While the term "AWOL" (Absent Without Official Leave) is a military term, the chaotic lifestyle of the villains and the "gone rogue" nature of Coffy's investigation often leads to the term being used in summaries or misremembered titles regarding the film's tone of being "out of bounds" or "absent from the law."
Critics often note that the film serves as a strange satire of masculinity. It explores how individuals who cannot fit into the rigid "soldier" archetype may retreat into regressive, unhealthy domestic roles. Production Style: awol a real mamas boy 1973
By contrast, AWOL offered . The hero does not become a radical anti-war activist (like the real-life Vietnam deserter in Coming Home , 1978). He becomes a bed-wetting juvenile. The film/comic asks a brutal question: What if running away from toxic masculinity leads not to enlightenment, but to an even more suffocating childhood? While the term "AWOL" (Absent Without Official Leave)
The 1973 film directed by Anthony Spinelli (often credited as Jack Armstrong) centers on a young military recruit who goes absent without leave (AWOL) to return home to an overbearing, obsessive relationship with his mother. The hero does not become a radical anti-war
: He hitches a ride with two young women who help him get closer to his destination. The Homecoming