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Synopsis:
Abandoned by his father and raised by a single mother, Nate Merritt joins the Marines to support his soon-to-be fiance. While on leave in Palm Springs, Nate meets a seemingly free spirited young gay man, who leads him on a path of discovery and to the surprising identity of the father he never knew.
Independent Review:
" . . while lost in dreams of the future they fall in love with the idea of one another and the idea of one another together in that future."
Nate Merrit (Paul Preiss), a Marine just entering boot camp, is a superhero with an identity crisis: He's neither Superman nor Clark Kent.
He's trapped by both a fiancee (Amy Lindsay) and a mother ("American Graffiti" Oscar-nominee Candy Clark) who don't love him for who he is, but for the the man they think he could and should be.
Andy Forte (the effectively intense Bart Fletcher) is an equally lost "careless... carefree" loner who "loses track of time" and "can't remember whether something happened four minutes ago or forty years from now."
Like Nate who is on leave from his Marine duties, Andy is also on leave, leave from the responsibilities of his life. The two meet in the Marine base town of Thousand Palms in the southern California desert at an ill-fated "Straight Marines First Gay Sex" porn shoot. With thanks to the manipulation of its sleazy producer and his lure to make some quick cash by doing a modeling shoot neither had any idea of what kind of modeling they were to be involved in.
Trying to make a hasty retreat from the porn shoot Andy's car will not start and Nate, a wannabe mechanic comes to the rescue and helps get the car started. Nate and his wife live with his mother and he is on his way to that home which is between the desert and Hollywood where Andy is headed.
Andy's offer of a ride begins their journey together. The journey introduces both men to their respective families and the two instantly absorb intimate details of each other and intuitively sense the essence of each other while exposed to the conversations each has with the dysfunctional families they are trying to escape.
Both men have huge abandonment issues and while lost in dreams of the future they fall in love with the idea of one another and the idea of one another together in that future.
There is a beautifully filmed poignant portrayal of simultaneous transformation in their first sexual encounter from the rough and hard edge of anger to the expression of the craving for tenderness that lies at the core of both men.
The two men can not change each others destinies but they can both chose to be better men than they'd ever hoped or planned to be by wiping their own slates clean.
A picture frame, an abandoned drive in movie theater screen, and a titular set of "Dog Tags" all fit into place in the haunting mystery of who Nate is, who his long lost father isn't, and the heartbreaking love story between two men whose spirits are aptly represented by the metaphor of the illusive stray dog running free at the beginning and disappearing at the climax of the film.
~ Portions excerpted from a review by Thomas A. Heald.
FILM INFORMATION:: "Dog Tags"
Web: Additional Cast, Details and Bios at IMDb
Director: Damion Dietz
Writers: Damion Dietz
Full Credits: Full Cast, Crew & Credits
Genre: Drama
Awards: n/a
Runtime: 90 minutes
Spoken Language: English
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FILM CLIP: 'Dog Tags'
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