BytorsSnowdog

July 2014

Hello, I'm Ijon. I wanted to let you know that I undid one or more of your recent contributions to The Deer Hunter because it did not appear constructive. If you would like to experiment, please use the sandbox. If you think I made a mistake, or if you have any questions, you can leave me a message on my talk page. Ijon (talk) 00:06, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

Please refrain from making unconstructive edits to Wikipedia, as you did at The Deer Hunter. Your edits appear to constitute vandalism and have been automatically reverted.

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• The following is the log entry regarding this warning: The Deer Hunter was changed by BytorsSnowdog (u) (t) ANN scored at 0.952777 on 2014-07-09T01:37:10+00:00 . Thank you. ClueBot NG (talk) 01:37, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

The Deer Hunter Main Character Ethnicity

The main characters of the Deer Hunter are Ukrainian, not Russian. Steven's wedding takes place in a Ukrainian Orthodox Church, with a Ukrainian Orthodox priest, and traditional Ukrainian Orthodox hymns, sung in Ukrainian. The reception takes place in a Ukrainian American Citizens club with a banner stating this clearly on the wall behind the stage on the first floor. In reality this took place in the Lemko Club in Cleveland, so the Director/Set Designers took special precautions to ensure that they were Ukrainian. When the party is dancing, they dance traditional Ukrainian Dances such as the Kolomeika and Hopak. Whenever they drink in the movie, they exclaim "Nazdarovya!", the Ukrainian way of saying "Cheers!". When Steven is pulled out of the bar, the woman (presumably his mother) calls him a "Drurak!" which means fool or idiot in Ukrainian. Ukrainians have been fighting to stop their seemingly never ending confusion with Russians for centuries, and this article is one of thousands of examples of this happening. I simply seek recognition for what is right and true, this is an encyclopedia after all, shouldn't it contain the correct information? BytorsSnowdog (talk) 12:18, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

First off, I'm from Cleveland and am aware of all the filming locations in Cleveland that are seen in the movie. Lemko Hall was used mainly because of its close proximity to the church (it's like a 5 minute drive) and other filming locations in the area (and the the writers weren't Ukranian or Russian). Secondly, the church is St. Theodosius Russian Orthodox Church. I've been in it and I've also been in Lemko Hall. Secondly, дурак (durak) is Russian for fool (look it up) -- that doesn't mean Ukranians don't use the word, but your assertion of it being a Ukranian word is incorrect (the Ukranian word is дурень -- which while similar, is pronounced duren'). Also,Наше здоровье (Russian) and наше здоров'я (Ukranian) both pronounced about the same mean 'to our health' (and is basically linguistically similar in meaning and pronunciation to almost every Slavic language from Polish (nasze zdrowie), Slovak (naše zdravie), Czechs (naše zdraví), etc...) In the movie, the doctor asks Nick if his last name (Chevotarevich) is Russian and he says, No it's an American name... which is the salient point of the film anyway (and for the record, his name could be Serbian, Slovak, Croatian, Macedonian, Belorussian, Slovenian, etc., too). This isn't the Crimean peninsula, it's an American film, and a work of fiction at that. But whatever the case, Wikipedia isn't the place to make an argument for Ukrainian culture being confused with Russian culture -- although admittedly they do share a multitude of similar characteristics. To be frank, I'd just as soon not mention their ethnic heritage at all but regardless there isn't anything in your argument or in the film that substantiates your claim. Find a reliable source to substantiate your claim and cite it... and I've looked and been unable to find one. For the record, I have no dog in this fight (in fact, my ancestors were rounded up and driven out of both countries). Ryecatcher773 (talk) 20:24, 9 July 2014 (UTC)