not necessarily a war movie

Rating: 9/10 (12 January 2006)

First off, I'm sorry to read many reviews where the reviewer felt the first act unnecessary. That the Vietman war plays a part in this film doesn't necessarily make this a "Vietnam war movie" in the traditional sense- i.e. Platoon etc. It really could've been any war where a small and ethnically tight community deals with the ramifications of something much larger than itself that threatens it's existence.
In this case it's a town of predominately first and second generation Russians who face the price of what being American really is. The first act (Wedding) is integral in establishing who these people are and how they identify themselves culturally within American society while the third act shows how they must cope with the new reality they face after the war. I don't believe it's an accident that these characters are so full of life in the beginning yet seem so dead in their identity at the end- i.e. truly Americanized.
In this light Michael's rumination on deer hunting ("One shot is what it's all about. A deer has to be taken with one shot.") takes on new meaning. It's only after we hear the doctor call Nicky by his Russian name (Nikonar)in the hospital that he embarks on his suicidal mission that ends in one shot to the head. Then when Michael goes hunting after he returns from the war he can't seem to fire that one bullet that will kill the deer which at that point represents his cultural identity.
Perhaps if this film was about an Irish community it might have been more widely accepted as a cultural examination. For those who are of Russian, or Eastern European, descent this is a treasure of what it must have been like to be "American" during the Vietnam era.