The movie "21 And A Wakeup" honors the work of doctors and nurses who served in Vietnam.

The film takes place during a four-day period in the 24th Evacuation Hospital, the last hospital during the final days of America's involvement in Vietnam. Director, writer and producer Chris McIntyre produced the work to cast a different but accurate light on what the service medical personnel performed.

Unlike most war movies that show the devastation of war from the soldier's view, the film dramatizes the real life story of three nurses who are days from returning home.

"Their stories have not been told," said McIntyre, a former Marine who served in Vietnam. "Nurses did heroic work; they had the most contact with the wounded."

The movie is the first to be filmed in Vietnam since its fall to the communists in 1975. McIntyre attributes his persistence to succeeding in having the production done in Vietnam.

Opposed to the war during his college years, McIntyre was drafted and elected to enlist in the Marines. Sent to Vietnam, he soon fell in love with the country and its people.

As the same type of drawdown occurs in Iraq and Afghanistan, McIntyre noted the 40-year-old parallel and began work on the movie. "21 And A Wakeup" opened in Chicago in October 2009.

The film digs deep to encompass a dozen true incidents, most importantly those of Dr. Marvin Wayne, a top surgeon at the 24th Evacuation Hospital in 1971. Wayne accompanied McIntyre at a showing at the Carey Theater Tuesday evening. Standing next to Wayne was Dr. Roland Trenouth, a physician who was badly injured in a helicopter crash, was rushed to the 24th Evacuation Hospital and was worked on by Martin.

"I compressed my four years of service along with Wayne's into a 96-hour period," wrote McIntyre in a press release. "Every event in the film and every major character have a basis in a real event and true story."

The movie's title references the 21 days left in the nurses' tour of duty, the average age of of the nurses and the years (1954-1975) America was involved in Vietnam.

Amy Acker (television's "Angel and Alias") stars as Caitlin Murphy, an Army nurse who undertook a difficult journey up the Mekong River to Cambodia in order to save a young Vietnamese-American girl before the American bombing of Cambodia. Like all events in the movie, Murphy's trip is based on a true story.

The film also stars Faye Dunaway ("Network," "Chinatown," "Bonnie and Clyde"); JC Chasez (N'Sync in his first movie role); Danica McKellar ("The Wonder Years," "The West Wing"); Ed Begley Jr. ("St. Elsewhere," "The West Wing"); Tom Sizemore ("Saving Private Ryan," "Blackhawk Down"); Wes Studi ("Heat," "Last of the Mohicans"); Andre Royo ("The Wire"); and Ben Vereen ("Pippin").

"It's irreverent. It portrays officers in a negative light. It shows the parties that occurred," said Marvin before the showing. "It's reality - we lived, partied, cried and saved lives."

A self-described rebel whose sense of care and concern for patients has only grown with time, Marvin believes the movie is real and honors those it portrays.

"I may have been the worst officer but the best doctor," he said. "But this movie is about real people who worked to save lives."

The movie will run at Regal Lakewood Cinema 15, 2410 84th St. South, for one week beginning this Friday. See the Weekly Volcano for showtimes.