[Steve’s marriage] occupies most of the film’s first hour and sets out in rich detail what I take to be one of the movie’s principal concerns ”” what happens to Americans when their rituals have become only quaint reminders of the past rather than life-ordering rules of the present.
Brilliant quotation, Kendall, and so applicable to our current Troubles, as well as to our lives as liturgical Christians generally.
I’ve never seen the picture, tho I’m told it’s a wedding in an Orthodox Christian parish. Very old fashioned; man marrying a woman. One of each. Same formula for 2000 years.
Great quote. Good movie. Yes, it was an Orthodox wedding. They used location around Pittsburgh. It reflected the lives of hard working steelworkers and how various events in their lives (i.e. Vietnam) changed them, but rituals, traditions, family and friendships were what held them together.
wow. what a great insight. that movie was so good on so many levels. in the end, the issue of suicide (self destruction) in our culture. it applies to church and state. bad decisions produce bad outcomes.
this movie put me in a week-long depression during spring break of my sophomore year in college – watch at your own risk! (and yes, a brilliant movie, but, for me anyway, very, very intense)
What a terrific movie that was…I must have seen it three or four times…intense is the word, but very thought-provoking!
FWIW, the church where the wedding was filmed and the exteriors for the wedding reception hall and the grocery store where Meryl Streep works are literally just up the block from the house where the exteriors for “A Christmas Story” were filmed — in Cleveland. Many of the mill and bar exteriors were filmed in Mingo Junction, Ohio, just south of Steubenville, and a few shots were done in southern suburbs of Pittsburgh, most notably the underpass where the race between a car and truck happens very early in the movie. But mostly it was in Cleveland and Mingo Junction — check out http://www.achristmasstoryhouse.com and http://www.restoretremont.com/highlights where Lemko Hall and the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation are the key elements in “The Deer Hunter.” The grocery store is vacant, but quite recognizable off of Starkweather Avenue.
Sorry, on further review, i see i had the wrong church in the Tremont neighborhood, but also on Starkweather — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Theodosius_Russian_Orthodox_Cathedral
A great film, very searing. Great theme music as well.
I remember the self-important movie critic, Rex Reed, writing in his review that this movie was about Polish Catholics! Even though I was pretty young at the time, even I knew that it was clearly about Eastern Orthodox (Russian or Ukranian) Christians. I remember being blown away by the “great” man’s ignorance.