AWOL — Absent Without Leave

Herb Freed | Sweden | 1972

Set amidst the fallout of the Vietnam War, AWOL features all the politics and hippy zeitgeist you’d expect to cement it firmly in the early 1970s, when even then it was probably on the wrong side of its ‘best before’ date. On the same count, the film exudes a breezy, innocent charm and has some amusing moments, with the Stockholm locations used to good effect. After this politically themed opener, American director Herb Freed made a volte-face and went on to helm Haunts, Beyond Evil and the sports’ themed slasher Graduation Day!

Auburn haired, happy-go-lucky Willy (Russ Thacker), a deserter from the US army flees to sun-kissed Stockholm to avoid the Vietnam War (coincidentally, Thacker portrayed an AWOL Vietnam veteran in the same year’s Parade). There, he meanders around the streets, finally ending up browsing through the delights on display in a nearby porn shop. Bereft of cash, the shop owner tips him off into appearing in adult films as a way to earn some money. It’s obvious from the start that Willy is not up to scratch and is booted off the set by the crazed director (played by Heinz Hopf; They Call Her One Eye). Down on his luck, he stumbles upon two other American ex-pats, who point him in the direction of pro-Communist group Folkets Revolution [The People’s Revolution], where he’s taken under the wing of the free-spirited Inga (Isabella Kaliff; Dirty Fingers).

Willy gets deeply involved with both Inga and the politics of the group, as they organise demonstrations and end up in street fights with their bitter rivals, the pro-American ‘Freedom Alliance’. Additionally, the Americans are keeping Willy under surveillance, overseen by the rotund CIA operative Cupp (Dutch Miller; Once Upon A Time in America) — whose random, unexpected appearances lend the film a mixture of the absurd and the surreal. At the close of the film, it’s human jealousy which shows itself to be the most potent force, with the violent, anarchistic ending an effective contrast to the idealism which came before it.

Ostensibly a film bordering on lost, it opened and closed in June 1972 at the Skandia cinema in Karlstad, Sweden with only 36 admissions to its credit. Additionally, the nihilistic ending was cut out by the producers before the premiere. But, like many other obscure and neglected cinematic efforts, it rose phoenix-like from the ashes of obscurity to be given a second chance in the early 80s home video market, its previously censored ending intact. Video Unlimited picked up the tab, and in July 1983 released it anew to a 1980s' audience — who probably like their 70s' counterparts, gave it the cold shoulder of indifference.

Amazingly, Aberdeen-based micro-distributor Take 2 Plus decided to give the film a second video release towards the end of 1988. Using the old Video Unlimited master tape (Video Unlimited’s ident is still viewable after the film), Take 2 Plus re-imagined the package design with a colourful, but plagiarised montage illustrated by ‘MARC’: the head peering through the cell bars has been lifted from Odyssey’s sleeve of Doing Life, and the bearded figure on the left from New Dimension’s Survivor. The rear of the sleeve notably retaining an outline of the ‘flipping the bird’ hand used as the front cover of the Video Unlimited release.

aka : A·W·O·L — Avhopparen; A.W.O.L.

cast : Russ Thacker, Isabella Kaliff, Glynn Turman, Lenny Baker, Sidney Feitel, Dutch Miller, Stefan Ekman, Heinz Hopf, Stellan Skantz, Danna Hansen, Richard McKenzie, Les Carlton, Gunilla Dahlman, Rune Hallberg, Dan Ekegren, Michael Tambakis, Bjarne Næss, Einy Pyret Ericksson, Gösta Krantz, Maria Wersall, Monica Andersson