Four Friends

An American film set in the 1960s. Danilo comes to Indiana from Yugoslavia as a boy. His father left years earlier, works at a steel plant and brought the family over later. The man is hard, distant and matches none of his son's expectations. At school he has three friends: Georgia, David and Tom. Georgia dances, talks constantly and considers herself an artist; both boys are in love with her. After graduation the roads part. Danilo goes to university, one enlists, one stays and Georgia goes to New York. The film follows decades: news of the war, deaths, marriages and returns. At one point Danilo marries into a wealthy family, and the wedding day is the harshest scene in it. What the narrative is interested in is being an immigrant: the man carries becoming American as a goal and loses something each time he gets closer to it. Steve Tesich wrote the screenplay, drawing largely on his own life; he too came from Yugoslavia to Indiana as a boy. Craig Wasson, Jodi Thelen, Michael Huddleston and Jim Metzler are in the cast. Arthur Penn directed. It did not do well at the box office and stayed a little known film for a long time. An interesting production for anyone who likes American independent cinema and generational narratives. For a viewer expecting a tidy story, the film spreads over a long time and moves loosely.