Love and Honor (2013)

When a young soldier in Vietnam gets dumped by his hometown girl, he and his best friend decide to go AWOL and return to the States to win her back.

Director:

Danny Mooney

Writers:

Jim Burnstein, Garrett K. Schiff

Stars:

Liam Hemsworth, Teresa Palmer, Aimee Teegarden

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Liam Hemsworth	...	Mickey Wright
Austin Stowell	...	Dalton Joiner
Teresa Palmer	...	Candace
Aimee Teegarden	...	Juniper / Jane
Chris Lowell	...	Peter
Wyatt Russell	...	Topher
Max Adler	...	Burns
Delvon Roe	...	Isaac
Michael Ellison	...	Ray
Chris Newman	...	LT. Johnson
Gordon Michaels	...	Capt. Sinclair
Julian Gant	...	Franklin
Chase Yi	...	Sanchez (as Chase Maser)
Claire Richards	...	Joy the Stewardess
Roger Callard	...	County Sheriff

Storyline

When a young soldier in Vietnam gets dumped by his hometown girl, he and his best friend decide to go AWOL and return to the States to win her back.

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Genres:

Drama | Romance | War

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for drug content, sexuality, language and brief violence

Details

Official Sites:

Official Twitter

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

22 March 2013 (USA)

Also Known As:

AWOL

Filming Locations:

Ypsilanti, Michigan, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Red 56, Deep Blue Pictures

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Shiloh Fernandez auditioned for the role of Wright.

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Goofs

The Hong Kong International Airport at Chek Lap Kok in the movie did not become operational until 1998, 29 years after Apollo 11 being launched. The airport during the Vietnam war period was Kai Tak airport, it was closed and replaced by the new Hong Kong International Airport at Chek Lap Kok.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Reporter: Good morning. In less than 48 hours, man will embark on his first trip to the moon with the hope of landing there. As tensions over the war in Vietnam continue to escalate, the eyes of the world are on Cape Kennedy, where crews are working around the clock to prepare Apollo 11 for launch. After a four-day journey in space, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin are scheduled to set foot on the moon's surface, late Sunday night, July 20th, Eastern Daylight Time.

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Soundtracks

Love Letters
Performed by The Minits
Written by Dan Greer
Courtesy of Simply Grand Music and Sunflower Entertainment
By arrangement with Indiechamp

User Reviews

Something is Wrong With This Picture

Love and Honor tells the story of a soldier in Vietnam, Dalton, who takes extreme measures when he receives a Dear John from his girl back home; he jumps his RandR and flies back to Michigan to try to win her back. His buddy Mickey, perhaps only looking for a good adventure, perhaps genuinely trying to help his friend, flies back with him, and strangely finds true love himself when he meets a friend of the girl in the house they are living in. A problem--both girls are Vietnam protesters, and the fact that Dalton and Mickey are soldiers provides an awkward backdrop to their developing romances.

Love and Honor is a movie that is non-functional on a number of interesting levels, and is therefore strangely entertaining. This is a movie that is probably best taken as a sort of chick flick (romance burgeoning in an impossible situation) and on that level, it is mildly effective. In such movies, the drama does not have to be top quality--we get caught up in the silly story and suspend our disbelief to enjoy the tackiness of the whole thing.

The problem, however, is that Love and Honor occasionally veers off of this course and tries to be more serious. We get, for example, modest attempts at a realistic period piece; problem is that the movie does not seems realistic at all--scenes in Hong Kong were filmed in an airport built in the 1990s, and much of the movie seems like it has no sense of the period.

The movie occasionally tries to veer into the realm of serious drama related to the anxieties of war time, ala Born on the Forth of July. Problem is that our cast has the look of 21st century fashion models, kind of like watching a modern sitcom. It is not believable, and attempts at gritty realism seem to simply fall flat.

As a result, the movie seems very much like a 21st century teenage fantasy about what the Vietnam period was like. If you like watching this kind of stuff on TV, well then you are fine sitting in front of this movie. If, however, you are looking for The Deer Hunter, or Born on the Fourth of July, then you are bound to chuckle at how silly the movie looks or acts.