It took nerve to release a small-scale Canadian drama called Erik in the same year that all the big promotional guns were booming on behalf of the lush-budget British film Erik the Viking. The Canadian picture stars Stephen McHattie as a Vietnam veteran who has trouble adjusting to a peacetime society. He offers his services as a mercenary, and soon finds himself dodging bullets in a South American country that isn't El Salvador, but might as well be. Second-billed Deborah van Valkenburgh befriends the vet, and through him strives to understand why certain people cannot function unless fully armed. Director Michael Kennedy also wrote the mildly existential screenplay for Erik. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi