Warning: This article contains Black Widow spoilers.
Avengers: Infinity War, ready to break her fellow Avengers out of prison.
"American Pie" first plays after Alexei and Melina inform Natasha and Yelena that they’re going on an adventure, which happens to mean the “family” fleeing the United States to their homeland of the Soviet Union. As they drive away in a hurry, Natasha's sister Yelena asks for “her song,” to which a cassette of Don McLean’s 1971 classic "American Pie" plays. As "American Pie" scores the faux-family’s last remnants of their 3-year seemingly normal life in Ohio, Black Widow shows a neighborhood of kids playing outside and a Friday night high school football game - the quintessential small-town American image. The song makes a reappearance after the family is reunited in Russia and argues about whether their time together was real or not. When Alexei, who also holds onto their family connection, goes to comfort Yelena, the two start singing "American Pie" as proof he cares and re.
Don McLean revealed after its initial popularity that “American Pie” is about the demise of the American Dream, citing the death of Buddy Holly as a catalyst for the end of optimistic, quaint American life. As the family drives away from their Ohio home to an "American Pie" soundtrack, the song as used in Black Widow indicates the death of Yelena and Natasha’s own American Dreams. The significance of the American Dream is important to Yelena’s happiness and motivation, exemplified by when she informs Natasha she pretends her family lives in Ohio and her sister (referring to Natasha) moved out west to live with a fictional husband and son. Living in America was the greatest time in Yelena’s life, so she holds onto it dearly. Natasha was old enough to understand the easy life she could have led in America with a family to call her own, so she pushed her crushed American Dream away to forget the pain.
Natasha and Yelena are quite young when they leave America and are instantly thrown out of their manufactured family into the lives of Black Widow operatives. The opening credits of Black Widow reveal the stark contrast in their new lives to their old playful one, now facing death, moral dissociations, and loss of self and autonomy. Marvel fans know that Natasha escapes the Red Room's control, eventually using her Russian assassin training for the greater good as an Avenger back in the United States. The only way Natasha got to live an American Dream was when America could exploit her skills as a weapon, but at least she still had autonomy.
Yelena wasn’t as lucky as Natasha. She is revealed to have been a part of psychological rewirings manufactured by her Melina, who only regains her self-control after a freed Black Widow smashes Red Dust around her. Considering most of Yelena's early memories surrounding any concept of family and happiness are associated with her time in Ohio, she holds onto their family unit more than the others - "American Pie" is a poignant reminder of the dream she held onto and the dream she lost. Black Widow brings back the concept of family, manufactured or not, that many of the Avengers and especially Natasha have lost, which explains why she sacrificed her life for Barton; so he could hold onto his.
