), Ward Bond (Ike Botkin), Stanley Ridges (Maj. Buxton), Dickie Moore (George York), June Lockhart (Rosie York), and Margaret Wycherly (Mother York).

The film was adapted by Harry Chandlee, Abem Finkel, and actor/director John Huston, from York’s own memoirs about his experiences.

It was Alvin York himelf who insisted on Gary Cooper taking the role. Henry Fonda, Jimmy Stewart and Ronald Reagan were also considered for the part, but York still insisted that Cooper was the right choice for the role.

The film is an autobiographical account of York’s upbringing in the Cumberland Mountains of Tennessee where he is struggling to make enough money so that he may be able to buy a plot of land for himself. He is young, rambunctious, a drinker, and brawler who has good intentions, but is a burden on his poor family who share a tiny shanty.

Pastor Pile (Brennan) sees good in Alvin and tries to convince him to put his faith in god. Alvin is at first against the idea of religion and asks why he should trust in god. An epiphany overcomes Alvin one night after a night of hard drinking and fighting, which makes him change his ways and to put faith in the lord, in order to marry his sweetheart Gracie (Leslie) and acquire a piece of land in order to be a good husband and provider for her.

“I’m a dying man, scared of the dark.”

I’ve put off watching The Shootist for a long time.  It has such a weighty legend hanging over it.   It’s John Wayne’s final film, and features melancholy appearances from a lot of  greats such as Jimmy Stewart and Richard Boone. Even Humphrey Bogart’s ghost looms over it because of Lauren Bacall’s sad and spare performance.  Even the horse figures prominently — Dollar was Wayne’s favorite horse, and its appearance was a condition of his doing the film.

My goal was to watch (or rewatch) all of Wayne’s Westerns before tackling this one.   But it’s been hanging on my DVR for a few weeks, tempting me, and I decided to stop putting it off.  Wayne died several years before I was born. There’s a finite amount of his movies any way you slice it, and why put off the inevitable?

Which is, of course, what The Shootist is about.  Acceptance.   It’s a powerful film. No matter how you feel about Wayne, it’s a moving portrait and one of his best performances.   We all know Wayne wasn’t the most nuanced or gifted actor. He played himself.

Here’s a list of some of the new movie and TV shows coming to DVD and Blu-ray this week that we’re looking forward to seeing. Also, there’s some classic, and not-so-classic, movies hitting Blu-ray for the first time this week as well.

Of all the new releases, we’re particularly interested in the Blu-ray versions of movies and TV shows such as G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, North by Northwest, It’s a Wonderful Life and The Rockford Files. Plus, there’s some classic Dr. Who coming out this week as well.

Check them out.

Movies

A Christmas Carol ~ Alastair Sim, Jack Warner (Blu-ray)

Aliens in the Attic ~ Kevin Nealon, Doris Roberts (DVD and Blu-ray)

Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics, Vol. 1 (The Big Heat / 5 Against the House / The Lineup / Murder by Contract / The Sniper) ~ (DVD)

The Claudette Colbert Collection (Three-Cornered Moon / Maid of Salem / I Met Him in Paris / Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife / No Time for Love / The Egg and I) ~ Claudette Colbert (DVD)

The Dead ~ Anjelica Huston, Donal McCann, Dan O’Herlihy, and Donal Donnelly (DVD)

Forrest Gump ~ Tom Hanks, Robin Wright Penn, Gary Sinise (Blu-ray)

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (Two-Disc Edition + Digital Copy) ~ Channing Tatum (DVD and Blu-ray)

According to Variety, director Steven Spielberg, known for such films as, well, if you don’t know his work you probably don’t belong here, has supposedly chosen his next project. Will it be a further exploration of the atrocities of war or another indictment of society’s ills and reliance on technology? No, its going to be  movie about a 6½-foot-tall invisible rabbit called Harvey — an adaptation of the Mary Chase Pulitzer Prize-winning play about a man, played by Jimmy Stewart in the 1950 film version, and his invisible furry friend.

According to the article, Spielberg is ready to get back behind the camera and hopes to begin production on the film early next year. To facilitate this, the director will reportedly seek actors for the lead role, such as Tom Hanks and Will Smith, who can accommodate that schedule. Spielberg will produce the film with Don Gregory while Elizabeth Gabler and Carla Hacken will oversee it for Fox 2000, which  acquired the rights last year.

Spielberg recently got a draft of the Harvey script, the first written by novelist Jonathan Tropper, and reportedly felt that while the source material is 65 years old, its themes are “timely, uplifting and relatable.” Not only that, he probably just wants to make a fun, funny, happy movie for a change. After all, how many times can you make a movie where people get gassed, burned, shot, preemptively put in prison, eaten by dinosaurs or otherwise have a really bad day?