What a sad movie...
It is a good illustration of Fiedler's hypothersis, the male patagonist of American fiction is always on the run into nature to escape his responsibilities. What's interesting is that his movie was inspired by a book Three Comrades, which was written by a German author. It would be very interesting to compare the male relationships in the book to the movie. Is the male patagonist on a run of American fiction as Fiedler claims a genre of American literature or was this portrayed in the Three Comrades as well by a European author.