Q:Build a movie plot around this: What kind of parade did they have for York? Ticker tape.
A:
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 does not make things any easier for his patient mother (Margaret Wycherly). He changes when he meets winsome Gracie Williams (Joan Leslie), and works night and day at strenuous odd jobs to accumulate the payment for a certain good farm so she'll marry him. On the very day payment is due, he wins the final needed amount at a target-shooting contest, but on being told that the farm has just been sold to his romantic rival, he returns to his dissolute ways.Late that night, he is struck by lightning during a rainstorm while en route to attack the man who had cheated him. Finding himself outside the meeting house where a revival is going, he goes in and undergoes a religious awakening and vows never to get angry at anyone ever again. He makes amends with the men who cheated him out of the land, and tries to with Gracie.When the U.S. declares war in World War I, York tries to avoid induction into the Army as a conscientious objector because of his religious beliefs, but is drafted nonetheless. His status as a conscientious objector is rejected since his church has no official standing, and he reluctantly reports to Camp Gordon for basic training. His superiors discover 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 (Stanley Ridges), his sympathetic commanding officer, tries to change York's mind, citing sacrifices made by others all throughout the history of the United States. He gives York a leave to go home and think it over. He promises York a recommendation for his exemption as a conscientious objector if York remains unconvinced.While York is fasting and pondering, the wind blows his Bible open to the verse "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's." York reports back for duty and tells his superiors that he can...